This topic comes up again and again in discussion with local residents, shoppers and business owners in Wynnum Central – are there enough public toilets in Wynnum? The consensus out there at the moment seems to be ‘no’.
For many people this might not be an issue, but for certain members of the community it is a pressing issues – for the elderly and for pregnant women for example.
WynnumCentral performed a somewhat unscientific test. We took our starting point as the front of Got-A-Go boutique at the (north)west end of Edith Street and paced out distances by foot to the nearest conveniences that could be used by the public. This isn’t quite the same as ‘public toilets’ as two of the three are actually private toilet facilities that are made available to customers. Here are the results (from closest to furthest)…
Coles
The Coles toilet facility is on the outside of the building near the entry to the pharmacy. You have to go into Coles and ask for the key from the information counter. Open same hours as Coles, and is technically only for customers of Coles.
Distance from Got-A-Go: 136m
IGA Centre
The IGA Centre on the corner of Florence Street and Bay Terrace has a toilet facility (ladies and gents) at the rear of the shopping centre on the inside. It is open the same hours as the shopping centre ie until 9pm most night except the weekend and again is technically only available for customers of the shopping centre.
Distance from Got-A-Go: 385m
Civic Centre (near the library)
These are officially the only public toilets in Wynnum. Their opening hours are not marked on the facilities (ladies and gents) and are – in our experience – often closed.
Distance from Got-A-Go: 490m
Apparently there will be public toilet facilities in the refurbished old Wynnum Central school when it opens. There is no fixed date for this, although we would assume this will be sometime in Mar/Apr next year. We didn’t pace this one out as we don’t know exactly where the facilities will be. Also you can access via the laneways between Edith Street and Florence Street, but there is no pathway as such and the ground is often uneven in these laneways. When this facility does open it will probably be the next closest to our chosen startpoint after Coles and certainly the closest public facility.
What do you think about this state of affairs? Do you think there should be more public toilet facilities in Wynnum or do you think it’s a storm in a teacup? Feel free to let us know in the comments below or on Facebook.
Image credits: https://pixabay.com/p-548409/?no_redirect (main); https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e3/1937_George_VI_penny.jpg (penny)
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