Recycled / junkyard playgrounds

Now about a week into the design timeframe for our Fresh Like To...Go Play! playground competition, here's some inspiration and encouragement from a local Melbourne playground.

I was recently lucky to visit Skinners Adventure Playground, a supervised community backyard play-space, specifically created for families living in public housing in South Melbourne. The playground is only open in the afternoons and weekends and has a supervised after-school care program on-site. Skinners Adventure Playground has evolved over the years to become a sprawling and imaginative space. Many of the play elements have been constructed by the local community from recycled or salvaged material - old tractor tyres, slides, gates, fence pailings etc. There is a bounty of challenging equipment, cubbies, boardwalks and tower structures offering opportunities for children to take some risks during play - creating a wonderful learning experience through exploration, trial and error and discovery.

Many modern playground designs seem to be cocooning children with unchallenging and mass produced plastic equipment, so it is refreshing to see a community build haphazard playground with plenty of personality and individuality on offer. The use of recycled materials / equipment throughout the playground adds to the unique environment and the welcoming local backyard atmosphere.

Stay tuned for more playground inspiration to come!

Photo: of a sign at Skinners Adventure Playground in South Melbourne on my site visit, showing photos of the evolution of the playground over the years through community efforts.