Family Playground Crawl in Adelaide's Northern Suburbs

Family Playground Crawl in Adelaide's Northern Suburbs

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Posted 2017-04-29 by Kat Mayfollow
A visit to a playground must be one of childhood's greatest pleasures. Kids love to visit playgrounds in different areas of town. Newly built playgrounds, especially those in outer suburbs have some fantastic modern equipment. Many have extended facilities for family groups to enjoy the outing, such as BBQs and picnic shelters. My family headed off \ on a weekend to research these playgrounds. We took some packed sandwiches and cake and ate lunch along the way. With a bit of planning, you will have a fun and free family day out on this fun playground crawl.



With some school aged children in tow, we visited these playgrounds in the northern suburbs of Adelaide, starting in Salisbury and ending further north. We rated them out of ten, considering three categories. We looked at;
(1) facilities such as toilets and picnic seating
(2) challenging and fun equipment
(3) pleasant surroundings and environment.
Here is our list of the best of the day in the far north of Adelaide.

CARISBROOKE PARK 8/10Opposite Old Spot Hotel, Main North Road, Salisbury.
This park has it all, with two different play areas, barbeques, toilets and lots of green grass. The linear park goes for a long way along the river and there are safe spots for kids to play supervised in the water. A bike and walking trail goes all the way to Salisbury Shops and beyond. It is a popular choice for large family groups on the large grassed areas and can get a bit crowded on weekends.





JO GAPPER PARK 7/10 Blackburn Rd, Hillbank
The Jo Gapper Park has a wide variety of facilities and also has a dog park. The playground has been here a while but was recently refurbished. There are also tennis courts for free use and a large oval for ball games, frisbee or flying a kite. The best thing here is the walk you can take in the scrub to the lookout a short walk next to the dog park. The only letdown is there are no toilets, but a good choice for a playground crawl as you will soon be off to another playground. It is a pleasant space with no traffic noise.

FREEMONT PARK 7/10 Yorketown Rd, Elizabeth
Almost everyone knows this park, bordering Main North Road, but many do not know there is another playground around the back - so two playgrounds here at this location. There is large grassed areas and walking paths, so it is a good park to walk or ride around. There is some adult exercise equipment nearby also.





STEBONHEATH PARK 8.5/10 Davoren Rd, Andrews Farm
This is a large recreation area with walking trails and large open spaces, which are part of The Smith Creek Trail. There is large wetland to view and stacks of picnic shelters with barbeques. There are lots of little paths around the space for kids to use small bikes and scooters. The playground has a huge climbing frame with rope to clamber on but overall the equipment is suitable for over 6 year olds. This is a fun place with toilets suitable for extended family gatherings. For more details on Stebonheath Park see here.



STRETTON CENTRE PARK 10/10 Located behind shops on Curtis Rd, Munno Para West

Wow, this very new park has it all. A lot of money has been spent here. The playground has an unusual very wide slide, a big flying fox and smaller climbing rope tower, swings and more. On the far side there is a well-utilised skate park where all ages ride scooters and skateboards. There is something for all ages here. It was our favourite on the day. Read my article here



BLAKEVIEW PARK 7/10
This park is a little further along from the main shopping centre in the suburb of Blakeview.

There is no car park so you have to park on the road. It is built up high on a small hill and it does get a little windy there later in the day. There is equipment here for wheelchairs such as the spinning roundabout, as well as a flying fox and swings. Surprisingly, by this stage, the kids had had enough and didn't want to go on any more equipment but we did test out the roundabout. Across the road is a lake you can walk around. It is a pleasant stop for a short while but with no toilets you may need a walk to the shops as we did. We got some ice-cream and went to look at the lake. This playground and suburb is a good stop for mid-afternoon refreshments.



FINAL TIPS
You could take the northern expressway and start in the reverse order given here. Take the Curtis Road exit. I made a score sheet for each child with the names of the parks. Asking, "what shall we find at the next playground?" was a good way to get them back into the car, as it is often hard to get kids to leave a playground. We had more on our list but did not get to them all. Amazingly the kids got tired. I would suggest no more than five playgrounds with a break for lunch or afternoon tea is enough. This is an ideal outing for Autumn or Spring when the temperatures are mild and kids need to burn up some energy from being stuck indoors too long.

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123653 - 2023-06-13 01:04:25

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