New era for Action Centre

BY DEAN MICHALAK

Flynn Drummond reckons there’s no one in the country who has visited more playgrounds than him.

While it’s all been in the name of research, and maybe a little fun, he’s brought the best of what he learnt visiting entertainment hubs around the country back home to Richmond.

At the start of this year, Flynn made the difficult decision to temporarily close his business Action Centre to finalise his vision, transforming it from an Inflatable World and sports centre, into a vibrant indoor playground targeted at those aged 14 and under.

“Inflatable World, I guess, is a bit of an institution here. We had the model of indoor sport during the week, Inflatable World on the weekend,” he says.

“They’re actually sports centres first, with entertainment on the weekend, and we want to have an entertainment offering for kids to come in any day of the week.”

While it wasn’t an easy choice, there were plenty of reasons to support the change.
Over time, the indoor cricket field started to attract fewer visitors, and last year, the final game of indoor cricket was played.

“That was a really hard decision, that’s probably what delayed me doing this - I was just so connected to the indoor cricket. The whole indoor community is close knit so that was challenging. But it was the right decision for the business and the region needed this to happen.”

A fire that damaged the building in 2019 meant a revamp was needed. Having owned the business for only months, it was an opportunity to steer it in a new direction.

In the last few months, Flynn and his team have been hard at work. They removed the cricket setup and the inflatables, donating all the cricket netting to Nelson Cricket.

In their place, they’ve created a playground where you can slide, smash, spin and scale - trampolines, carousels, and climbing structures - all topped off with full neon lighting.

Flynn’s also in the process of converting the virtual golf room into a karaoke zone – a first for the region.

The playground, although not quite finished, and not opening until 12 April, has had the tick of approval from Flynn’s three children, aged four, six and seven.
Flynn says the revamp has meant a “significant investment”.

“I think that’s a problem a lot of businesses are facing, is it’s been a tough few years, and do you just sit on your hands and get by, or do you look at how to improve, taking your business to the next level. And this is what we’re doing.”

Bookings will open on 4 April and can be made online only.