Community engagement for the draft Kings Park Masterplan was undertaken throughout January 2022.


Community engagement activities

Community engagement activities included:

Community feedback

This Community Engagement Summary collates the data collected from meetings with reserve user groups and council staff, an online community survey, and infield surveys with park visitors. It reports on the usage of Kings Park for organised sport and for active/ passive recreation by the community, and describes the aspirations for the future use of the park by user groups and residents.

Council received 150 completed community online surveys supporting a variety of views and opinions for the development of Kings Park. Infield surveys were conducted in Kings Park during December 2021 in three 3 hour periods – a total of 56 interviews completed with park visitors.

The same questionnaire was used for the infield surveys as was used for the online community survey.

A summary of key findings are reported below:

  • There are no public toilets available in the reserve during the day when sporting clubs are not active and don’t have their public toilets open
  • Internal road needs sealing
  • Support for a new integrated community pavilion to replace the existing football/ cricket pavilion, and the athletics pavilion
  • Lack of storage space for equipment
  • Car parking adjacent to the baseball diamonds and pavilion is a risk due to fly balls being hit over existing back nets and side nets and damaging vehicles
  • There is community support for ½ basketball courts and/or other active recreation infrastructure, and if recommended then secure bike parking racks should also be provided.
  • There is community support for an enclosed area for dog exercise.
  • The need for additional lighting along the perimeter path network to enhance personal safety.

How often do you use Kings Park?

Almost half of all respondents (43%) use the park 3-4 times per week, and 27% visit daily.

What do you love about Kings Park?

The most common response related to the park being a large open space (47%).

This was followed by the fact that the park provided for multiple sports (28%), that there were walking tracks around the park (27%), and that it was a natural park (21%). Responses ranked in order of most popular to least popular

What do you dislike about Kings Park?

The most common response was the poor standard of the sports facilities (27%). This was closely followed by the poor drainage of ovals (25%) and no open public toilets (24%).

Responses ranked in order of most popular to least popular

Quality, condition and provision of facilities

Respondents were asked to rate the general quality and condition of the sporting areas, the other open space and landscape areas, and the provision of non-sporting facilities and spaces in Kings Park?

Average rating out of 5 stars:

What do you mainly use Kings Park for?

Personal exercise (75%), walking the dog (46%), playing sport and watching sport (both 37%) are the most popular uses of Kings Park.

How do you mainly get to Kings Park?

Most respondents walk to Kings Park (57%) or drive (40%).

What improvements or new facilities you would like to see at Kings Park?

Respondents were presented with the nine options and also had the opportunity to nominate other improvements. Availability of public toilets (65%) and picnic/ BBQ shelter (60%) were the most popular improvements nominated.

Other suggestions or comments on how Kings Park can be improved?

"Sporting facilities desperately need an upgrade to accommodate growing clubs."

"Improve drainage to sporting fields"

"Extend the walking trail so that it is a continuous track around the whole park."

"Make it a lot more user friendly with BBQ areas."

"Need a public toilet so when at the playground we don't have to run the kids home to a toilet."

"Plant trees (mixture of deciduous European and natives) especially around the perimeter of the park, and along Willow Road."

"Larger playground for the kids."

"Defined space for dogs off-leash."

"Create a dog area near Coonara House so people are not having their dogs on the main oval."

"A community half court for basketball/netball would be amazing."

"Adult fitness equipment."

"Water play areas."

"Install more bench seating around the sporting fields."

"Provide more shaded areas for spectators."

Next steps

Thank you to all of the residents, stakeholders and members of the community who provided feedback and ideas as part of the first consultation phase of the Kings Park Masterplan.

Based on your feedback and ideas, we have now developed a draft masterplan.

Your input will help us to refine the draft masterplan in preparation for Council endorsement.