Iconic Canberra waterpark Big Splash opens for summer next month, but you won’t be able to ride the big slides for the foreseeable future.
In a Facebook post yesterday, the waterpark announced that the big slides – including the Speed Coaster, the Twister, the Kamikaze and the Family Slide – will be out of action for the entire 24/25 season.
“Big Splash will be only opening for a short season this year without the big slides due to major works including upgrading the filtration systems on them [the slides],” the post says.
Splash Island (the one with the caves), the 50m pool, the learner’s pool attached to the 50m pool and the baby pool will all be open for the season. And the 50m pool will have a huge inflatable obstacle course for kids to tackle.
But what is Big Splash without its slides?
“Rebranding to ‘No Splash’,” said a disgruntled Canberran on the Facebook post.
The waterpark has always been closed for upgrades and work in the winters, and Canberrans called this out on the post.
“You had all winter,” one comment said.
“Disappointing. Why weren’t the works carried out in the off season?”
Big Splash, known initially as Macquarie Pool, opened in the summer of 1969 with an Olympic-sized swimming pool and a baby pool attached. Its plush grass banks were the perfect place for mum and dad to relax while kids swam in the 1970s. The suburb of Macquarie was brand new, and the pool was pretty much surrounded by bushland.
In the summer of 1983, the expanded water park opened with four brand new slides: the Family Slide, the Kamikaze and the Hurricane Twins.
The giant water slide tower was built in Japanese temple style and the park had changed its name to Macquarie Slides and Swimming Centre.
Whitewater Mountain, a miniature area for children with caves, slides and rope bridges, came soon after.
Despite its popularity with teens – who referred to it as The Jammo Pool or Jammo Slides – the waterpark fell into receivership in the late 1980s. That’s when Ron and Beryl Watkins, previous owners of Deakin Pool, stepped in.
In 1991, the Watkins family renamed the water park Big Splash and in 2011 the water park got its first new slides in more than two decades. A set of $1.5m slides were dismantled at Wet-n-Wild theme park on the Gold Coast – the Speedcoaster and the Twister – and trucked to their new home in Macquarie, ACT.
Big Splash is open for the weekends of 30 November–1 December and 7–8 December, then every day from Saturday 14 December 2024. Hours are 11am to 5pm. Entry fees for this season have been reduced to $12 per person or $6 for seniors. Big Splash is closed Christmas Day and closes for the season on 2 February 2025.
By Bree Element