If you’re like most parents, the first thing you consider when planning a trip is the number of things to do with your kids while you’re away.
Playgrounds are a fantastic way for children of all ages to have fun, burn off excess energy, and practise physical coordination.
Use this list of Australia’s best public playgrounds to help plan your next trip away.
16 of Australia's Most Amazing Playgrounds
10. Kingston Park Playground, Tasmania
11. Wittunga Botanic Garden Nature Playspace, South Australia
12. Sun Valley Regional Playspace, New South Wales
13. Bicentennial Park Play Space, Northern Territory
14. Bibra Lake Regional Playground, Western Australia
15. Monash Adventure Park, South Australia
The Pod Playground, ACT
Set inside the forested grounds of Canberra’s National Arboretum, the Pod Playground is designed to tap into children’s adventurous fantasies. With giant acorn cubbies, nest swings, and banksia pods, children can broaden their imaginations and create a form of play that focuses on their creativity.
If you’re staying at Capital Country Holiday Park, the Pod Playground is a 25-minute drive away, the perfect place for an afternoon of fun—that's also free!
Braithwaite Park Nature Play, Western Australia
While most playgrounds are designed for young children, Braithwaite Park Nature Play is designed specifically for children aged 10–14.
Only a short drive from Karrinyup Waters Resort, Braithwaite Park Nature Play has a flying fox and elevated climbing net to provide challenge and risk for older children. It’s a whole lot of fun for everyone!
Saltwater Coast Crocodile Playground, Victoria
Located around 30 minutes south of Discovery Parks - Melbourne, Saltwater Coast Crocodile Playground is one of Australia’s favourite public playgrounds.
Built around artificial lakes, decking, and boardwalks, Saltwater Coast Crocodile Playground feels like a beachside resort, with soft white sand, streams of water flowing around stepping stones, wooden lookout platforms, rope bridges, and a friendly crocodile feature.
Flagstone Adventure Park, Queensland
South of Brisbane, Flagstone Adventure Park boasts sky-high towers and slides, in-ground trampolines, swings, flying foxes, a toddler play space, sporting areas, and much more. If you’re staying at Brisbane Holiday Village, it’s a 35-minute drive away.
The park’s centrepiece is a multi-coloured tower standing 11 metres high that connects to four different slides via bridges, ladders, cabins, and climbing webs.
Part of the 10-hectare Flagstone Regional Park, the adventure playground is one of the largest in Southeast Queensland and is a must-visit for any family holidaying near Brisbane.
St Kilda Adventure Playground, South Australia
Designed with every child, teenager, and adult in mind, St Kilda Adventure Playground is among Australia’s favourite (and oldest) playgrounds.
If you’re staying at Discovery Parks - Adelaide Beachfront, the playground is only a 20-minute drive away, and spending the afternoon there is one of Adelaide’s best family-friendly activities.
Located on the seaside in St Kilda, the playground boasts swings, giant slides, climbing nets, a flying fox, a pirate shipwreck, and a sunken maze.
Royal Park Nature Play Playground, Victoria
Previously voted the best playground in the country, it’s easy to see why the Royal Park Nature Play Playground in Melbourne makes our list. Especially when you’re staying at Discovery Parks - Melbourne, it’s one of the best family-friendly things to do near the city.
The playground incorporates elements of nature to inspire creativity and curiosity in children of all ages, including high rope traverses, a large climbing area, a water play area, slides, and swings.
Image Credit: Busselton Lazy Days Caravan Park
Busselton Foreshore – Sea Play on the Bay, Western Australia
Ahoy mateys! Headlined by its sideways-leaning shipwreck, Busselton Foreshore’s nautical-themed Sea Play on the Bay has lots to climb and stretch the imagination.
Whether they’re playing pretend as pirates and sailors or enjoying water play on the hand-operated pump, it’s everything your kids could ask for. A sensory-rich Toddlers Playspace is a short walk away, including an old carriage and ‘ganger’ trolley.
It’s ideal to package in with your trip to the iconic Busselton Jetty, and Busselton Lazy Days Caravan Park is only a ten-minute drive away!
Darling Quarter, New South Wales
Renowned as one of the best in the country, Darling Quarter playground is a bustling, colourful, and exciting place that combines artful form with function.
Make memories that last a lifetime as you explore with your kids, feel your heart race as you try to keep up, or choose to relax on the sidelines! We recommend staying at Discovery Parks - Lane Cove.
All Abilities Playground, Queensland
Located on the waterfront in Hervey Bay, this All Abilities Playground is only a five-minute drive from Fraser Coast Holiday Park.
As the name suggests, this playground is suitable for children of all ages and abilities. Boasting seven-metre-high sky towers, a giant spider web, slides, swings, and much more, you definitely don’t want to miss this on your next family trip to the Fraser Coast.
Image Credit: Kingsborough Council
Kingston Park Playground, Tasmania
Kingston Park Playground embraces its local roots, reflecting Tassie’s flora and fauna in its slides, swings, ropes, sensory garden, and more.
Just over half an hour away from Discovery Parks - Mornington Hobart, the park has different zones designed for varying age groups – from babies to teenagers – so there’s no family that can’t have fun!
The Rock Pool Water Play area is a highlight, with its huge urchin climbing structure, plus you’ll find BBQ facilities, courts for ball games, and a pump track.
Image Credit: Kids in Adelaide
Wittunga Botanic Garden Nature Playspace, South Australia
Kids will be enchanted by the nature-themed playspace at the delightful Wittunga Botanic Garden, which celebrates Aboriginal culture and the land’s Kaurna heritage.
Inspired by the garden, the apparatus includes huge plant-inspired climbing frames, a ribbed musical frog, a traditional wodli (house), a basket swing, and a log scramble. A dry billabong is perfect for loose parts play with reeds, rocks, and pebbles, and the park has an in-ground wheelchair trampoline so that every child can come to play.
Best of all, it’s only a ten-minute drive away from Belair National Park Holiday Park.
Image Credit: Playground Centre
Sun Valley Regional Playspace, New South Wales
For those travelling to the Central Coast, the Sun Valley Regional Playspace is a wonderful excursion for families. The double flying fox will have kids eagerly taking turns to fly, before they tackle the colourful rope climbing towers.
The playspace has BBQ and picnic facilities, as well as courts for kids to practise their basketball and netball skills.
Why not stop in on your way to Dunleith Tourist Park, which is just half an hour north?
Image Credit: City of Darwin
Bicentennial Park Play Space, Northern Territory
In the heart of Darwin, only fifteen minutes from Discovery Parks - Darwin, you will find the Bicentennial Park Play Space on the Esplanade. Children can scale the Giant Spacenet and descend via a slide—after which they’ll undoubtedly want to start all over again!
Featuring playground classics like swings, slides, a flying fox, and a water play area, it’s a great spot for a lunchtime picnic (with shaded seating areas to escape the top end sun).
Image Credit: Play in WA
Bibra Lake Regional Playground, Western Australia
Learn as you play at Bibra Lake Regional Playground. This accessible lakeside playground is a nature haven, featuring a twisting and turning slide, treetop rope walk, sandpit, water play area, rope obstacle course, in-ground trampolines, and a double flying fox. The climbing frames, cubby houses, and tunnels are inspired by Aboriginal people and their history, along with giant talking rocks that tell local Nyungar stories.
Fremantle Village is a mere ten minutes away, so enter through the butterfly-adorned gate and watch your kids explore.
Image Credit: South Australian Tourism Commission/James Knowler
Monash Adventure Park, South Australia
Forget Pisa—check out the leaning towers of Monash! These green and yellow beauties will have your kids climbing for hours. Along with play structures, rope bridges, slides, and swings, there’s a wooden maze for kids to solve that leads to a mini playground at its centre.
Add extra play into your riverside getaway when you stay at Discovery Parks - Lake Bonney, less than a quarter of an hour away.
Image Credit: City of Launceston
Riverbend Park, Tasmania
At Riverbend Park, kids can clamber over the bespoke ‘confluence net’, swing on nest seats, explore tunnels, and look over Launceston from the heights of the Sky Walk.
From a fenced play area for toddlers to the heights of the Sky Walk and confluence net – two of the biggest pieces of play equipment in the country – not to mention accessible offerings like a wheelchair carousel, this park welcomes all ages and is only fifteen minutes away from Discovery Parks - Hadspen.
From nature-inspired playgrounds to beautifully restored epics, which one of these family-favourite playgrounds will you visit first?
Make sure to book your stay at G’day Parks—Australia’s largest network of holiday parks.
