Approved by the state government, the development on 3.8 hectares of a 5.7 hectare site at Dingley Village is 20km from the city and more than an hour from the nearest surfing spots on Westernport Bay.
Known as SurfnPlay Aqua Park, it will feature two outdoor wave pools, an artificial beach and more than 1.8 hectares of indoor space with pools, water slides, tunnels and meeting spaces.
It will be Melbourne’s second surf park after the success of Urbnsurf Melbourne at Tullamarine, and, with 18,000m2 of indoor space it is expected to become popular not only among surfers, but for corporate team building activities.
The $170 million project is being developed by the Pellicano Group, a family company heavily involved in the residential, commercial and hospitality property market. The company amended an original proposal for the aquatic facility designed by Peddle Thorp, the architects behind Melbourne Sports and Aquatic Centre at Albert Park.
The wave pools are designed to generate the perfect waves of up to 1.8m at a rate of six per minute and to attract professional surfers as well as keen amateurs with opportunities for beginners to be taught in a controlled environment.
The developers suggest the facility will attract more than 750,000 visitors a year, including interstate and international visitors.
Work is expected to start on the site shortly with a 2027 completion date estimated. During the construction phase it is expected to create more than 500 jobs and offer employment for 120 people on completion.
One of the conditions of the approval is for the developers to plant more than 1,000 native trees in the area which is a green wedge for Melbourne.
micenet contacted the Pellicano Group for comment but it had not responded by the time of publication.
