media releases
New on-water tourist attraction for Lakes Entrance
Date of Issue: 
February 3, 2021

Lakes Entrance will be home to an exciting new on-water tourist attraction.

The Lakes Entrance Aqua Park –an inflatable aqua park that will provide on-water fun for local families and visitors alike –will be based at 429 Main Beach Walk on the southern side of Cunninghame Arm across the footbridge and provide a new tourist attraction that will take Lakes Entrance into the future.

Approximately 1,400 square metres of inflatable obstacles of varying heights will be placed on the water and anchored to the bottom of the lake, with onshore office cabins and storage.

Council undertook a public Expression of Interest for the property, commencing in August last year, as required under Council’s Leasing and Licensing Policy for Council-owned Land and Council-managed Land and the Victorian Crown Land Leasing Policy. All leases or licences are subject to an open and transparent competitive market process that provides an equal opportunity for all businesses, irrespective of their size and location, to submit an EOI.

The EOI attracted interest from multiple parties and in December, Council has now finalised this process and awarded the licence to Canberra Aqua Park, which will operate the Lakes Entrance Aqua Park, on a three-year licence agreement (with two further three-year option term).

The Canberra Aqua Park was established on Lake Burley Griffin in 2019 and attracted over 16,000 customers in the first four months of operations and employed over 10 people. It is expected the Lakes Entrance Aqua Park will be open as soon as practicable this year.

Lakes Entrance Paddleboats and owner Noel Manning have operated on the site for more than three decades. Council acknowledges the contribution the paddleboats have made to the holiday experience over that period and the memories many people will have.

In December 2019 the paddleboats operator was advised that the licence agreement for 429 Main Beach Walk, Lakes Entrance was expiring on the 30 June2020 and that the business was required to vacate the licence area by this date because Council would be issuing a public Expression of Interest for the site. The EOI was issued on 26 August 2020 and closed on the 23 September 2020.

Lakes Entrance Paddleboats was granted multiple extensions to operate over the last seven months and the site was vacated yesterday.

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