A foreshore playground at Beachport is temporarily out-of-bounds pending the installation of new playground equipment and associated facilities worth $350,000.

Wattle Range Council decided in July to use a $200,000 Federal Government grant and $150,000 of its own funds to upgrade the Susan Wilson Memorial Playground. Ms Wilson’s shop was located on the corner of Beach Road and Lagoon Road and near the Beachport jetty in the opening decades of the twentieth century.

A playground was built nearby and honours her memory. Council’s engineering services manager Peter Halton told the November monthly council meeting in Millicent the old play equipment would be removed at the end of the summer school holidays and the new play equipment would be installed by Easter.

Members of the Beachport and Rivoli Bay Lions Club are providing in-kind labour to assist in completing the barbecue area and replacement front fence. The immediate area has recently witnessed the opening of a new lobster and seafood shop while signage states a new brewery and distillery is about to start.

Other recent council projects at Beachport have been repairs costing over $150,000 to its museum and bowling club buildings along with the green light for a contractor to erect a new $330,000 camp kitchen and recreation hall at its Southern Ocean Tourist Park.