23 June 2013

Acorns at the Arboretum

23 June 2013 | By OpenYourMind

The new Acorn ‘Pod Playground’ opened today at the National Arboretum.

There was a great turn out of small people and accompanying parents. The park has a great variety of equipment for kids of all ages.

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thebrownstreak694:36 pm 09 Jul 13

My kids love this playground, it’s fantastic.

KB19711:59 pm 09 Jul 13

johnboy said :

Hmm, there really is no good way to go up and take some photos for a story on this is there?

Ride your bike ….. 😛

Chop711:51 pm 09 Jul 13

johnboy said :

Hmm, there really is no good way to go up and take some photos for a story on this is there?

Nope, You’re going to have to make the trip yourself JB.
Not like the pods can come to you.

PS My 3 year old loved it.

EvanJames1:03 pm 09 Jul 13

With those stems on them, they look more like poppy seed-heads than acorns. But rest assured, some kid will fall over and hurt themselves, and the whole thing will be fenced off because it’s NOT SAFE. Cannot fathom how so many of us survived when everything wasn’t SAFE.

Holden Caulfield12:19 pm 09 Jul 13

gooterz said :

Why don’t they make a playground for big kids though?

Haven’t you ever noticed that place with the big flag pole on top?

Or Fyshwick. 😛

dungfungus12:02 pm 09 Jul 13

johnboy said :

Hmm, there really is no good way to go up and take some photos for a story on this is there?

If you go there with a camera with the intention of taking photos of children at play expect to be told to piss off. Don’t wear an overcoat or take a bag of lollies either.
That’s the way it is these days.

sparrowitis11:48 am 09 Jul 13

Bad Seed said :

I think they look awesome. What I am interested in knowing, from any Rioters who have been, is, I have older kids who still love playgrounds (11 and 13). Would there be anything in this for them or would they be knocking toddlers flying in their haste to check everything out? ie is it a multi-ages design or is it more suited to the younger crowd.

Your question shows a depth of parental responsibility, so I’m guessing your children would not be knocking toddlers around because you would be supervising them. This is not the case for many children showing up in the thousands this school holidays. Their parents either aren’t watching, or have left them there to go and get a coffee. Why do they need to watch? Because this IS a challenging playground where small children can get hurt. It is left up to the parents of the small children to manage everybody else.

For example, the banksia huts are toddler-sized cubbies, with a baby slide and a sandpit. Clearly this area is designed with small children in mind. When it’s busy, they are literally crawling over each other. The huts are also very attractive for climbing by older children. It is easy to drop or slip down on the babies below. Worse though, is that the musical bamboo sticks between huts have been ripped off their wires from big kids swinging on them. The attitude among parents seems to be “when will THEY fix it?, not “I should stop my child doing that”.

Parts of the playground are being destroyed by the sheer weight of numbers (the climbing web is ripping out of the wall, the trampoline has been roped off because the bolts have been ripped out). I read that they are going to put up signs saying children must be supervised, and maybe an age limit, but that seems unfair on those who take care.

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johnboy11:53 am 09 Jul 13

Hmm, there really is no good way to go up and take some photos for a story on this is there?

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muntychops9:03 pm 24 Jun 13

gooterz said :

Why don’t they make a playground for big kids though?

Agreed 🙂

gooterz8:06 pm 24 Jun 13

Why don’t they make a playground for big kids though?

OpenYourMind3:29 pm 24 Jun 13

Bad Seed said :

I think they look awesome. What I am interested in knowing, from any Rioters who have been, is, I have older kids who still love playgrounds (11 and 13). Would there be anything in this for them or would they be knocking toddlers flying in their haste to check everything out? ie is it a multi-ages design or is it more suited to the younger crowd.

Definitely stuff for littlies and the 3-10 range. The bigger structures I think would be ok for 11 to 13, but given the current popularity, they’d be a little crowded out by the 3-10yo set.