Find it at: Dove Street, Thebarton
Grab some picnic eats from George Street Foodland, Sushi from The Brickworks or a ridiculously good coffee from Mister Sunshine’s or The Deli, Thebarton all very near by, and hit up this little FENCED GEM that we discovered tucked away in the quieter streets Thebarton.
Dove Street Reserve has had a ‘do over’ and it’s looking great!
We LOVE a flying fox here at Kids in Adelaide and this one doesn’t disappoint. I’m calling it a ‘just right fox’ – not too crazy, not too lame and an absolute highlight for the bigger kids.
The fully fenced play area sits to the side of a lovely big grassed area complete with cute rotunda shelter and a path suitable for balance bikes or young scooter riders.
While there is no man made shades, the trees cast good coverage from the late afternoon sun.
Features we rated highly were seats INSIDE and outside of the fence, a drink fountain, tables and bbq’s (no shelter shed), bins, occasional plane spotting, 2 wobbly bridges, a small persons climbing wall, toilets RIGHT THERE, quiet street with easy parking, every thing was new and in working order too – that gets a tick.
A good choice of three swings, with a toddler seat, normal swing and one of those cool big round swings that the older kids can really get moving! Kids were perhaps a little underwhelmed at the functionality of the large rope worm structure (technical name?) but did enjoy just climbing and sitting on it.
We managed to make our selves nicely dizzy on the merry go round, and the two year old in our company enjoyed the new age spring sea saw. Speaking of toddlers – there is a small toddler slide – but design fail – the toddler steps appear to be on the mid sized slide and the little tackers get a hard to negotiate, high, three step lily pad type set up.
My four year old could manage most things here, with help on the flying fox and the exception of the very high monkey bars that even my super springy 8 year old couldn’t jump up to (sigh – prepare for lifting.)
There is a small web climb, a cool fireman’s pole and if bark chips were actually money we could all surely pay our mortgages thanks to City of West Torrens and I still doubt they would notice – ie; plentiful. Not every ones favourite surface, but a damn sight better than the asphalt we had as kids in some ways.
Completing the set up is a full sized basketball backboard and small playing surface/key, out side of the fence.
In all we love what they have done with this park and it is a welcome transformation from a couple of years ago. Plus did I mention how good the local coffees are? Mister Sunshines or The Deli – tell them Kids in Adelaide sent you!
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