2016-06-07 - P&E Agenda - Item 3, Attachment 1 - Noosa Parklands Draft Management Plan

3.5      Recreation opportunities
The park’s proximity to the centre of Tewantin and surrounding residential area provides
significant opportunity for outdoor recreational opportunities and community engagement,
especially for local residents. Protection of the park’s natural and cultural heritage values
(Section 3.1 to 3.4) can provide benefits to the community by preserving ecosystem
services, scenic amenity and enhancing catchment and cultural values. The park also links
residents with surrounding recreation areas, including Tewantin National Park.

The park has multiple recreational user types including bushwalkers, trail runners, nature
observers, recreational cyclists and dog owners. It is also used more broadly for social
gatherers (Section 2.2). The park is designated as having a natural to semi-natural setting
and therefore the following basic recreational facilities are provided to support these uses,
and for other service requirements (Figure 4):

    •   picnic table and shelter
    •   off dog leash area
    •   playgrounds and basketball court
    •   recreation trails and bridges
    •   regulatory and directional signage
    •   service tracks and fire trails
    •   gates to prevent access from unauthorised vehicles.

The majority of this infrastructure, along with the mown open grassed areas, is located
within the park’s recreational areas (Figure 4). To delineate between the recreational park
and bushland reserve areas within the park, wooden bollards have been installed and native
plants including matrush (Lomandra longifolia) have been planted along much of this
interface. Matrush is a common native species used for edge planting in landscaped areas
to demarcate zones, stabilise areas, limit access and therefore reduce the impact on natural
waterbodies and regenerated areas. Council’s Park’s and Natural Areas team have an
inspection and maintenance regime for the park’s infrastructure, including the playgrounds,
basketball court and pathways (Appendix 8).

In comparison with other parks in Noosa Shire, the park has relatively low visitation levels
and current facilities are adequate for demand. However this plan proposes the development
of a linking pathway at the southern end of Heritage Park, the provision of a bench seat at
two of the playgrounds (one playground already has picnic tables), the provision of a netball
hoop at the basketball court and installation of additional interpretative and directional
signage at the main entry points to the park (see proposed pathway/pathway renewal,
proposed seat and proposed signs illustrated on Figure 4). The remaining areas of the park
are undeveloped and densely vegetated, and there is no new infrastructure planned for
these areas.




Final draft Noosa Parklands Park Management Plan                                    page | 18