Over the past few years Lakes Entrance Aqua Park has proven to be a popular ‘thing to do’ and has grown in popularity with each season it is set up.
It is now in full swing for another fun packed time and owner Will Yeap could not be happier with the way the local community and visitors have embraced the attraction.
“The weather has been good and we have added some more attractions to the park,” Will said.
“The park has undergone an upgrade to its anchoring system where five new anchors, with a total pulling strength of over 15 tonnes, were installed during the park setup this year. The reinforcement was done following an assessment completed last season where we had experienced prolonged strong gust wind and spring/king tides.”
After the introduction of the popular jumping pillow last year, the park has introduced two more obstacles this summer – the giant swinging rope and octopus.
“The eight metre tall giant swinging rope comfortably dwarfs all the other obstacles on the park. The octopus is a standalone rocking obstacle that has quickly become crowd favourite as it allows people to tip their friends into the water,” Will said.
“While we haven’t had a really hot day (yet) at the Lakes, the season has been busy and we are seeing some good numbers at the park.”
The local community and visitors were pleased when the aqua park reintroduced paddle boats back onto the lake after quite a few years absence.
“The paddle boats and paddle bikes have been really popular and it is not unusual to see people queuing for the next available boats,” Will said.
Will’s romance with Lakes Entrance began when he met his future wife, Kathleen.
“Kathleen and her family would come down for three weeks every summer holidays and she introduced me to the area,” he said.
“We were married here at Déjà Vu overlooking the lake and had our reception at Wyanga Park Winery – there has always been a great connection with this town.”
Will said the aqua park always felt like a positive thing to be doing.
“It is environmentally friendly and it feels good to be running such a thing that gets people out on the water and attracts tourists to the area, who hopefully stay and experience other things in Lakes Entrance,” he said.
The aqua park employs many local people including lifeguards.
“We are open daily from 10am to 7pm during school holidays, public holidays and long weekends. Outside the holidays we will operate on limited hours during weekdays 1pm to 5pm and 10am to 7pm during the weekends.”
This season the aqua park will run until the end of Easter in April 2024. Paddle bikes and paddle boats will run all year round on weekends when conditions suit.
