The sun shone down on Smiths Lake Recreation Park on Sunday as the community came together for a taste of what’s to come. The gathering showcased progress on the pump track and demonstrated how the Recreation Park can serve as a shared space for community events of all kinds.
Having a place to gather, share stories and build community togetherness is central to a stronger, more connected Smiths Lake. It also supports community readiness - being prepared for risks like bushfires, and batter placed to look out for neighbours when it matters. This was just a taster. More gatherings are planned, with bigger events on the horizon that will bring out even more of the talent within our community. The day was organised by the Pacific Palms Community Association - Smiths Lake, which welcomes anyone in the community to get involved. PPCA holds monthly meetings at the Pacific Palms Community Hall on the first Thursday of each month, where local Pacific Palms information is shared and discussed.
Local Artists - Three local artists showcased their work, giving a glimpse of the creative talent in our community. Fittingly, the Recreation Park masterplan includes a sculpture garden roughly where the artists set up their display.
Landcare - Mike Gibson, together with Joel Dunn from Coastcare and volunteers from the Landcare group, put on a weed display highlighting the ongoing work to remove invasive species and maintain the High Water Trail walk around Smiths Lake. Joel also handed out free plants.
Name the Bridge - Our new community asset ! Don’t forget to vote for your favourite name : Name our Community Asset
Pump Track - Rob Bain, together with local kids, marked out on the grass where the track is planned to be built. Pickleball - Phil and Rita spent the morning introducing Pickleball to a crowd of enthusiastic kids. A Pickleball group meets every Thursday afternoon for anyone keen to play.
MidCoast Outreach - shared what they do as a charity helping people in need within the Mid Coast area and made some contacts to hopefully have a distribution point for food hamper collections and deliveries.
Bungwahl School - had a table with some raffle tickets to sell to commemorate their 150th birthday - the small school with a big heart. If you would like to buy some ticket for the raffle, see the link at the end of this article.
Dave Ellis and his volunteer crew of firies from Pacific Palms RFS had their firetruck for people to look over and had a great sausage sizzle with sausages from The Smiths Lake Butcher.
Look out for the RFS Open Day on the 19th September - more on this event will be published
Soaring into the Wilderness - had some fun activities including a tug of war to show how working together as a team is stronger. Brian had his beautifully handcrafted boats on display as he is currently working with some of the kids with Into the Wild sharing his wood crafting skills.
Village First were there to share what they are doing with building a website for the community and able to show people how to sign up, find information on the website and see how having one central place to hold community information is beneficial going forwards. And had for display maps of the Smiths Lake - Highwater Trail, Landcare and Adventure map - these are available please continue to contact us via the website if you’re interested in supporting us.
Wild Fig Mobile Cafe supplied great coffees and tasty eats while people wondered around and enjoyed the morning.
Maddy from Maddy’s face painting had many happy face painted children running around.
Amelie - a budding young photographer from Smiths, showcased some of her pictures which she and her dad have taken around the lake. Have chatted about potentially starting a little persons photography group to keep the enthusiasm and developing talent going! Contact us via the VillageFirst.org.au website if you’re interested in this group.
