Contractors Stuart Gordon Landscaping say they are about a month behind schedule following 21 days of wet weather since work started in July.

“Every second or third day we were getting those miserable couple of millilitres and it just absolutely hamstrung us,” business owner Stuart Gordon said.

“The site was just a bog hole and everywhere we went we were just playing in the mud bas-ically.

“It slows everything down by about 50 per cent.”

The playground at Sumsion Gardens was to be completed by September 30 to meet the funding criteria for the Federal Government’s $878,000 bonus.

But Wodonga Council was yesterday confident of retaining the funding despite the project now not expected to be finished before the end of October.

“We have kept the Federal Government updated continually on how the project is going,” said chief executive Gavin Cator.

“The contract was awarded on tight time frames and the completion of the project would always be dependent on the weather.”

Concept plans revealed to The Border Mail earlier this year showed a playground connected by timber decking and including equipment fashioned from red gum logs, which stretches from the southern end of the lagoon.

The draft plan includes tree houses supported by forks of red gum timber and a “hand” cubby fashioned from tree limbs.

Mr Gordon said about seven workers have been working on the playground since construction began on July 15.

“There’s a lot of work in what we’re doing and a lot of it’s time consuming,” he said.

“But a lot of the structural stuff is coming together.”

Mr Gordon said the playground is set to become a “fairly unique” tourist attraction for the Border.

“I think it’s going to be a showpiece for the district,” he said.

“This is going to be like the Taj Mahal of playgrounds.”