Rodney Stevens
Locals and visitors to the popular Yamba Shores Tavern will notice a lot of changes in the next couple of years, with new a state-of-the-art children’s playground and renovated gaming facilities to come this year, followed by the construction of five luxury serviced apartments on the riverfront site.
Yamba Shores Tavern YST owner Matt Muir told the CV Independent he and wife Kirsty have exciting plans to transform the tavern, which will take place over the next couple of years.
“The playground will be sensational, it’s a $200,000 playground with a new soft fall floor and all new equipment, it will be much bigger and more exciting, with play equipment for kids of all ages, from toddlers up to teenagers,” he said.
“I will a pretty big capital expenditure with new floor and completely new equipment which is happening in March.”
Mr Muir said the new playground will be installed by Mica Installations to replace the existing 15-year-old playground and it will be ready for the Easter holidays.
The transformation news, Mr Muir said, followed the construction of a new outdoor alfresco area in late 2023, which was enjoyed by patrons over the summer holidays.
YST will be also submitting a development application for the renovation of the gaming room to be done this year, and retain its current 20 gaming machines.
“Once we created the new alfresco space, we saw an opportunity to do something similar with our gaming room, to make it a lot more user friendly,” he said.
The DA2021/0728 for the construction of five serviced apartments and the expansion of the outdoor seating area at Yamba Shores Tavern was approved unanimously by Clarence Valley councillors at their October 2021 meeting.
The luxury waterfront development will feature two one-bedroom apartments, one two-bedroom unit, and two three-bedroom apartments, adjacent to the existing caretaker’s cottage.
With two projects already on the go for 2024, Mr Muir said the construction of the apartments will be put on hold.
“We’ve got those two projects happening this year and it was just too much to do all three, so we will put the other one on hold until 2025 or maybe later,” he said.