Published 27 October 2023, updated 01 May 2024
Koolambidi Woola is continuing to garner widespread attention, winning a national award for its stunning, welcoming, and eye-catching design.
City of Bunbury and Playce – the designers of our popular precinct – were awarded the Parks and Leisure Australia 2023 National Awards of Excellence Playspace Award on 24 October 2023.
The award recognises a project greater than $500,000 that shows effective stakeholder involvement, contribution to the creation of a sense of ‘place’ for local community and landscape and structural design innovation that delights and aids childhood development.
It follows the precinct winning both the Parks and Leisure WA 2023 Park of the Year and Playspace Award (greater than $500,00) earlier this year.
City staff accepted the most recent national award at the Joint International Congress hosted by World Urban Parks and Parks & Leisure Australia in Adelaide.
Opened to our community on 4 July 2022, Koolambidi Woola boasts a multi-sports court, parkour areas, mini golf, a youth services building, beach climbing net, event and performance space and more, and has become a renowned space for children, big kids, families and visitors to make fun memories.
Read more about the precinct, including its naming, here.
Originally dubbed a youth precinct, the welcoming waterside community space has won several other awards since its inception including the IPWEA WA Excellence Awards Greater than $5m – Regional award. Along with Playce being worthy winners of AILA’s 2023 WA awards of Excellence for Parks and Open Space and for Regional Achievement and the 2023 AILA National Landscape Architecture Award for Parks and Open Space.
This truly is testament to Koolambidi Woola being an amazing community space that is welcoming and inclusive, becoming an iconic entry statement to Bunbury, thanks to its well thought out, striking and creative design.
In recognising Koolambidi Woola through their awards, Australian Institute of Landscape Architects said the precinct put youth at the forefront, offering an “inclusive recreational hub, shaped by local youth for the entire community”.
“The team is commended for emphasizing gender equity, intergenerational recreation and all-abilities play – elements often missing from youth-focused spaces,” AILA said.
We are so proud of Koolambidi Woola – a space for our entire community, inspired by our community.
Koolambidi Woola was made possible thanks to a $2.5 million grant from major supporter Lotterywest. Further support for the project was provided through a grant from the Department of Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development and Communications - Local Roads and Community Infrastructure Program and the Department of Local Government, Sport and Cultural Industries.
