History behind Orange’s Adventure Playground

WATCH: Luke Wilkinson played a pivotal role in the creation of Orange’s Adventure playground.

Transcript

00:00 It started 22 years ago when Orange was in need of some better playgrounds or a larger

00:07 playground and I took my kids to school playgrounds. The law changed where you weren't allowed

00:18 to enter into schools anymore. One day I was just driving past and it was Orange Primary

00:26 and I took my kids into the playground and just sat there and a police car turned up

00:32 and just sat by the side of the road and I did feel intimidated and that was the purpose

00:36 of that and I just sort of, that was one of the reasons I thought that maybe we needed

00:41 to do something. The other thing was that I had been involved in a similar project in

00:46 Melbourne a few years prior and I knew sort of what was involved. So I called a public

00:54 meeting and the committee was formed and that committee, some of the people here today,

01:01 were crucial in providing the support and the level of activism required to make something

01:07 like this happen. So we went to council and I did a presentation to council and I didn't

01:14 ask for money, which was something they probably were expecting. I think I asked for their

01:21 support and I asked for a location and that's it. And then Nigel Hobden came on to the committee

01:28 as well. The only thing we had, the thing that was really helped us other than the support

01:36 of council and getting a location and having Nigel on the committee was to, HIH went under

01:43 at that time a major insurance company and we couldn't get public liability insurance.

01:48 The general manager at the time, Alan Dwyer, just said we'll look after it. So that was

01:55 very important to get their support. And also when we ran into some money troubles, council

02:00 lent us some money, which we duly paid back after the playground was built. But the committee

02:06 was a really strong group of people and without which we would never have got it done. So

02:13 over about, Nigel had about a thousand volunteers over the five days he took to build it. We

02:20 got out of it quite successfully in the end I think and has made a good contribution to

02:27 the kids of Orange. And now we move on and as Jason said, it's probably in need of some

02:34 renewal. I used to work with Alan Gemelli who's the project manager and I'm sure it's

02:42 in good hands in terms of project management. So I hope it comes in on budget and is very

02:47 successful for the future of Orange really.

02:50 really.

02:52 [BLANK_AUDIO]