Archibald Park taking shape after Narrogin Jetsprint Club brings in the big guns for long-weekend busy bee

An Easter weekend busy-bee has seen the Narrogin Jetsprint Club make a big dent in the work required to return the Archibald Park jet boat course to past glory and racing to the Wheatbelt South. The course is set to be the only regional jet boat course in WA and NJC president Simon Cain said that the crew had spent a busy few days breaking ground and getting things up to scratch. “The top of the track is very rocky,” he said. “Mainly this weekend we’ve cleared the top of the islands to get the level down and then started digging out the floor of the track so we can get the minimum requirement of water in there that we need to race.” NJC vice president Dwayne Ehrenreich said that the club had been supported by Narrogin Earthmoving & Concrete, who supplied heavy machinery for use over the weekend. “We’ve got the excavator here, we’ve got the frontend loader, we’ve also got a bobcat and a small excavator,” he said. “Without that gear, it’d be very hard to do.” Narrogin local Richard Whyte also came down to lend a hand. The group made a lot of progress but it will take a bit more digging before Archibald Park is fully functional again. “There’s a bit more cleaning up to do,” Mr Ehrenreich said. “There’ll be the final buttering off of the islands and all the back we’ve got to neaten up — you just can’t fit it all into four days.” Based in Perth, Mr Cain and Mr Ehrenreich will return to Narrogin this month to put in some more work and while jet boat action is still a way off the pair are happy with how things are progressing. “We want to try to get it as right as possible,” Mr Ehrenreich said. “You can see yourself; the fuel is getting burnt, the machines are out there — we’re serious about having a red-hot crack.”