Locals gathered at the newly-established Cooee Park for a smoking ceremony, and to see the finished product of a long, joint project.

Mayor Katrina Humphries welcomed the crowd and officially handed the ‘people’s park’ to the rightful hands of the local community.

Debbie Swan held a smoking ceremony to ward negativity and afterwards a mosaic was unveiled designed and created by local artists; both young and old.

Moree Plains Shire Council’s director of planning and development Angus Witherby said the project developed from one, very simple question.

“A  group of residents, as part of the south west Moree social plan development, looked around this town and said ‘where is our park? We have Apex and the Rocket Park, but where is ours?’,” he said.

Joint funding body Family and Community Services (FACS) jumped on board financially and the council began designing the park with community input.

Mr Witherby said instead of the normal council design process, they asked the community ‘what do you want to see at your park?’

“What we’ve seen in terms of design has come forward with community input and we will seeing over time this park will develop as a really good urban space, providing opportunities for people to meet and kids to play,” he said.

Although a different way of doing things, Mr Witherby believed the community input was a positive step in the right direction.

“It is a positive statement that the community said ‘we want this, we want this done this way, we want it as ours’.

“With the involvement of local people in the construction phase as well and kids involved in the design and creation of the mosaic this really is the people’s park.”

Moree Plains Shire Council had to defer the official opening, due to sorry business however they were delighted with the number of people who attended the event.

“People were walking around having a look, enjoying a catch up. This is exactly what we want to see Cooee Park used for,” he said.

Special mention was made of the Community Service Order (CSO) workers who helped create the park whilst filling in their allocated hours.

“CSO’s are for local people in the community given an alternative to jail time to be able to work with their community on something positive. We think this is fantastic what they’ve done and the contribution they hace made to the genuine community park,” Mr Witherby said. 

The park is located between Cooee Street and Jones Avenue.