Master plan for new Thomas Jack Park Precinct released

Published on 29 August 2025

Western Downs Regional Council is a step closer to delivering Dalby's new cultural precinct following the release of the master plan for the highly anticipated parkland experience at the Thomas Jack Park Precinct.

The master plan for the new parkland precinct includes a new Western Downs themed adventure playground, water play area, flying fox, multipurpose court, amenities, shaded areas, barbecues and seating.

The broader precinct will also be home to Dalby's new cultural centre which will include a library, art gallery, visitor information centre, and a 121-seat multipurpose cinema with retractable seating.

Mayor Andrew Smith said the new inclusions to the precinct had been carefully constructed around community feedback from the release of a draft master plan for the park in October 2024.

"The new precinct facilities and adventure playground have been thoughtfully designed to accommodate the current and future needs of our community, with sustainable design features and nature play," Mayor Smith said.

"Throughout our community engagement efforts, we heard the aspirations of our community that Dalby needs more activities for our youth, teens and young families, and Council has worked very closely with our Youth Advisory Panel to inform the master plan.

"We heard some incredible ideas from our community, who envisioned a unique parkland experience that celebrates Dalby as an iconic gateway to the Western Downs with elements of adventure play, sensory play, water play, and accessibility play - all seamless imbedded in nature.

"Throughout the design process, significant care has been taken to carefully position pathways, structures and play elements around the existing trees, ensuring they remain a defining feature of the park."

Mayor Smith said Council would also be adding around 1500m² of new greenspace through the relocation of its parks and recreation depot to a new location in Dalby.

"Council's parks and recreation depot is directly adjacent to the park and will be used to store materials and equipment during the construction phase before being converted to new parkland greenspace," he said.

"Preserving the park's greenspace was equally important to Council and our community. By committing to the relocation of the depot we've been able to further reduce the total building footprint to around 6.6% of the park.

"This means that our community will still have around 37,800m² of parkland greenspace, interactive play and recreation areas to enjoy for generation to come."

Mayor Smith said detailed design for Dalby's new cultural centre was approaching 60 per cent completion with Council on track to share final plans with the community early in October 2025.

"Council will continue to work through the final stages of detailed designs for the cultural centre over the coming weeks but I can confirm that a 121-seat multipurpose cinema with retractable seating has been included in the plans," he said.

"The next step will be the tender process for the construction of the pathways, landscaping, amenities, barbecues, seating and shade structures.

"Council has engaged leading bespoke playground design firm, Forge, to design and construct the Western Downs themed adventure playground as part of the broader park master plan created in partnership with Vee Design.

"We will continue to progress the water play detailed design and construction in the coming weeks as we know this is one particular element of the park that our community will be very excited to see brought to life."

For more information contact Council on 1300 268 624 (COUNCIL) or visithttps://wdrc.au/tjpp.