Kid skaters now grown up in the time taken to build a Thirroul skate park

Not that it has been built yet - Wollongong City Council was this week asking for input from the public on how it should be designed.

Toby Smith and Felicity "Flic" Turner, both 17, are part of the generation of northern Wollongong skaters who have grown up hearing that a Thirroul park would soon be built.

Now a second-year welding apprentice, Toby remember promises and plans for a Thirroul skate park as far back as when he had just started school.

"There's been promises since they built Thirroul Park which was when I was in Year 1 or something," he said.

"Everyone just goes to Fairy Meadow or Berkeley or Sydney to skate, which is alright. But there's a bunch of skaters that live in Thirroul that would rather not get on a train every day to go skate."

It's for lack of effort from the community - there have been campaigns, petitions, proposed locations and more recently funding for since-delayed development.

In the meantime, they have done what skaters do: use whatever spaces they can - the underused commuter car park in Thirroul, and the streets.

Other young people have dropped away from skating, for various reasons not necessarily the lack of a dedicated park, but Toby is certain a state park would foster a new generation of boarders.

"I feel like our generation of skaters is sort of the last one to come out of Thirroul - I haven't seen any Year 7, Year 6, Year 5 kids skating and coming through anymore - we had a massive group that used to do that.

"So I feel like if they build a skate park, there'll be a lot of new skaters coming through who live in Thirroul."

Toby and Flic have both participated in the city council's recent consultation workshops and given their ideas.

Toby said the best location would be at Thomas Gibson Park near the scout hall.

Flic, from Fairy Meadow, isn't waiting around for more facilities to be built. As the Mercury reported on Wednesday, this Friday she leaves for Shanghai for an Olympic qualifying event for Paris 2024.

Skateboarding being added to the Olympics (first in 2020) is a milestone achieved earlier than a skate park being built in Thirroul.

"I know there's been a lot of different workshops going on for a couple of years and the council kind of keeps promising things, but this one seems more legit," she said.

"So hopefully it can actually go through with it, and we'll have somewhere to skate.

"They've been talking about it for 10 years I think."

There's still a few stages of the process to go and a location has not been selected.

If there's a shortlist, it hasn't been made public. A media release from Wollongong City Council on Thursday said "we continue to review potential locations" for skate parks in Thirroul and in Wollongong.

Lord Mayor Gordon Bradbery said the feedback on design elements would help identify the most appropriate locations.

"Do you want us to build a traditional skate park, a street skate park or do you love a deep bowl? What other future amenities would you like included in the design of the new skate parks? For example, would you like shade, seating, art, or a hang out space?" Cr Bradbery said.

Toby said it was simple - a park like at Fairy Meadow, which includes a bowl and street structures, perhaps without the 3m vert ramp which few can use.

"I wouldn't mind if there was one in yesterday," he said.

Flic, a student at Holy Spirit, said people shouldn't worry about bad behaviour.

"For me growing up, I pretty much lived at the skate park," said.

"I remember just coming home from school and I would skate down to the skate park and I wouldn't even have to message anyone - I would just know all my mates would be there and at a young age it was just the best.

"There's a lot of stereotypes around skaters, but I think once you're part of the community, you can see how welcoming everyone is, and it's really fun being able to hang at skate park with all your mates.

"It creates a place for the younger people in the community, like a safe space where they can feel they can hang out apart from home, apart from school, another place for them to hang out and really enjoy themselves."

The Thirroul Village Committee (TVC) meeting on April 28 was told by councillor Richard Martin what they already knew - that the development of the skate park had been delayed by another year.

Two years ago the city council said there was money allocated and design work would start in the 2022-23 financial year.

At the time TVC (then) vice-president Elliot Stein said the group had been "promoting the idea of a skate park in Thirroul for over a decade and a half now".

The council's director of community services Kerry Hunt said the proposed facilities were a "big investment" so "it's important we get the design right".

Part of this involved thinking about how to make the facilities accessible and inclusive.

"We want our new facilities to be welcoming spaces for everyone," she said.

"That includes families, women, girls, gender diverse people and people with disability.

"Some of the options we're considering are things like gender sensitive design to make the skate parks feel safer, as well as exploring options to improve accessibility."

To give your opinion on the skate parks, use the council's community engagement webpage.