Hays Paddock

Hays Paddock is the grand pinnacle of playgrounds; they simply don't come better than this. The playground was designed to fill the need for a play environment where disabled and able-bodied children can play together. It has been hugely successful since its creation in 1998, as proven by the busloads of children that regularly arrived from all around Melbourne.

Great attention has been paid to every detail in this hugely innovative playground. The play equipment has been cleverly placed around existing trees, and subsequent plantings of hardy shrubs, grasses and ground covers create a playground that not only merges beautifully with the surrounding environment, but also creates many more play opportunities for the children. Rubber turf paths weave in and out of pockets of native shrubs and trees and each copse has benches to sit on tucked underneath the canopy of the surrounding trees. Signs with drawings suggesting things to do and places to look are dotted throughout the playground and are repeated in braille.

Hays Paddock contains a huge variety of equipment to play on. There are the regular slides, swings and ride-on bouncers, but that is all that is regular. An extra-wide see-saw means kids can sit side-by-side, as they can on the double-width slide. There is a hammock to rock and bounce on, a spider's web trampoline that is overseen by a huge redback spider painted on the rubber turf, and a ring of toadstools to jump on or leap-frog over.

The sandpit is most impressive and is protected from the sun by two huge super-sails. There is a collection of tall, short, wide and narrow pipes that make for quite an orchestral sound when there are a few kids 'bonging' them together. There is also a row of musical tubes which invite banging along a ramp leading up to a tree house-style lookout where the surrounding parklands and billabong can be seen.

Chairs and benches are spaced throughout the playground, although some of these are in full sun at all times of day. There is a barbecue with more tables and chairs just next to the playground, overseeing the billabong. Dogs can run leash-free in the parklands and sports grounds and there is a large toilet block with a separate baby change room. The large carpark is adequate during the week, but typically overflows into the surrounding streets on sunny weekends. A short bike path runs from Hays Paddock to nearby Stradbroke Park.

Quite certainly this is the most well designed playground that I have ever seen.