There is a change going on at parks around Australia

Last week we spent some time playing a game of off ground tiggy.

All you have to do is keep off the ground when you are playing. It was pretty fun because we were in a paddock with some really big rocks so we had to jump to keep from getting tagged.

The view was pretty good too and we sat for a bit to just soak it all in and be thankful that we are not restricted to the plastic slides of small suburban stamps of grass that are the standard parks of modern Australia.

Then I keep seeing people at the new Royal Park play area at the Royal Children's Hospital. Today the weather was a perfect autumn day. Bright and sunny, the very day that you can not waste indoors.

The new play area is built where the old Children's Hospital once stood. When the hospital was demolished, the area was reclaimed to be used for open space and an area for kids to really play.

And play they do.

There is not a scrap of plastic at this park. There are ropes and wood and trees and grassy hills and water and sand and metal.


It's the kind of park that doesn't have a safety fence and encourages kids (and their parents) to take greater risks. Not everyone will like it.

In the water play area if your kid is the type to run when they were told to walk, well, they might find out pretty quickly what it feels like to fall on wet concrete. The rope climb is at such a height that you won't be holding your child's hand if they make it up there. The slide is metal, old style, so it's possible little bums might feel the heat, but it didn't bother any of those whirling down it today.

These things didn't bother any of the kids I saw today and the only issue my girls had was when we told them it was time to go. We spent two hours there and they would have happily stayed another two.

This nature play park is the way I notice more and more parks are going. We are slowly moving away from the highly regulated slides and climbing frames that are a regulation number of centimetres off the ground. We are accepting that kids have enough crap in bright red, yellow and blue at home and not enough trees, grass and bugs. If your kids are beyond the preschool years, this is even better.

If your bigger kids have been getting bored at the local parks, it's time to take a trip to Royal Park.

Have you noticed a change to the parks in your neighbourhood?