Xtreme Bounce, in an industrial estate in Delacombe, is set to open next week but the James family and construction workers are putting in long hours to finish the project.

More than a million dollars worth of bounce – comprising 78 trampolines, with 42,000 springs that each had to be installed by hand – are in place and will provide 1800sqm of jumping across seven different activities.

The trampoline park has been the dream of Rod and Jill James and their four children, aged nine to 16.

“My wife went to Melbourne with the kids and rang me up and said ‘I want to do this’, but I didn’t know what a trampoline centre was,” Mr James said.

“I went to one and it was fantastic and agreed it would be a great thing to open in Ballarat. It’s great entertainment and something to enjoy for the family.”

This was despite the couple having no experience in similar ventures, with Mr James working in IT and Mrs James in pharmacy.

The trip to Melbourne sparked four long years of research and family holidays that included visiting as many different trampoline parks as possible.

The James children – Meg, 16, Cooper, 15, Morgan, 12 and Eden, 9 – were chief trampoline testers, providing feedback on the best trampoline options.

“It’s a long-awaited dream come true,” Mrs James said. “Our whole family is involved in a lot of sporting areas – basketball, netball, cricket and football – and this is another avenue for fun and fitness.”

When it opens next week, Xtreme Bounce will boast a massive free jump area alongside a dodgeball court, high-performance Olympic standard trampolines with walls, Australia’s only wipe-out arena, a battle beam, air pit area and high dive board.

The US manufacturers of the trampoline equipment open a trampoline park around the world every two weeks and, until now, the fastest installation time has been six weeks. Xtreme Bounce will be jumping just five weeks after installation began.

Experts from the manufacturer have flown to Australia and been to Ballarat to ensure everything is installed and engineered exactly as it should be.

Construction of the purpose-built warehouse at 48-50 Heinz Road began in January.

The centre also has a cafe and party rooms, and in addition to regular jumping sessions, Mr James is looking to run toddler sessions, fitness classes and other groups.

General admission will cost $16 for the first hour. To keep up to date on the opening visit xtremebounce.com.au or find them on Facebook.

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