A mild winter’s day presented the perfect opportunity for our family to grab some lunch and head to Ascot Place Reserve in Miranda. It’s the latest in the string of playground upgrades that we’ve managed to get to.
The front entrance is off Miranda Road (and isn’t fenced), which can sometimes be tricky to park on, but you can also park in Ascot Place and walk straight through to the playground.
We’d picked up lunch along the way (Westfield Miranda is a 3-minute drive or 12-minute walk away) but there are no picnic tables and most of the grass is still cordoned off so we sat at one of the two available benches to eat it.
Once the barriers have been removed, though, there’s ample grassed space for picnics and kicking a ball around.
The reboot features a fitness station, large play apparatus and set of swings.
The fitness station is set on soft-fall and made up of four bars at different heights that have been designed for teenagers and adults to do chin-ups, pull-ups and stretching, but of course, they’re great for kids to spin over and hang off too. If you need a demo of any of the exercises you can even scan the QR codes and watch a quick video of each one.
The playground equipment is great for kids who love to climb. It includes multiple climbing nets and ladders and a rock-climbing wall all built for kids (mostly suited to 2 to 8-year-olds) to scale. There’s also monkey bars, a pole for sliding down, a mid-sized slide and some rope platforms and logs for balancing on.
Toddlers will be able to make use of the steps, slide and small shop window. A shade cloth covers the equipment but didn’t appear to do an awful lot in the middle of the day, so during summer, you may want to be a bit selective about what time of day you visit.
There’s one traditional-style baby swing and one standard platform swing for everyone to fight over! All of the equipment is set on sand, which means you can get even more fun out of the playground if you bring along your bucket and spade but also means you’ll need to empty those shoes out before you get home. It also tends to make walking across the balance beam quite a bit more slippery so watch out for that.
Around the equipment is a paved path made for little ones to scoot and ride around on.
You’ll find a water station and one bin (which was overflowing on our visit), but no toilets.
Want to know about other playgrounds in the Sutherland Shire? Check out more playground reviews.
