City of Darwin progresses through the initial three-month cyclone recovery focusing on the highest-risk and highest-use areas.
Several playgrounds and parks are now open, with most sites back on regular mowing schedule; tree and stump removals will now commence on road verges to improve safety.
Despite wet season challenges, crews are steadily restoring the municipality, with ongoing work prioritising safety.
As the new year begins, City of Darwin continues its coordinated Cyclone Fina recovery, with crews making steady and visible progress across the municipality despite challenging ongoing wet season conditions.
City of Darwin's immediate recovery approach, planned over three months, focuses on the highest-risk and highest-use areas, including assessing and clearing debris from roads, walkways, parks, ovals, and open spaces. Where conditions allow, final verge clearing has commenced along with mowing across parks, ovals, reserves, and verges, and infrastructure repairs, bringing visible improvements and reopened facilities to the community.
Garamanuk Park, Sunset Park, Civic Park, Bicentennial Park, Nightcliff Foreshore and the Fannie Bay Foreshore have now reopened. While these locations are open, the community is reminded to remain cautious during wet or windy weather. All other parks and ovals remain closed, as works are continuing.
Since mid-December, crews have been working through challenging conditions. Further tree assessments have occurred to ensure community safety and on 19 December, several parks were closed due to the safety risk of unstable trees. Work continued through the holiday period to assess and remove compromised trees, including in areas previously cleared.
While parks and open spaces are progressively reopening, it will still be some time to return to normal maintenance schedules. Currently, all sites are back on a regular mowing schedule, except the following five parks: East Point Reserve, Que Noy Park, Jingili Water Gardens, Yanyula Park and the Lee Point Buffer Zone.
Tree and stump removals along roads and footpaths remain a key focus with stump removal along verges commencing this week, with 1,203 stumps on verges scheduled for removal.
Shoal Bay Waste Management Facility reopened for general and green waste on Monday 22 December.
Acting Lord Mayor Patrik Ralph said the progress reflected the scale of the work and the commitment of crews working through challenging conditions.
"Cyclone Fina caused widespread damage, particularly to trees and open spaces, and our crews have been working right through the wet season to make areas safe again," he said.
"Tree and stump removals and mowing all improve safety, tidy up our neighbourhoods and help our parks and streets start to look like Darwin again."
"We know the community is keen to see everything back to normal, and we appreciate everyone's patience as this work continues. Safety must come first, and we're making strong, steady progress every day," Mr Ralph said.
