Ten of the best Australian playgrounds – in pictures

The Australian Institute of Landscape Architects is running a competition to celebrate Australia’s best-designed public play spaces and the landscape architects who designed them. Among the 45 submissions from across the country is a dinosaur-themed adventure playground, whimsical playhouses set under old fig trees and a kids’ space inspired by tennis stadiums – complete with child-sized grandstand and commentary box. The public is invited to vote for their favourite submission. All photos and captions provided by the institute

Wed 13 Apr 2016 02.08 EDT Last modified on Wed 23 Sep 2020 10.29 EDT

  • The Pod playground (Canberra, Australian Captial Territory)

    Set in the forests of the National Arboretum, the Pod playground, designed by Taylor Cullity Lethlean, introduces children and their families to the wonder of trees. Using the idea of seeds as the beginning of life in the forest, children can enter an imaginary world of giant acorns floating in the sky and enormous banksia cones nestled on the forest floor.

  • Braithwaite park nature play (Mount Hawthorn, Western Australia)

    For the Braithwaite park nature play area, Emerge Associates created a play space for children aged 10 to 14, a bracket many nature play parks fall short of. The integration of a flying fox and an elevated climbing net provides challenge and risk for older children, and other design elements ensure smaller children can safely and simultaneously use the area.

  • Saltwater Coast crocodile playground (Point Cook, Victoria)

    The playground, designed by Tract Consulting, is nestled between a series of hillocks, mounds and barrows for seating areas, wind breaks and play opportunities, and as great embankments for huge slides. Other elements include custom-designed forts, sand buckets, pulleys, bells, rope bridges and, of course, swings.

  • Frew Park arena play structure (Milton, Queensland)

    Designed by Guymer Bailey Architects, the play structure pays homage to the Milton tennis stadium. Play zones reflect spaces typically found in a stadium, such as the grandstand and commentary box – a steel-mesh box suspended seven metres above the ground.

  • Darling Quarter (Sydney, New South Wales)

    Designed by ASPECT Studios, the Darling Quarter playground provides opportunities for play from the very young (under two) to teenagers. Elements and equipment were assessed with a philosophy of ‘acceptable risk’ rather than an absence of risk. It references the industrial history of Darling Harbour with its sluice gates, switches and steel water elements.

  • The Megasaurus playground (Cranbourne East, Victoria)

    The Megasaurus playground designed by Urban Edge Landscape Architects is designed to appeal to children’s fascination with dinosaurs. It has a flying fox covered by a 25-metre brontosaurus frame, a pterodactyl basket swing with tactile steel feathers which form a cubby house, and a series of stegosaurus plates with climbing holds.

  • Wulaba park (Waterloo, New South Wales)

    Designed by Sturt Noble Associates, Wulaba park features a play tower that references the classic Hills Rockets of parks gone by, a raised fort landing, a giant slide, ropes and cable climbing apparatus, swings and tunnels. It also integrates public art by Nuha Saad, including a strong colour theme on the pavement, tower balustrades and pergola canopy.

  • Hart’s Mill Surrounds (Port Adelaide, South Australia)

    Designed by ASPECT Studios, Hart’s Mill Surrounds is set against one of Adelaide’s most loved heritage buildings and on a new hike and bike loop around the former harbour and Port river.

  • Jubilee playground (Glebe, New South Wales)

    Jubilee playground, designed by Sue Barnsley Design, is in Bicentennial park, in Glebe, and forms part of the foreshore parkland of Blackwattle bay. The new works have renewed a well-loved local playground in the south-east corner of the park, under the canopy of a grove of large old fig trees that edge an open lawn.

  • Adelaide zoo’s nature’s playground (Adelaide, South Australia)

    Designed by Wax Design, nature’s playground is a new exhibit at the Adelaide zoo that connects children, parents and carers to nature through play. It has a rock-lined creek – complete with tadpoles and water play spouts – and a giant sand pit, musical chimes and a cubby.
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