Southern Hemisphere’s Largest Aquatic Park Greenlit

A 3.8ha aquatic park, billed as the southern hemisphere’s biggest, has been approved for Melbourne’s south-eastern suburbs.

The Dingley SurfnPlay Aquatic Park has been greenlit for a 5.7ha site at 321 Old Dandenong Road, Dingley Village, 23km south-east from the Mebourne CBD.

The site, 2km from the Hawthorn Football Club’s future home, will have Melbourne’s second wave pool as well as water slides and hi-tech water tunnels, with 1.82ha of park under cover. 

The Victorian Government’s Development Facilitation Program granted approval for the $171-million project in May, five years after the project was first mooted.

Developer Pellicano filed plans for the park in March, 2019 with architects Peddle Thorp, who designed the Melbourne Aquarium and the Melbourne Sports and Aquatics Centre, creating the plans.

The park will comprise 18,200sq m of indoor space and 20,000sq m of outdoor space. It is expected to create 579 short-term and 120 long-term jobs.

Pellicano amended plans to add the surf park component in 2020. At the time The Urban Developer reported the surf pool would offer waves up to 1.8m high.

The planning process was delayed when the site needed to be assessed for endangered species and compatibility for use as a green wedge location.  Under the State’s Planning and Environmental Act 1987, green wedge land is defined as non-urban areas of metropolitan Melbourne that lie outside the urban growth boundary. 

As part of the approval, Pellicano is required to plant 1000 native trees on the site.

Construction is expected to begin in coming months ahead of completion in 2027. 

Melbourne’s Zagame family was initially involved in the project but have since pulled out of it during the pandemic. 

The Victorian planning department approved amendments of the Kingston Planning Scheme to allow the surf park.

Planning documents submitted and exhibited as part of the planning scheme amendment state that Pellicano expects 767,000 visitors to the park during its first year of operation with 24 per cent coming from interstate and 13 per cent from overseas.

There are two operational surf parks in Australia—UrbnSurf Melbourne and UrbnSurf Sydney—with several more in the pipeline, including Surf Lakes near Yeppon in Queensland’s north.