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Playgrounds

Ryde Park: The Grounds Keeper Cafe, Playground & Scooter + Bike Track

March 18, 2018 / Outdoor Play, Playgrounds, Ryde, South West, Sydney, Sydney Food / 0 comment

Sydney’s Northwest is spoiled for choice with excellent parks, playgrounds and cafes. Ryde Park, in particular, is a special spot. It’s a huge park complete with sporting grounds, basketball court, playground, picnic facilities, a brand new scooter and bike track, plus the excellent Grounds Keeper Cafe.

Ryde Park: The Grounds Keeper Cafe, Playground & Scooter + Bike Track

The Grounds Keeper Cafe was formerly known as Ryde Park Cafe before its makeover in 2013 by owner Sam Hayek. The menu has a Middler Eastern flavour to it, with dishes on offer such as Kafta Tagine Eggs (Clay pot baked free range eggs with spiced lamb kafta and served with pita bread and labna, $19) Chilli Eggs (Spicy avocado and tomato salsa on toasted sourdough, free range poached eggs, topped with Dukkah and drizzled with balsamic glaze, $19) and Hummus Awarma (Traditional Lebanese breakfast of hummus topped with fried eggs, slow cooked lamb, toasted almonds and fresh mint served with Lebanese bread, $22).

Brekkie is served until 11:30am, when the lunch menu kicks in. There are plenty of options for vegetarians and also those on a gluten-free diet.

Kids can choose from the Little Grounds Keeper Breakfast Menu, which features dishes from $6.50-$9.50 including choice of eggs with bacon with toast $9.50, ham and cheese omelette with toast, pancakes and a ham and cheese toastie. The Little Grounds Keeper Lunch Menu has dishes from $9.50-12.50 including wagyu cheese burger, penne napolitana, grilled chicken tenderloins with fries and kafta skewers with fries.

Tables are able to be booked in advance – which I highly recommend for weekends as it’s a very popular cafe. We didn’t book and were lucky enough to get a table straight away for our party of 7. Food came quickly after it was ordered and was cooked to perfection.

My Pancakes On The Grounds (layered home made pancakes topped with mascarpone, fresh strawberry, crushed pistachio, pure maple and caramel syrup and dusted with icing sugar) were a work of art and incredibly delicious.

The eggs on toast with added sides got a thumbs up from hubby and our friend who ordered the same.

The Grounds Keeper Cafe is incredibly popular with families in particular and it’s easy to see why. The food is incredible and service fast, even on a super busy day.

There is a reasonably-sized playground under shade directly outside the cafe, which is particularly good if you have to wait for a table or your meal. There are bathrooms behind the cafe including a baby change table and disabled toilet. The cafe and playground are also extremely accessible for strollers and wheelchairs. Wheelchairs are able to wheel directly into the cafe and up to the tables.

Ryde Park Scooter and Bike Track

A brand new scooter and bike track was added in March 2018. It’s a great little area with stop signs and roundabouts, making it fun and educational at the same time. There are three picnic tables with shade scattered around the track. Trees have been planted but it will be a while before they will give any shade. A water fountain at the entrance of the park is handy if you visit on a hot day.

Ryde Park
Ryde Park, Blaxland Road, Ryde

The Grounds Keeper Cafe
30 Argyle Ave, Ryde
Hours: Mon, Wed-Fri 9am-4pm, Sat & Sun 8am-4pm (Closed Tuesdays)
Kids’ Menu: Yes
Change Table: Yes
High Chairs: Yes
Easy stroller access: Yes
Playground: Yes
groundskeepercafe.com.au

More things to do in Sydney

Find a list of the best things to do in Sydney with kids here.

Find things to do in Sydney for free here.

Get a list of the best kid-friendly beaches in Sydney.

Find the best animal experiences in Sydney here.

Visit the best kid-friendly restaurants in Sydney here.

Find the best high teas in Sydney here.

Head to one of the best museums in Sydney here.

Check out things to do in Sydney on a rainy day here.

Enjoy one of the best ocean pools in Sydney here.

First time visiting Sydney? Get tips for first time visitors to Sydney here.

Sydney’s Best Playgrounds: Bungarribee Western Sydney Parklands

January 10, 2018 / Outdoor Play, Playgrounds, South West, Sydney, Western Sydney / 0 comment

The Western Sydney Parklands is a top spot for local families to stretch their legs and really enjoy the great outdoors. The newest park in the precinct, Bungarribee, opened in March 2017 – a 200-hectare recreational facility that gives locals plenty of wide open space to play, cycle, scoot, walk, run and even walk their dog at one of Sydney’s largest off-leash dog areas, the Warrigal Dog Run.

At Bungarribee you’ll find plenty to entertain the family all day. The ultra-modern playground will be a total hit with the kids, with its 14-metre-high playtower, 50-metre-long flying-fox, giant and baby swings, water play area and sand pits.

The playtower is unlike anything we’ve seen in a Sydney playground before, with multiple levels giving kids challenges to climb over and through various levels. It’s a great space for tweens to enjoy in particular.

Other facilities at Bungarribee include walking/cycling/scooting tracks, 20 barbecues, 13 picnic shelters (8 are available for hire, the rest are free of charge, on a first-come first-served basis), plenty of car parking (the area we parked had free all-day parking), large, clean bathrooms, and wide open fields to run around.

Personally, I thought the space was pretty good, but could use a few improvements:

The park needs better shade cloths instead of the rather weird netting that was used.
The park has no all-ability features in it. I can’t understand why 15 million dollars was spent on a huge new park that excludes kids with disabilities.

Get more information on Western Sydney Parklands Bungarribee here.

Bungarribee
Western Sydney Parklands
Entrance Intersection of Holbeche and Doonside roads, Bungarribee.

Sydney’s Best Playgrounds: Wulaba Park, Green Square, Waterloo

November 13, 2017 / Outdoor Play, Playgrounds, Sydney, Sydney Life / 0 comment

This brand new playground in Waterloo is a joint venture between the City of Sydney and property developer Meriton, as part of their residential development plan for the area. As you can see from these images, Wulaba Park is situated right in the middle of high rise housing developments. Having lived in this area ourselves previously, it’s wonderful to see more play spaces for kids opening up for the community.

Wulaba Park features an exciting playground designed by a landscape architect in conjunction with Sydney artist Nuha Saad. The result is an elegant design that is quite beautiful to look at with soaring lines and bold colours.

The name of the park, “Wulaba” is an Aboriginal word of the Gadical people meaning rock wallaby. Until the development of the early 20th century, Waterloo was the largest swamp in the area and home to many rock wallabies. Nowadays, the park is a place for human wallabies to hop around and burn off some energy.

Waluba Park features a giant mega slide, a tall climbing tower, tunnels for kids to run through, nets and ladders to climb and a swing set on a soft-surface floor. The 4,000sqm of outdoor space also features a landscaped picnic and bbq area, bike tracks and handball and table tennis courts.

Our verdict

While we loved the design and Cheese found it incredible inviting, there wasn’t overly much for her to do there and she wanted to leave sooner than we had expected. The park isn’t fenced so parents have to keep an extra close eye on littlies, and there is very little shade. No shade clothes have been built into the park, and the trees are new and small.

Bathrooms: One toilet with baby change facilties
Cafes: None – you’ll have to walk to the nearby shopping complex in Zetland
Parking: Limited but do-able. We parked at the Zetland shopping complex and walked over.
Public Transport: Bus stop nearby. Nearest train station is Green Square.

Wulaba Park, Green Square, Waterloo
54–60 O’Dea Avenue, Waterloo

Ian Potter Children’s WILD PLAY Garden, Centennial Park, Sydney, Australia

October 23, 2017 / Outdoor Play, Playgrounds, Sydney, Sydney Life / 0 comment

Nestled in the heart of Sydney’s Centennial Park, the newly opened Ian Potter Children’s WILD PLAY Garden is designed to connect children with nature and engage all five of their senses.

Inside the Garden, children can indeed run wild and explore the environment which includes around 12,000 plants, a water play area featuring 11 water jets and mist machines, a 7-metre tall treehouse with a bridge leading to it and slide leading down, a 10-metre tunnel, a bamboo forest, a sand pit, and, our favourite, a wide open space with logs and rocks for climbing and branches for building teepees or cubby houses.

The Garden was created for children aged 2 – 12, of all abilities. Within each of the “spaces” of the garden there are plenty of ways for kids to engage with their surroundings regardless of their age or background. Every section of the Garden has been created in a way that it is a blank canvas that is open to interpretation by the child to project their own imagination onto, and create their own world and games inside.

We visited the Garden on its opening weekend and it was absolutely packed, which is understandable. It’s a delightful place with a lot of attention to small details such as trails for kids to run down and a forest of bamboo that they can disappear into.

While the garden is a decent size it’s not massive and it wasn’t big enough to cope with the amount of people who visited when we were there. Plants were getting trampled and even ripped out by kids (where were their parents???? I have no idea!!), and the line to get up into the treehouse and slide back down again was so crowded it looked unsafe for littles to get involved.

Hopefully when its newness has worn off the Garden will have less less people there on a regular basis so it’s able to be a safe and enjoyable environment for the little kids it was designed for.

We spent the majority of our time in the garden building a cubby house made out of the big sticks that are provided and decorating it with rocks, bark and ferns we found lying around. Unfortunately the greenery had been ripped off plants by other kids before we arrived – we used it to decorate since it was already on the ground, but did tell Cheese that we don’t rip branches off trees.

Entry to the Ian Potter Children’s WILD PLAY Garden is free. There is a van serving coffee, drinks and snacks inside the garden plus excellent bathroom facilities.

Ian Potter Children’s WILD PLAY Garden
Centennial Park
Hours: The Garden is open daily, 10am-5pm.
Where to find the Garden: Located in Centennial Park, off Grand Drive and adjacent to the Education Precinct.

Sydney Playgrounds: Parramatta CBD River Foreshore Park

November 4, 2016 / Outdoor Play, Playgrounds, Sydney, Sydney Life / 0 comment

The Parramatta CBD River Foreshore Park is a great spot to run off steam with kids if you’re taking in a show at the nearby Riverside Theatre or grabbing lunch at one of the restaurants on Church street.

Built into the slope of the hill on the river’s foreshore, it’s got some really cool features like a 4 metre slide and rock climbing. In summer, water features are turned on near the sand play area.

Be aware that the playground is not fenced, not does it have any shade cover or bathrooms.

Parramatta CBD River Foreshore Park
Elizabeth St Footbridge Parramatta NSW

Cathy Freeman Park + Olympic Cauldron, Olympic Park, Homebush

October 1, 2016 / Outdoor Play, Playgrounds, Sydney, Sydney Life / 2 Comments

Have you ever wondered where the famous caldron from the 2000 Sydney Olympics ended up once the games were over? The answer is it didn’t go very far at all.

After the magical opening and closing ceremonies (who can forget Cathy Freeman lighting the cauldron and it rising through the air simultaneously dripping with fire and water?) the cauldron was taken down and moved just a few hundred metres to its permanent home – in the appropriately named Cathy Freeman Park.

Located very conveniently next to the Allphones Arena, Cathy Freeman Park has 2 playgrounds – one for young kids and one for older – huge shady trees and easy access to bathrooms and cafes.

We often end up in the park when attending a show at the Allphones Arena – it’s great to burn off energy after a long drive before needing to sit still for a long time while watching a show.

The cauldron is a popular feature for tourists and kids, who particularly love running underneath it in the puddles, and trying to judge when the fountain is about to turn on. There’s always one kid who times it poorly and gets absolutely soaked. Bring extra clothes in case this is your kid!

Also in the area:

Check out nearby Brickpit Ring Walk, Wentworth Common, nearby Bicentennial Park, Blaxland Riverside Playground and the Olympic Cauldron in Cathy Freeman Park. Or, take a dip in the Sydney Olympic Park Aquatic Centre.

Cathy Freeman Park
Online: sydneyolympicpark.com.au
Sydney Olympic Park NSW 2127
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The Central Gardens Nature Reserve Merrylands: Southwest Sydney with Kids

May 4, 2016 / Outdoor Play, Playgrounds, Sydney, Sydney Life / 0 comment

We have been exploring a lot of southwest Sydney lately, looking for parks and playgrounds in particular. I was recently re-introduced to the Central Gardens Nature Reserve in Merrylands, where I spent a lot of my childhood while my parents played their weekly tennis game with friends. At the time, the gardens were closed so I never was past the tennis court. It was amazing to see the park in daylight, and open! I remember in my errant youth scaling the tennis court bathroom walls in an attempt to see the closed off garden at night – so to see it during the day brought back memories of our night time stealth mission that ultimately failed and left us somewhat in trouble as a result.

The Central Gardens Nature Reserve, also called the Central Gardens, is a nature reserve in the southwest Sydney suburb of Merrylands. The 12 hectare park features two playgrounds, animal enclosures, BBQ areas, a flat path perfect for scooters and bikes, plus a small waterfall feature.

The playground we found was fantastic, with the biggest shade cloth I’ve ever seen over a playground. It was so wonderful to visit in the middle of the day and not worry about sunburn.

Behind the playground lies the animal enclosures. It’s free to wander through them and see the very well cared for animals, including birds, particularly scary emus, wallabies with babies in their pouches, and kangaroos.

We didn’t find the waterfall this visit, but will be back to find it next time.

Do you know of any more great southwest Sydney parks for us to discover?

The Central Gardens Nature Reserve
Cumberland Hwy, Merrylands West
Bathrooms: Yes
Picnic tables: Yes
Shade cover: Yes
Cafe: No
Skatepark: No
Off-street parking: Yes
Children’s playground: Yes
Water features: No
Get Directions

More things to do in Sydney

Find a list of the best things to do in Sydney with kids here.

Find things to do in Sydney for free here.

Get a list of the best kid-friendly beaches in Sydney.

Find the best animal experiences in Sydney here.

Visit the best kid-friendly restaurants in Sydney here.

Find the best high teas in Sydney here.

Head to one of the best museums in Sydney here.

Check out things to do in Sydney on a rainy day here.

Enjoy one of the best ocean pools in Sydney here.

First time visiting Sydney? Get tips for first time visitors to Sydney here.

Plough and Harrow Park: The Best of Southwest Sydney for Families

May 3, 2016 / Outdoor Play, Playgrounds, Sydney, Sydney Life / 0 comment

Southwest Sydney really has some fantastic places for families to enjoy the great outdoors. One of our faves is the Plough and Harrow Park in Abbotsbury. The park is part of the massive Western Sydney Parklands that spans across the suburbs of Abbotsbury, Eastern Creek, Prospect and Horsley Park. The entire parklands covers 5,280 hectares, and includes several playgrounds, events centres and sporting venues.

We end up at the Plough and Harrow in Western Sydney Parklands East a fair bit. It has a fantastic playground, 22 electric BBQs, parking for over 200 cars, 24 picnic shelters, a pond with ducks and other water birds, public bathrooms and a cafe/restaurant: Amoretti’s.

The big draw for us is the playground. It’s spread out across a large area, interspersed with trees and other Australian bush pants. The playground features include a hamster wheel, flying fox, sand pit, little kid play area, large climbing spiderweb, basket swing, big kid swings and a water pump feature. The park has play equipment for all different ages, so it’s a suitable venue for families with kids of all ages.

The only downside to this playground is the lack of shade. It could do with some shade cloth!

Make a day of your visit to the park by booking into Treetop Adventure Park too, which is located in this part of Western Sydney Parklands, too.

Plough and Harrow Park
Western Sydney Parklands,
Elizabeth Drive, Abbotsbury
Bathrooms: Yes
Picnic tables: Yes
Shade cover: No
Cafe: Yes
Skatepark: No
Off-street parking: Yes
Children’s playground: Yes
Water features: Yes
Get Directions

Domain Creek Playground, Parramatta Park: The Best of Southwest Sydney for Families

May 1, 2016 / Outdoor Play, Playgrounds, Sydney, Sydney Life / 0 comment

Parramatta Park is one of Sydney’s most historic places. In the centre of the park is Old Government House, which, along with the surrounding pack, is one of 11 sites that form the Australian Convict Sites World Heritage property. The park is also notable for its Aboriginal heritage: Evidence of Aboriginal occupation from over 200,000 years ago has been found there.

Sydney-siders have been enjoying Parramatta Park for recreation for a long time – it became a public park in 1858 – making it one of the earliest designated public parks in the world.

We particularly love the recently renovated Domain Creek Playground in Parramatta Park – it’s located on the Westmead side of the park, opposite the Queens Road Gatehouse.

The playground features activities for all ages and abilities, including flying foxes, swings, slides, trampolines, water pumps, sand pits, small trampolines built into the ground and spinning carousels.

Each section is connected by ramps and walkways, making it easy for strollers and wheelchairs to get between each area.

The double flying fox is a particularly popular feature of the new park, with one of the flying foxes adapted to be used by people with disabilities. The seatbelt feature makes it popular with young children too, who are a bit scared to use the regular one.

Adventurous kids will also enjoy the slide, which requires thrill-seekers to climb up a rope ladder to the top, and then scoot along to the top of the slide. Getting up was a bit scary for little Cheese due to the lack of handholds to pull herself up at the top of the rope ladder, but she had no problem climbing it, or going down the slide, either.

Other sections of the playground worth noting include water pumps that flow into a sand pit, a climbing net that looks like a spider’s web, a second sand pit with equipment for bigger kids like sand diggers, swings, and one last sandpit in the shade that was ideal for small kids.

The playground is beautifully designed to blend into the bush surrounding it, with plenty of fun surprise activities to discover. In the bush section in the middle of the playground few discovered a bush xylophone and cubby house, and there are also small metal sculptures of native Australian animals and a few roses dotted around the park.

The playground doesn’t have a shade cloth over it and there are very few sections with tree coverage, making it a bit of a scorcher on a hot day – particularly the metal play equipment. I would suggest this playground for milder to cold weather!

Bathrooms are also scarce – the nearest ones are a good 10 mins walk away at the Parramatta park Cafes, near the Queen Gate Entrance.

Near the playground is the river and lake, which is home to many birds such as ducks and ibis. Watching the birds is also an excellent way to entertain the little ones.

Hungry? Grab breakfast, lunch or a coffee to go from Parramatta Park Cafe.

Domain Creek Playground, Parramatta Park
Pitt St & Macquarie St, Parramatta
Bathrooms: No – nearest one is a few mins walk away at nearby Parramatta Park Cafe.
Picnic tables: Yes
Shade cover: No
Cafe/Kiosk: No
Skatepark: No
Off-street parking: Yes
Children’s playground: Yes
Water features: Yes (but minimal)
Get Directions

Sydney’s Best Playgrounds: James Ruse Reserve Playground

January 11, 2016 / Outdoor Play, Playgrounds, Sydney, Sydney Life / 1 Comment

Super hot Sydney days call for playgrounds with water features! The James Ruse Reserve Playground is almost brand-spanking new (it was built in 2014), and has a fantastic water play area, which is under cover. You can’t beat that! Taking into consideration how important shade cloth is in summer, this could be my favourite playground in Sydney right now.

The playground was named after James Ruse (1760-1837) who arrived on the first fleet and was said to be one of the first convicts to be sent to Rosehill (now Parramatta) who had an understanding of agriculture. After his time as a convict was up, he became a self-sufficient farmer. James Ruse Reserve now occupies part of where is property, which he called Experiment Farm, used to be.

James Ruse Reserve Playground
Harris St, Parramatta
Bathrooms: One portable only
Picnic tables: Yes
Shade cover: Yes
Cafe: No
Skatepark: Yes
Off-street parking: Yes
Children’s playground: Yes
Water features: Yes
Water park hours: September – May: 9am-8pm, June – August: CLOSED
Get Directions