Whether you’re new to Dunedin or just looking for something different from your local playgrounds we’ve put together a bit of a guide to some of the more popular playground pieces.
If you don't know the locations of the parks listed below, check out the maps on the Playground page to find the exact street.
Inclusive play
We have 13 playgrounds with at least one piece of inclusive play equipment. These are:
- Bathgate Park (inclusive carousel)
- Mosgiel Memorial Park (inclusive carousel, basket swing, liberty swing)
- Green Island Memorial Park (inclusive carousel)
- Hudson Park (inclusive carousel)
- Brighton Domain (Basket swing)
- Emerson Park (Basket swing)
- Green Island Memorial Park (Basket swing)
- Karitane Foreshore and Playground (Basket swing)
- Kew Reserve (Basket swing)
- Navy Park (Basket swing)
- Ocean Grove Playground (Basket swing)
- Sawyers Bay Playground (Basket swing)
- Arthur Street Playground (Basket swing)
A Flying Fox
- Navy Park (South Dunedin) – old school flying fox – the only public one left!
- Arthur Street Reserve (City Rise) – 20m long new style flying fox
- Woodhaugh Gardens (George St) – newest flying fox in town, installed 2012
Wooden play forts
Scattered around the wider city you can find the old style play forts in;
- Navy Park (South Dunedin)
- Mosgiel Memorial Gardens & Playground (Mosgiel)
- Willow Park (Mosgiel)
- Kinmont Park (Mosgiel)
- Seacliff Playground
- Hocken Street Playground (Kenmure) – more for the little ones this fort
- Middlemarch Playground
Climbing Nets
- Mosgiel Memorial Gardens and Playground – a large two mast Spacenet combination
- Mornington Park – a smaller Spacenet with slide
Courts
There are three community playgrounds that have courts for public to play on, these are:
- Allanton Reserve – a tennis court with a basketball hoop at one end
- Skerries Street Playground, Outram – two courts that are for tennis in the summer and netball in the winter (though the hoops stay up all year round), and there is a tennis practice wall here too
- Kew Reserve – two courts, one tennis and one basketball both set up all year round.
Bike Areas
Playgrounds with flat asphalt paths/areas to ride scooters/bikes on are:
- Marlow Park (Dinosaur Park), St Kilda has a comprehensive learn to ride bike area complete with road markings and signs.
- Ralph Ham Park, Macandrew Bay
- Walton Park, Fairfield
- Mornington Park
- Elwyn Crescent, Green Island
Bike jump areas can be found;
- Allanton Reserve
- Mosgiel Memorial Gardens and Playground
- John Street Reserve, Abbotsford
Have you tried?
- Mosgiel Memorial Gardens and Playground – One of Dunedin's two destination playgrounds Mosgiel Memorial Playground has something for everyone – sand play; fort with slides; swings; spinners; rockers and more
- Marlow Park aka the Dinosaur Park – Dunedin's original destination playground, Marlow still holds a few of the communities' old favourites including a dinosaur slide; a shoe slide, a whale water feature and a sea serpent swing.
- Latham Park, Portobello – with it's little tug boat, and custom built large boat with soft fall waves and view of the sea it's a great place for imaginative play.
- St Clair Playground – close to cafes and the beach St Clair Playground tends towards preschool children with a few items for those a bit older
- Brighton Domain – Recently improved this playground challenges those a bit older with bigger swings, a higher climbing frame (great view from here!), a group disk swing and the original big slide.
- Delta Drive Playground, Waldronville – with the streets named after war planes what else could we do but build a spitfire plane for the park? The to scale model (minus one wing) is a great imaginative play piece for children, and even room to sit for adults, accompanied by swings, a slide, a large rocker and climbing frame that spins this latest improved playground is something a little special.
Come along try them out and remember playgrounds are for all ages young to old so whether you're 6yrs or 76yrs – have fun!