New Sugar Wharf Pool proposal makes a splash
Port Waterfront
A new design for a lagoon pool next to the Port Douglas Sugar Wharf has been released by local boat builder and author Peter Sayre.
The fresh Sugar Wharf Pool plan is the latest in a long line of swimming lagoon ideas for the waterfront of the town, dating back decades ago when for a short time there was a “stinger pool” in the Rex Smeal Park area.
Mr Sayre, the director of Bianca Vessel Management, which builds ships, gangplanks and other transportation equipment, has been spruiking his pool design on social media in the past few days, saying if other regions in Australia can build waterfront developments, Port Douglas can too.
“Great progress can be achieved when the number of visionaries outnumber those without a vision,” Mr Sayre states in one post.
Part of his “Sugar Wharf Pool Proposal” was to “develop and retain the small beach area behind Saint Mary's Church” as a “central hub for activities”.
“The area shares boundaries with existing infrastructure, parking, parks and amenities,” he said.
“Protected from southeast winds during the cooler months, the Sugar Wharf Pool will be an all-year venue.
“The added bonus of the extension of the break wall will assist in keeping the shipping channel deep.”
Mr Sayre, who has written a book about the Coral Sea, has an online biography attached to his published work.
“I started Bianca Charters and built up a small fleet of dive and fish charter vessels in Sydney and eventually expanded operations in Port Douglas, where I now reside,” he said.
The latest pool design has garnered a stream of online commentary, including from well-known Port Douglas adventure tourism operator Brett “Bretto” Wright.
“Stoked to sea (sic) that we agree something needs to be done,” Mr Wright said.
Others reminded Mr Sayre of the many previous proposals that rarely came to fruition, such as a similar design involving local architect Gary Hunt.
In 2011 a long open letter by Mr Hunt was published on Newsport objecting to the then-council’s consultation process across more than four years on a similar pool design at the site.
One online commenter on the latest pool plan, Cheryl Wellham, told of the time when “my mother-in-law helped with lamington drives back in the late ’60s to get a stinger pool” where Rex Smeal Park now sits.
In 2019 a “grand vision to build Australia’s first chemical-free public swimming hole next to Four Mile Beach” was unveiled by Douglas Shire Council, Newsport reported.
World-renowned landscape designer Phillip Johnson had delivered a “visionary design”, which eventually morphed into the latest scaled-back $3.3m Port Douglas Splash Park design.
The splash park is soon to be built at Jalunbu Park behind the surf lifesaving club, with construction due to start next month.
Newsport has reached out to Mr Sayre.
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