Project description
Complete: Chisholm play space.
The Alston Street playground in Chisholm has been upgraded to provide better places to play for the local community. Following construction beginning in November 2023, in April 2024 upgrades were completed and the playground reopened to the community.
In 2022 we invited feedback on elements for inclusion and the preliminary design. For more information on the consultation that took place, including a What We Heard Report (PDF) summarising the feedback, visit YourSay.
Key features
- Nature play with balancing and climbing elements including stone and timber steppers and recycled fallen tree trunks.
- All ages and abilities accessible spinner and nest swing with softfall beneath both items.
- Play opportunities including climbing poles, a pommel walk and vortex as well as a brown snake sculpture to climb on.
- Retaining existing equipment from the playground including the combination unit, swings and rockers.
- Picnic tables, shelter and seating.
- Existing shade sail retained and improved with cultural artwork on its posts as well as on the upgraded basketball hoop and backboard.
- Concrete path with animal imprints.
- 9 new trees and landscaping including groundcover, native grasses and shrubs.
- Improved drainage throughout the playground and improvements to the carpark surface.
Cultural design elements
The region where the Chisholm play space upgrade is located holds an ancient cultural and spiritual connection to the Ngunnawal people and has for thousands of years.
The Ngunnawal landscape around Chisholm is used as a songline to navigate across country, conduct cultural land management practices, ensure safe passage, and welcome neighbouring nations from the south and east such as the Ngarigo and Yuin nations to Ngunnawal country for special ceremony, marriage, trade, and lore.
This region which is traditionally known to the Ngunnawal people as Tuggeranong meaning ‘cold place,’ holds the largest songline across Ngunnawal Country. This songline in contemporary times is the foundation of the Monaro Highway.
The artwork for Chisholm, by artist and cultural consultant Bradley Mapiva Brown, reflects the ancient cultural and land management practices the Ngunnawal people used to care for country. The artwork includes aspects of the Tuggeranong songline, native wetlands used for hunting and gathering, and features Maliyan the wedge tailed eagle, a totem of protection for Visitors on Country. Bagariin Ngunnawal Cultural Consulting provided recommendations to showcase the play space songline theme. Those in the final design are:
- artwork applied to the basketball court backboard
- native animal tracks and footprints in the new part of the concrete path, representing the songline
- nature play elements.
