A section of Colleges Crossing Recreation Reserve (Colleges Crossing) will reopen on Saturday 29 April 2023. The remainder of the reserve will stay closed for now to ensure community safety (see map below).

Please note there will be no toilet facilities, running water, shelter or power available at the site during the partial opening.

The area be accessible from 6am-6pm daily. Opening hours of this area may change based on natural seasonal light, until such time as lighting installations can occur to ensure community safety.

What works are coming up?

Colleges Crossing suffered extensive damage from the substantial amount of water moving through the area in the 2022 flood events.

Council designed a ‘back to basics’ concept design and presented this to the community for comment in March 2023. Community Consultation has now closed and the results of this will be available in the coming weeks. Consultation outcomes will be taken into consideration for the detailed design which we estimate to be communicated with the wider community in late 2023.

We are focused on making a reserve that is more flood resilient (which can be re-opened more quickly and at a lower cost after each flood event), while also ensuring our First Nations People and the wider community can continue to enjoy the reserve now and into the future.

What works have been completed?

• General clean-up activities
• pressure cleaning of the concrete pathways
• repairs to multiple trip-hazards and public safety issues
• weeding, mowing and whipper snipping
• car park clean up and line marking
• sediment removal
• installation of temporary fencing
• installation of Safe City Cameras.

Funding

Council has submitted an application for funding assistance under the Disaster Recovery Funding Arrangements (DRFA) for the redesign and reconstruction of this site. Final approval of this project is expected to be received from the Queensland Reconstruction Authority (QRA) by the end of the 2022-2023 financial year, which will allow further works to commence.

When will this work take place?

Works to permanently redesign and reconstruct the park will take some time. It is estimated that the remaining closed areas will re-open in mid-2024 (weather and site conditions permitting). The temporarily opened section will need to close again in the future to allow permanent reconstruction works to occur, however further notification will be provided around this as the project progresses.