Another day, another playground! This one’s in Menai, on the corner of Mathers Place and Bishop Rd.
After hiding itself away behind rain clouds for almost a week, the sun has re-emerged and I (and quite a few other mums with kids suffering cabin-fever) took the opportunity to head to the brand new playground (not just an upgrade) that locals are no doubt very excited about.
And I imagine they haven’t been disappointed.
There’s lots of on-street parking in this quiet area, and we parked right beside the park. This proved very useful for things like having to go back for the scooters when we discovered that it has a great scooter track circling the play equipment.
The equipment itself is expansive and designed to suit kids of varying ages, however, under 6s will probably have the most fun here.
It includes a small and larger slide, mini rock-climbing wall, climbing nets, balance poles, a steering wheel, telescope and pretend shopfront for dramatic play and a pole for sliding down.
There’s also some jumping stumps, a stand-and-spin, large round swing, baby swing and standard platform swing.
It’s all set on bark, which of course ends up all over the scooter path, but this didn’t present much of a problem for the kids as they scooted around.
Off to the side you’ll find some adults outdoor-gym equipment, namely parallel bars and pull-up bars. There’s also some grips for doing the “Flag Pole” exercise and I will take my hat off to any mum who even gives it a go as it apparently involves holding yourself up horizontally and using your arms and core to miraculously defy gravity!
While there’s only one picnic table and benches set up, there is sandstone seating around a good portion of the playground and abundant new grassy flat space to spread out a picnic blanket. We did exactly that and had packed our own lunch, but if you’re looking to pick something up Menai Marketplace is the closest option at 4 minutes drive away.
It’s a shame that there’s no toilets or bin as we were already spotting rubbish dotted across the playground. Another downside is that there’s very little shade so it will be interesting to see whether the equipment and bars are boiling hot in summer, but Mather’s Place Reserve certainly made a nice enough spot for our morning adventure in the middle of winter!
Still playground hunting? Have a browse through some of our other Sutherland Shire playground reviews.
