By Patrick Weldon
A local skatepark is a hub for youth activity and recreation – a place for kids to learn new skills, exercise, and for those more serious about action sports to hone their craft through practice. Skateparks create community, bringing people together and keeping kids, literally, off the streets. These benefits are slowly being recognised by councils around Melbourne, resulting in the building of new, or redeveloped, world class skateparks in the city and inner northern and eastern suburbs and municipalities.
Discussions have begun and plans are being developed in Port Phillip for an upgraded Port Melbourne skatepark, but the same cannot be said for the west. Municipalities such as Moonee Valley, Maribyrnong and Hobsons Bay are seriously lagging behind in the (re-)development of quality skateparks, meaning youth from the west have to head elsewhere to find facilities that are welcoming, well designed and well maintained.
The best offering from these three council areas is Newport skatepark yet this is one of Melbourne’s oldest skateparks, built nearly 20 years ago. It is decaying and the obstacles and jumps are cracking and the drink tap never works.
Maribyrnong’s best offering is Highpoint skatepark, or ‘Highpoint plaza’ built in 2016 which is bare-bones, boring, and incredibly hard to skate unless you are already a talented skateboarder.
West Footscray skatepark is cheap, poorly designed and not maintained as it is subject to flooding due to its lack of drainage and is often covered in tan bark from the playground right next to it, which is a hazard to skaters. The proximity to a playground also means young children run through the skatepark, blindly putting themselves and skaters in danger.
Footscray’s other attempt at a skatepark is located on Raleigh Street, a few minutes walk from the train station. It’s commonly known as ‘Spliff park’ because you are more likely to find people smoking weed there than skating. The park is an assortment of metal ramps arranged in a manner that was clearly never even tested, as it is nearly impossible to ride them sequentially, and the ground is so rough it slows you down very quickly and is painful to fall on.
Yarraville’s skatepark is similar to the one in West Footscray, in that its obstacles are oversized for such a small space. A lack of considered landscape design means drainage is again an issue, as is the gravel which drifts onto the park from nearby walkways, throwing skateboarders from their boards when they run into it.
Yarraville is also poorly maintained and is often littered with broken glass and rubbish making it incredibly unsafe and uninviting for everyone.
It is not as if the west’s councils are unaware of the inadequacy of facilities as they have met with skaters on several occasions to discuss upgrades. However, these talks are yet to deliver anything in terms of action and most inner west skateboarders like myself have given up hope they will.
I call on the Councils of the west to recognise the important role skateparks play in the creation of healthy youth cultures. Work with us, involve us again in discussions and, this time, let’s turn those talks into deeds so the youth of the west don’t have to head east to feel at home.
