The Sunshine Coast’s newest multi-use sport and recreation precinct development has been a hive of activity – from tree planting to earthworks and utility connections – as Stage 1 gains momentum.
Honey Farm Sport and Recreation Precinct is a 75-hectare regional sports facility at Meridan Plains.
A Sunshine Coast Council spokesperson said the significant multi-use precinct would provide a wealth of benefits for the entire region, encompassing a range of sports, outdoor recreation activities and events.
“Sunshine Coast Council has delivered initial access road carpark works to provide safe traffic movement within the site during construction,” the spokesperson said.
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“Water service connections are currently being installed and earthworks are being undertaken to allow for the precinct’s development.
“Significant earthworks and underground services, including stormwater and drainage infrastructure, is out for tender, with works expected to start early next year.
“These works will ensure management of stormwater on the site meets future requirements. Development will be staged in line with budget availability.”
Sunshine Coast News previously has reported that the $20 million Stage 1 is expected to be completed in 2024 before detailed designs begin on Stage 2. The council bought the site in 2011 and unanimously endorsed the precinct concept in March 2021.
A council spokesperson said in May this year that it was hoped the first facilities at the precinct would be ready in a few years.
“It is planned that we will see our first sporting fields commissioned and being used by the public in the 2026-27 financial year. With the large size and scale of this sports precinct, there are many stages of the project that will incrementally be developed over the subsequent years,” they said.
The spokesperson told Sunshine Coast News this month that Honey Farm was a sustainably designed precinct taking into account the Coast’s climate and landscape. It features irrigation water filtering and storage, stormwater harvesting and climate-sensitive urban design, making the most of our natural environment to enhance this open space.
The precinct is one of many major infrastructure projects council is delivering in line with the Environment and Liveability Strategy, which provides long-term direction to guide growth and shape the region’s future.
The spokesperson said the council was “protecting and enhancing the site’s natural, ecological qualities, creating a resilient and adaptive landscape that can withstand the impacts of climate change”.
To date, more than 60,000 native trees, shrubs and sedges (grass-like plants) have been planted, with about 100,000 more to come in future stages, they said.
Currimundi Catchment Care Group (CCCG) is one of the volunteer organisations involved in the revegetation of the former grazing land.
Vice-president Fergus FitzGerald said “half-a-dozen” group volunteers had undertaken their first week-day working bee at Honey Farm last month – alongside school groups – in partnership with the council and coinciding with National Tree Day.
“It’s something that we strongly support,” Mr FitzGerald said of what he hoped would become an annual event.
“We’re always talking to council about opportunities for planting or revegetating within our catchment area, because that’s part of what we’re trying to do: to protect and restore where we can some of the natural habitat and environment that has been cleared over the years to make way for development.
“It’s hoped that council will have future community tree planting events at the Honey Farm precinct, perhaps to coincide with the annual National Tree Day, and invite community groups like ours to come.
“We support it because we can see that in the long run, this will re-establish some of the native vegetation that used to be in the area.”
Mr FitzGerald said CCCG also had helped revegetate an area called Bancroft’s Redgum Environmental Reserve, near Little Mountain, in a similar way, in partnership with the council.
The annual planting days were held from 2009-17. More than 18,000 seedlings of native plants endemic to the area were planted during that time.
“It was a pretty similar process,” Mr FitzGerald said.
“This was originally cleared for grazing and then had been acquired by council. It’s been replanted as a community project over a number of years.
“The plan was to go back in 2018, but we determined that it was now a ‘self-sustaining ecosystem’ that was spreading naturally into the adjacent previously cleared land.
“You don’t want to keep having human intervention. Nature has a beautiful way of healing itself. If you give it half a chance.
“(Honey Farm) is another area now.”
Honey Farm Sport and Recreation Precinct fast facts
- The facility will encourage the community to be involved in active sports, outdoor recreation, healthy living and community events.
- The 75-hectare site was purchased in 2011 to provide long-term sport and recreation facilities in the southern end of our region.
- The site is located north of Caloundra Road opposite the Sunshine Coast Turf Club. It has frontages to Honey Farm and Westaway roads.
- The precinct is proposed to offer a range of sport and recreational activities including but not limited to cricket, soccer, hardcourt activities, disc golf, events, playgrounds, pedal and skate play, criterium track, multi-use trails and nature walks.
The master plan includes:
- four rectangular full-size football fields;
- two ovals (full-size cricket with eight turf pitches) and cricket practice nets to support tier-two cricket events;
- shared fields (four rectangular fields with one oval overlay);
- shared clubhouse;
- 1.8km criterium track with two smaller loops;
- hardcourt precinct;
- indoor sport and recreation centre;
- youth activity area (bike, skate, ninja warrior/parkour, climbing wall);
- children’s all-ability playground adjoining a nature play area and open space;
- open event space including a fitness trail;
- wetlands and water bodies with nature trails;
- area for disc golf course; and
- dog off-leash park.
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