15 days to go until the opening

Ribbon Cutting Ceremony, Tues 27 Oct
9.30am for 10-11am for coffee & speeches
Official opening by the Mayor, Cr John Letchford and Peter Batchelor MP, Minister for Community Development
RSVP essential: childrenspark@woodendweb.org or telephone 5427 3606

Community Celebration, Sat 31 Oct
11am-2pm for entertainment, food & play
Bring your family to explore and enjoy this fabulous new community park. RSVP is not required for the community celebration

Under the guidance of project managers, 2MH Consulting, the complex construction involving many different contributors is drawing to a close.

Callaway Constructions is doing an incredible job in creating the two main barbeque shelters, and the iconic Robbie’s Lookout.

The pathways which make the park accessible to all have been assembled by local businesses Alsafe Concrete, BD Concreting, Michael White Landscaping & Excavations, and Tylden Quarry's donation of crushed rock.

Fencing is being constructed by Neil Turner with Unique Redgum generously donating the redgum and ironbark.

Vlad Basa of MR Projects is proving an invaluable resource in assisting with landscaping and drainage, as is the assistance of Peter & Lyn Newell from Woodend Nursery and Bill McKnight of Trentham Mini Services & Earthwork.

The magnificent mature trees on the park site have been largely cleaned up thanks to Graham Hunt from Tree Checks Tree Management.

Plumbing and drainage issues have been expertly managed by ADD Plumbing & Gas.

Altitude Electrics are ensuring that the park will have a state of the art power supply for live entertainment in the park, and for powering the many barbeques.

An incredible thank you to all these business who are donating time and expertise to this project. An official, permanent acknowledgement of all these businesses and the many others will be permanently erected in the park.

Over a decade ago, Tom Faircloth entered a Council competition when he was a 7 year old at Woodend Primary School. He drew plans for a children's playground beside Five Mile Creek. Tom won and was presented a prize by the Mayor. Tom envisaged a flying fox, swings, and climbing tower. Young Tom is now 6'5'' and embarking on a career in law at University. Tom's Mum, Dawn, wrote to the Woodend Children's Park recently to share this lovely story. How wonderful that Tom's childhood drawings are so close to the reality that Woodend Children's Park is now delivering.

On Saturday Metcalf Cranes and Heavy Haulage generously donated labour, semi-trailer & crane to retrieve a 4 tonne tree trunk from Dartmoor Park Maine-Anjou stud past Lancefield and transport it to Woodend Children's Park as a landscape feature. The sight of this massive tree trunk passing down the main street of Woodend was something to behold.

In another extraordinary display of generosity, Amoroso Transport donated transport of a 2 tonne pipe from Melbourne to the Park on Saturday. This massive underground pipe has enabled the park to extend even further to incorporate the new tree trunk landscape feature. Thanks again to Metcalf Cranes for lifting and placing the pipe on site.

On Sunday crowds of volunteers flocked to Woodend Children's Park for the Grand Working Bee. In a truly inspiring display of community spirit, crowds worked for 11 hours to deliver extraordinary results. Thank you to Landcare and Lions and the hoards of volunteers that supported this day so fabulously.

The Grand Working Bee achieved amazing results but rain and hail last week mean that we are still behind schedule. With your help we can ensure the opening is a success. Two additional working bees were announced yesterday as the exhausted team surveyed the work still to be done to finish the park before the opening. Even if you can only attend for an hour or two, your help is desperately needed at one or both of these working bees:

Working Bee - Sunday 18 Oct from 9.30am

Planting Day - Thurs 22 Oct from 9.30am