Northern Beaches Council has completed another milestone in the major upgrade of East Esplanade with final works due to be complete before mid-next year.

Council recently completed works to the area between the public amenities toilets and the sailing club.

This included new sandstone paving and edging to gardens, the installation of outdoor fitness equipment, a swing set and accessible park furniture, new turf and the relocation of an existing memorial on a sandstone plinth in the garden area.

Mayor Michael Regan said residents and visitors will enjoy the upgraded landscape and facilities.

“This is an extremely popular area for local families, members of the sailing club and visitors to Manly.

“The upgrade has been designed to be sympathetic to the surroundings using sandstone and natural materials and delivered improved seating and children’s play area.

“The memorial was moved to a more functional location in terms of space and aesthetics and to allow greater appreciation of the heritage aspects of the monument.

 “All the sandstone blocks for the memorial plinth were individually cut and shaped by hand and the circular design relates back to the original base when the monument was located near the wharf over a hundred years ago.

 “The outdoor fitness equipment will no doubt also be well utilised – it is accessible and caters for people of all ages and abilities.”

To finish the project, improvements will be made to grassed area between the driveway and amenities, which will include an accessible pathway to the amenities, sandstone edging and a sitting wall, paving works, new turf and signage upgrades.

The first stage of the major upgrade to the area was complete in June 2018 and consisted of lifting the adjacent roadside kerb to prevent storm-water run-off from the road surface washing out the reserve, followed up with landscape improvements to the park between the wharf and the driveway.

These were completed in December 2018 and included constructing a 500 millimetre sandstone sitting wall, sandstone edging and seating bays along the length of the promenade overlooking Manly Cove, building new terraces adjacent to Manly Wharf and installing new timber decking around the exposed root-systems of large fig trees.

Works also included upgrading irrigation systems and returfing the entire area.

In June 2019, two heritage light fixtures (LED) and poles were installed to illuminate the connecting path from the crossing at Victoria Parade to the promenade.

Media Enquiries: media@northernbeaches.nsw.gov.au 9942 2678