Spending time with my daughter these holidays, I decided to take her and my nephew to Weston Park. It was a favourite of mine as a child, and remember many a day exploring the treehouses, playing with the water park, riding the train and going in the hedgemaze. It was the best damn park in the whole of Canberra..
Well it isnt now.
The hedgemaze is long gone, with the cypress trees used to create the maze are a tangled mess. The train, which has not changed at all, is pityful. It labours through what looks like a tip. I swear I saw a shopping trolley dumped into what was supposed to be a lagoon. It is lucky a 2 and 6 year old are easily amused. It must be the whistle, becasue it wasnt the scenery!
The water park, lays bereft of water (water restrictions perhaps) lays unused. There are some new spiderweb type climbing things and a couple of swings, but nothing to write home about.
Where oh where have the treehouses gone? Another victim of OH&S gone mad? Yeah, i guess they could have been considered dangerous for those who didnt take care, but thats what made them FUN!
We promptly left and took the kids to Black Mountain Penisula. At least the park there has something that kids want to play on. Again, another favourite childhood haunt, and its still good. I miss the coppers log playground, but I know they pulled that down after a child died… but from what i recall, it wasnt as a result of the playground itself, but an underlying heart problem. Perhaps someone can enlighten us.
Does anyone else feel the parks in canberra have gone to pot? I didnt dare go and look in commonwealth park today while we walked around the lake for fear that my favourite park, made of stone has also gone the way of the others. I know there was talk of it being dismantled because it wasnt safe.
Has fear of lawsuits made our children’s playground become so banal and boring!!!?!?!