The toilets are where???

Ok, here's an issue mostly for the mums but really it's relevant to anyone with kids.

Today I went to the Pirate Ship in the Esplanade with two friends and our offspring. We had 7 kids between the 3 of us and one of us has a new baby. During the 3 hrs we spent there I had to take the kids to the toilet twice, another took them once and the one with the baby was stuck watching those left behind, while breast-feeding her bub. The toilets at the Pirate Ship.....do not exist. The nearest ones are 200 metres away which is a bit of a hike for 2 year olds and almost impossible if you are pregnant.

I don't know which idiot decided that they should be built between the skate park and the Pirate Ship instead of one each but they most definately need some further north immediately. Most parents would be happy with a toilet similar to those in the parent room at Stockland. Large open space with a child toilet, an adult toilet, two hand basins and a bin. That's it. It's big enough for the disabled to use and big enough for mum and child together. Children do not go to the toilet alone until they are about 5, before that they need help, or they just need someone to ensure they won't lock themselves in (it happens).

I understand it would be a very expensive undertaking as plumbing needs to be extended etc to get there. I don't really care. I want them anyway. Everyone today wants them too. Anyone who has ever gone there, and believe me a lot do, wants them. Apparently the Coucil has recieved many requests for them to be built. So why aren't they?

This is just a case of those with the power to do something not using the facility they are in charge of, so dismissing the complaints as irrelevant, motherly waffle. It's not. I can't wait for those few deluded souls to take their pregnant wife there, or fall pregnant (depending on which sex they are) and see if they can hike 200 metres, pregnant, when nature calls. See if they can round up all the kids because just one needs to use the toilet. Many don't bother with the walk and encourage their child to head for the trees. Great idea, except the trees are only about 10 metres away and all the kids play around them so it's not really ideal.

There is even a Facebook page dedicated to the cause (which of course I joined). Send any complaints directly to council@cairns.qld.gov.au and ensure all correspondence is marked Attention CEO. It's time to get serious about this if it is ever going to happen.