The City of Cannington is preparing to unveil a State-first ‘next generation smart park’ by converting their unused Wharf St storm water basin into a community park.

Due to open in September, the solar powered park will include an interactive education space, free WiFi, CCTV and include charging points for public mobile devices.

The site, owned by the Water Corporation, has been transformed from an inaccessible storm water basin into a community park as part of the council’s City Centre Project.

Former City of Canning Mayor Paul Ng says the design of the park will contribute to the productivity, liveability and sustainability of the city.

“This is an exciting and innovative project not only for city residents to enjoy but also visitors to Canning,” he says.

Mr Ng says information collected from the park will also be used to improve services to the wider community.

“The city will also use technology in the park to provide important data for things like maintenance of bins and park lighting, timing irrigation to when the park trees need watering and stormwater information”, he says.

The 1.9 million dollar project has been designed in conjunction with landscape architecture firm Josh Byrne & Associates.

Director Dr Josh Byrne says there is a is growing interest in how stormwater drains can be better utilised by the public to provide greater benefits beyond water catchment.

“Certainly in Western Australia and Perth it is the boldest example of where these Water Corporation-owned storm water assets have become co-purpose spaces, that is fulfilling their storm water function but also providing quality urban space for people and also providing a number of environmental benefits,” he says.

“What makes the project even more exciting is that integration of smart technology and we think this certainly a first for western Australia, and quite possibly at the absolute cutting edge nationally.”

Curtin University Professor of Sustainability Peter Newman says as land become more scarce utilising sites like Wharf St is the key to creating usable space.

“So, there are good strong environmental gains but the main thing I think is that the local community has a place where kids can run around and you can walk to,” he says.

“In COVID that the kind of local park that you really need, you don’t need big parks in every suburb you need small parks and that now the way that we are creating a lot of them.”