24 November 2017

New pooch playground for Weston Creek

| Glynis Quinlan
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Lilly (left) and Georgie enjoying Belconnen dog park. Photo by Lisa Best.

Construction has started on a new off-leash dog park in Duffy – providing a new pooch playground for dogs in the Weston Creek, Molonglo and Woden areas.

The new park will be accessible from Warragamba Avenue and is expected to be completed by May next year. It will be the seventh fenced, off-leash dog park in Canberra.

The site was identified through community consultation in mid-2016 as being a preferred location because of its panoramic views of Canberra’s urban hills and mountains.

Member for Murrumbidgee Bec Cody said the new park will provide a recreation area for Canberra’s growing dog owner community.

“Canberra has a large and very passionate dog owner community and I am super excited to see that we are able to deliver a new playground for our four-legged friends so they can exercise and socialise,” Ms Cody said.

“The new dog park will cover 1.2 hectares and will have two dog enclosures, one large and one small, catering for dogs of varying energy, age, fragility and size.”

Ms Cody said that other features of the dog park will include water bubblers with dog bowls, bench seats, bins, trees and other greenery. It will also have a sealed car park for 30 plus vehicles including disabled parking with an accessible concrete path to the dog park gates.

“The new park will give dogs a space to run, jump, play and chase their friends while providing their owners with an opportunity to meet other dog lovers,” Ms Cody said.

“The community also benefits, with dog parks helping to reduce the instances of dogs being off-leash in undesignated areas.

For more information on Canberra’s existing dog parks please go to: www.tccs.act.gov.au.

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Little Gezzy Bear said :

There is a fenced off area in Coombs that is being used as a dog park, at the cnr of Fairhall St and Colbung St along side the John Gorton Drive service road. If this isn’t the dog park, even though residents are using it as one, what is it for?

That site was meant to be a community garden. The govt built it and then realised the site is completely unsuitable for that purpose so now they’ve sat on it for 18 months trying to decide what to do. In the meantime the fenced-off area has filled a gap for the Coombs/Wright dog owners – most of whom live in houses and townhouses with very little outdoor space. Given the number of people who use it to run their dogs around I would suggest that it be retained as a “local” dog park – ie one that’s a bit smaller, closer and more informal than some of those larger destination dog parks. I chatted with someone from the SLA and they don’t like the idea of a dog park that people can walk to so I’m sure that when they finally make a decision it will be to turn it into some other thing that has both lower demand and a higher price. Meanwhile, the entire rest of the suburb is not meant to have off-leash dogs at all, especially near the river. With zero enforcement and few alternatives I’m sure the reality will be quite different. Good job guys; this really is the smart capital.

Little Gezzy Bear said :

There is a fenced off area in Coombs that is being used as a dog park, at the cnr of Fairhall St and Colbung St along side the John Gorton Drive service road. If this isn’t the dog park, even though residents are using it as one, what is it for?

It is NOT a dog park. I hope everyone is picking up after their dogs.

Little Gezzy Bear10:46 pm 25 Nov 17

There is a fenced off area in Coombs that is being used as a dog park, at the cnr of Fairhall St and Colbung St along side the John Gorton Drive service road. If this isn’t the dog park, even though residents are using it as one, what is it for?

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