New Farm Park playground is re-open to the public from July 23 with a major upgrade of the famous Banyan tree playground.
More than $300,000 has been allocated from Central Ward Parks Trust Fund for the upgrade
The new New Farm Park playground has been greeted with universal praise. This email was received from a New Farm parent who has two children -- one an able-bodied toddler, the other a child with an access disability. It is re-published here in an amended format with the parent's permission but without names and other personal details.
Dear David,
Thank you. The new playground is lovely. The "Sway Fun" allows me to wheel my child (who has an access disability) on to the platform, amongst other children, and experience a swing. It's just lovely.
Not only that, "vestibular" stimulation, as it's called (which most children get by hurtling around and changing direction, or by swinging on a swing), is not only fun it's crucial for children's cognitive development, and is rather hard to get. The hammock, too, is lovely for my child - as is the toddler's area with the curved "wall" with its sound sculpture and coloured cogs etc.
It's also a pleasure that the platform that runs around the giant figs has been extended - although it's a little curious that there's a ramp only at one end, and an inaccessible lip at the other. I'm hoping that that's part of a bigger plan to extend the walkway, rather than an exercise in tipping off . . (We're looking into that one) .
I was also surprised by the number of negative comments that I heard while the playground was closed. People presumed it would be "ruined" or be made "too safe". That's in keeping with a new public narrative about risk and "freerange kids" which suggests that all levels of government are using too much cotton wool. It also, it seems to me, is part of a political debate about "big government" that really needs some proper interrogation. (Or maybe they were just missing the playground.) While I'm completely sympathetic to the need for children to range wild and free, to have fun, to climb trees and trip over - in the way that my toddler son can - so much of this debate presumes that everyone is able-bodied. Children like my other child can only participate in certain managed environments, and with equipment that takes considerable effort to include.
Now, at least, when I visit this large and dynamic play area, both my children can be part of it.
So, thank you.
Sincerely,
Name withheld for privacy reasons.
.
