People across the region were up in arms when Narrandera Shire Council revealed it would scrap the Rampage slide earlier this year. The master plan had proposed ditching the high-speed thrill ride altogether in favour of an indoor heated pool and grassed area.

However, a consultation process has seen those plans revised to save the Rampage pool and install a new “racer slide” intended to keep thrill-seekers happy. The heated pool concept was flagged as a future option due to divided opinion.

Narrandera resident Tony Smith said the Rampage slide was always popular and during the summer school holidays it got a lot of use. 

“One of the original ideas was to remove the Rampage slide and put in a grassed area along with some other type of slide in that space and everyone jumped up and down about that,” Mr Smith said.

“The main concern was that the Rampage pool remain there, so if that particular slide needed to go then it had to be replaced by some other slide... to keep it as part of the attraction of Lake Talbot over the other pools in the area.

“When council came back with the adjustments to the plan the general consensus was ‘we can live with that’; the main thing is this is totally different to any other pool setting in the region – I’ve only ever come across two others with a sloping landscape setting.”

Narrandera’s loss could be Wagga’s gain according to outspoken councillor Paul Funnell, who said the “magnificent” slide was one of the greatest things west of the Blue Mountains.

“When my children were little every January we’d go to Lake Talbot to do the slide,” he said.

“If they want to pull it out then Wagga should put it in, build a pond at the edge of the river near the beach and you’d have people come from everywhere to use it.

“There’s a big water slide at Beechworth and in summer you’ve got hundreds of people queued up to get on it, we could run it off a little solar pump and have a cash cow.”

The revised plans would see the new “racer slide” installed alongside the existing blue “snake” slide, leaving options for widening the main 50-metre swimming pool.