New 1.4 Million Dollar Play Space Now Open
This impressive 2.5 acre park is surrounded by a mixture of native and exotic plantings overlooking the Sanctuary wetlands. 261 trees including a range of Oaks, Elms, Gums, Maples, and a special Monkey Puzzle tree feature in this park, and an additional 2,675 plants including Flax, Callistemon, Correas, Grasses, Coastal Rosemary, and Woolly Tea-Tree all provide natural texture and movement, bringing the space to life.
If you have a youngster in the house, here is the most important information! A new adventure playground that we believe could rival the popular Central Park Playground has been designed and engineered especially for this space. The materials and equipment selected for this playground give a nod to the natural landscape and we think the little explorers out there are going to love this playground.
The main feature is an impressive 7-meter-tall Olive Tree Birds Nest Tower. The tower has four large olives that act as climbing destinations or cool little chill areas. You can get to these hanging olives via ropes, ladders, and net crossings. This will be the first time this piece of playground equipment has ever been used in the world – so all the kids of Ballarat, you can be playground testers!
In the center of the playground, you will find the Bellevue Play Tower which has two main rooms joined with a rope bridge and covered in timber cladding. It has a genuine rustic appearance – perfect for this natural location in Sanctuary. One cluster of the play unit caters for older children with a large tunnel slide and challenging access, and the other cluster includes a staircase and smaller slide which is perfect for juniors.
For those of you who love to swing, this playground has fun swinging options including the Gyro Swing, Timba Swing, and the Dancing Snake. The Gyro is a multidirectional single point suspended nest swing, and the Dancing Snake could be a swing or a spinner because it does both! The Timba swing is your classic swing with two separate seats – and sometimes classic can be the most loved.
Our first Sand Digger features in Sanctuary playground, surrounded by a giant sand pit, again a first for our parks! The digger rotates 360 degrees and is designed for little users. It will keep kids occupied for hours in the sand pit and is perfect for building arm muscles and hand-eye coordination.
The playground also includes the Wobbly Wood Bamboo Hut, a delightful playhouse perfect for role-playing and crawling for younger ones. It features two different ascents and numerous play elements, enhancing kids’ gross motor skills and creativity under one roof.
A Kick and Play space ensures there is not only a great playground to explore, but space to kick a footy, do cartwheels, fly a kite, or run. Scattered throughout the space is park furniture including picnic tables, bench seating, rubbish bins, concrete ottomans, curved benches, drinking fountain and shelters.
This incredible space is connected to the rest of Lucas via walking and riding trails that take you all the way from the Town Centre shopping precinct through Central Park and past the Messenger Parade and McLeod Crescent wetlands, into Lucas Sanctuary. It also links via a short walk to the Skipton Rail Trail.
What is incredibly exciting is that there are still two more parks with playgrounds in planning for Lucas which will make a total of seven playgrounds for the community. More information about the next park will be made available in coming months.
To stay up to date with community news, visit the Integra News page.
Images are for illustrative purposes only and were prepared with thanks to Playground Centre.
