Client
Cairns Regional Council
Scope
2016 - Development of a strategic plan to guide the future development of one of the region’s most densely-populated, yet undercapitalised sporting parks
Griffiths Park in Manunda is home to Cairns Basketball Incorporated (four indoor air-conditioned courts), Cairns Cricket Association (two full-size cricket ovals), Cairns Saints AFL Club (senior and junior AFL clubs, sharing the cricket ovals), West Cairns Bowls Club (covered synthetic bowling green and serviced clubhouse) and Sportsworld Fitness Centre (a large commercial gym operation)
Issues
The largest challenge for this project was the complexity of tenure of the park. The bowls club owns their land freehold, the cricket association owns one oval freehold and leases it to AFL Cairns during the winter AFL season, while the second oval is state land held in trust by the association, the Sportsworld site is owned freehold and leased commercially, and the basketball stadium is state land held in trust by Council and leased to the basketball association.
With almost a century of sporting history at Griffiths Park, our consultation program needed to identify facility development and sharing solutions that would be acceptable to diverse users while offering improved opportunities for user groups to secure Council and government investment in the park.
Other challenges facing this project included the land-locked nature of the park, car parking, constrained access to parts of the precinct, the mix of not-for-profit operations of the sporting codes and the commercial operation of the Sportsworld precinct.
Outcomes
CPR Group’s sensitive approach to consultation and our ability to encourage user groups to express their true needs (as opposed to unrealistic aspirations) led to the development of a final strategic plan map that presents exciting opportunities for the future enhancement of one of the last inner-city sporting facilities in Cairns. The extreme growth being experienced by basketball in the region has the potential to be serviced by up to three new, indoor air-conditioned courts, which will also allow the region to host a WNBL team and national basketball championships in a new show court complex.
