Public toilet refurbishments support tourism at Talwood Recreation Grounds

Goondiwindi Regional Council has completed a suite of upgrades to the public toilets at the Talwood Recreation Grounds to improve the popular camping spot for residents and visitors alike. 

The upgrades include floor resurfacing and painting of the interior and exterior of the building, as well as new pans and several improvements to the site’s plumbing. 

Council secured $1.14million from the Australian Government’s Local Roads and Community Infrastructure grant (LRCI) and allocated $32,000 towards the Talwood toilet block upgrades. 

Councillor Phil O’Shea said the upgrades, which were completed last month, would ensure quality public facilities for the local Talwood community as well as support tourism in the town. 

“These upgrades will really improve the attractiveness of these facilities for local residents, but also visitors to the region,” Cr O’Shea said. “It’s important to make sure the Goondiwindi Region is well-maintained and presentable through our public parks, play areas and community facilities - and that includes our public amenities.” 

The Talwood Recreation Grounds provide a popular low-cost camping option for visitors, with proceeds going directly to the Talwood Hall Committee. The committee first installed a donations box at the Talwood store in 2013 and has raised more than $24,000 since then from visitors camping at the recreation grounds. More than $5,400 was raised in 2019-20 alone. 

The committee uses the donations to fund works at the Talwood Hall itself, or to support other projects at the recreation grounds. This means that visitors’ donations directly benefit the Talwood community and their public assets. 

Cr O’Shea said Council was proud to encourage tourism in the town and support the region’s visitor economy. 

“We know that Talwood is becoming increasingly popular with visitors and has a really solid reputation as a great little town to stop and explore," he said. “Council has invested significantly in supporting the Goondiwindi Region’s growing visitor economy, and these improvements will encourage visitors to pull up, explore what our local towns have to offer, and maybe stay an extra night.” 

The refurbishments at Talwood form part of a suite of recent upgrades to community infrastructure across the region funded by the LRCI grant. These include re-painting Cement Mills Hall, the Macintyre Sports Complex and Goondiwindi Waggamba Community Cultural Centre, as well as recent infrastructure upgrades at the Texas swimming pool. 

The works also complement a suite of recent Council upgrades at parks and gardens across the region, including new picnic facilities at the Avon Street rest area in Texas, a new irrigation system at Yelarbon’s Lagoon Park, and new fencing and sealed parking areas at Sandhurst Street Park. New bollards have also been installed at the Goondiwindi Botanic Gardens of the Western Woodland, McGregor Street Park, Redmond Park and the Goondiwindi Natural Heritage and Water Park. 

“We’re really proud that the Goondiwindi Region has such a reputation for being maintained and presented to such a high standard, and I’m very happy that these works in Talwood will mean its facilities meet the standard that the community and visitors have come to expect,” Cr O’Shea said.