Ms SACILOTTO - 2006-08-29
Earlier today, you turned the first sod on the much anticipated wave lagoon at the Darwin waterfront site. Could you please update the House on what is planned for the wave lagoon?
ANSWER
Madam Speaker, I would be delighted to. The member for Port Darwin and I put on our work boots at lunchtime and went down and turned that first sod with Robert Wilson of Macmahon NT who are doing the work on the wave pool.
The wave pool, or lagoon - and I will explain why lagoon is a much more appropriate word - is for many one of the key features of the waterfront development. For many people in Darwin, it is the only feature. Having stood at Casuarina with the model over the Christmas before last, and had people come up and ask me about the various aspects of the waterfront development, the one that they were really most interested in was the wave pool, or wave lagoon.
The wave lagoon is a very large body of water. It is between 5000 m and 6000 m which is the size of about five or six Olympic pools. To call it a ‘pool’ is undervaluing it. It is really a lagoon. It runs 20 m to 50 m where the wave will come down, and then goes into a lagoon. You have toddlers on the edge, but you also have those who are body surfing and boogie board surfing coming down the main part of the wave lagoon. It is about 2 m at the deep end, and it will be very shallow on the water’s edge. The waves will be between 1.2 m and 1.5 m. For surfers and for boogie boarders, they will be pretty good waves to ride. If you are interested, it is formed by low pressure air pressing down on the surface water inside a concrete plenum. I do not technically understand that, but that is the advice I am given. It is low pressure air pressing down to make those waves happen. It is all computer controlled so the waves can be at different heights.
The work involved is extensive . It will not be finished before at least the middle of next year. Macmahon NT have to remove 15 000 m of soil. We saw that happening today. That will take them a couple of weeks. There is much work going on to build what is going to be a significant feature of the waterfront development.
With the development of the wave lagoon, one of the issues is noise. Having seen some wave pools and lagoons, particularly in the United States - I have seen them on DVD - they had ugly boxes on the top of the wave pool which was the wave generator equipment. Ours is going to be sunk. That will be terrific. It is below ground which means we will be reducing the noise from the wave lagoon for residents to an absolute minimum. The time is being managed as well. There will be a cost, and that will be determined later on. There has to be a level of cost recovery for the wave pool. I believe everyone understands that. It will be set at an affordable cost, otherwise it will not be the success we need it to be.
The wave pool will be made of 3000 m of reinforced concrete, which is great for our local businesses. If you add that to the companies which are already working at the waterfront, that is $40m worth of contracts. Another boost for our local industry. So far, 550 workers have been employed on the site. I said last week, the local figure on that is - 96%.
Madam Speaker, I hope that you will join me and many Darwin people as we ride some of those first waves on the wave lagoon when the first stage of the waterfront opens in the first quarter of 2008.
ANSWER
Madam Speaker, I would be delighted to. The member for Port Darwin and I put on our work boots at lunchtime and went down and turned that first sod with Robert Wilson of Macmahon NT who are doing the work on the wave pool.
The wave pool, or lagoon - and I will explain why lagoon is a much more appropriate word - is for many one of the key features of the waterfront development. For many people in Darwin, it is the only feature. Having stood at Casuarina with the model over the Christmas before last, and had people come up and ask me about the various aspects of the waterfront development, the one that they were really most interested in was the wave pool, or wave lagoon.
The wave lagoon is a very large body of water. It is between 5000 m and 6000 m which is the size of about five or six Olympic pools. To call it a ‘pool’ is undervaluing it. It is really a lagoon. It runs 20 m to 50 m where the wave will come down, and then goes into a lagoon. You have toddlers on the edge, but you also have those who are body surfing and boogie board surfing coming down the main part of the wave lagoon. It is about 2 m at the deep end, and it will be very shallow on the water’s edge. The waves will be between 1.2 m and 1.5 m. For surfers and for boogie boarders, they will be pretty good waves to ride. If you are interested, it is formed by low pressure air pressing down on the surface water inside a concrete plenum. I do not technically understand that, but that is the advice I am given. It is low pressure air pressing down to make those waves happen. It is all computer controlled so the waves can be at different heights.
The work involved is extensive . It will not be finished before at least the middle of next year. Macmahon NT have to remove 15 000 m of soil. We saw that happening today. That will take them a couple of weeks. There is much work going on to build what is going to be a significant feature of the waterfront development.
With the development of the wave lagoon, one of the issues is noise. Having seen some wave pools and lagoons, particularly in the United States - I have seen them on DVD - they had ugly boxes on the top of the wave pool which was the wave generator equipment. Ours is going to be sunk. That will be terrific. It is below ground which means we will be reducing the noise from the wave lagoon for residents to an absolute minimum. The time is being managed as well. There will be a cost, and that will be determined later on. There has to be a level of cost recovery for the wave pool. I believe everyone understands that. It will be set at an affordable cost, otherwise it will not be the success we need it to be.
The wave pool will be made of 3000 m of reinforced concrete, which is great for our local businesses. If you add that to the companies which are already working at the waterfront, that is $40m worth of contracts. Another boost for our local industry. So far, 550 workers have been employed on the site. I said last week, the local figure on that is - 96%.
Madam Speaker, I hope that you will join me and many Darwin people as we ride some of those first waves on the wave lagoon when the first stage of the waterfront opens in the first quarter of 2008.
Last updated: 09 Aug 2016