Waroona Railside Park Bringing the Community Together

• The Hon Kristy McBain MP - Minister for Regional Development, Local Government and Territories
• Senator Louise Pratt - Senator for Western Australia
• The Hon Don Punch - Western Australian Minister for Regional Development
• Cr Mike Walmsley - Waroona Shire President

The transformation of the Waroona town centre has reached a new milestone, with Stage 1 of Railside Park now complete – bringing the inland community located between Mandurah and Bunbury together like never before. The new multi-generational park includes a pump track, skatepark, junior playground, fenced toddler play area, grassed open space, a Noongar six seasons garden and picnic area.

Supported by over $1.2 million from the Australian Government, $4.4 million from the Western Australian Government, $541,000 from the Shire of Waroona, and $1 million from the locally established Alcoa Waroona Sustainability Fund – the new facilites were brought to life at a community twilight event on Friday.

“The revitalised town centre will deliver up to 20 per cent boost to visitation to the community, which means potentially over 20,000 extra visitors bringing $840,000 of additional visitor expenditure each year.”

Situated on South Western Highway and stretching down to Fouracre Street and the Waroona train station, Railside Park is also the new home of the Waroona War Memorial, which has been relocated to allow for more significant commemorative services.

Along with bringing the community together within the town centre, the transformation of 11,500 square metres of previously underutilised land is expected to draw visitors, providing tourists with a reason to stop and spend time in the town.

“Railside Park is a key element in the Shire of Waroona's Town Centre Revitalisation Strategy, so it is great to see this fantastic project up and running."

The next phase of this project will be to restore the two existing buildings within the precinct.
These are the heritage-listed Irrigation House office and the Big Shed, which will both be repurposed to create additional event and café/restaurant space.

Additional artworks are currently being developed for installation in the first half of 2024.
The ideas and themes for these were developed with input from the local community, and will include carved timber bush poles, large format murals and sculptures.