Sandfield Reserve in Carrum Downs (my rating C)

Sandfield Reserve in Carrum Downs, belongs to Frankston City Council.  It's about 50mins drive from Melbourne City, via Eastlink.

Sandfield Reserve sounds like a good playground, it has interesting play equipments, a tennis wall, and basketball ring, a skate park, and offleash.

With high hope, and to celebrate Jessica's good recovering (she's been very sick for a month), we went to this park, for a picnic lunch and a few hours relax.

According to Council website, there's a community toilet nearby, but the only 'community' site is a primary school, and all the gates are locked..........

With no luck with toilet facilities, we decided not to have picnic in the park.

The kids  had a play in the skate park, looks like it's a popular skate park to the locals, it was certainly very busy while we were there.

The tennis wall and the basketball ring share a block, thus sort of 'exclusive OR' condition, either basketball or tennis.

It is an excellent park to the locals, but not for people like me who wishing to spend a good few hours in the park.

 

(skate park, basketball ring and tennis wall)

 

(skate park)

 

(playground)

 

JC Donath Reserve@Reservoir (My rating C)

JC Donath Park is a big park with sports ovals.  It has an average playground, and a skate park which in my opinion not suitable for beginners / intermediate uses.

Malahang Reserve@Heidelberg West (My Rating A)

Banyule is the most dog friendly city council in Inner Melbourne, from what I've researched so far!  All the parks are dog offleash (there're some common rules to apply, like consideration to sport games, wetlands, and playgrounds, etc).

Malahang Reserve is a big recreation park in Heidelberg West, the park features: Playground with wide range play equipments, basketball hoop, netball hoop, skate park, BMX dirt track, large Ovals, paved path, toilets, BBQ, carpark and OFFLEASH, of course!

It is a popular park, especially during school holidays and weekends.  But when we were there on a sunny Saturday, though the park was busy, the kids had great fun!

The only regret was the toilet wasn't clean enough, guess it was because too many visitors using the toilets......

Princes Gardens@Prahan (My rating D)

To be blunt , I was disappointed with this park, partially because I had such high expectation to this park, partially because this park doesn't really fit my wish list.

On the council website, this is a park with lots of facilities: playground, basketball court, skate park,  and offleash.

I don't mind a park that is surrounded by high rises, though it's not ideal.

The first thing that made me frown was the car parking.  I couldn't find anywhere to park.  The streets are narrow and busy.  We went around the park for a few time until I found the entry to 'offical' car park.

The 2nd thing that made me frown (again) was the sign "no cycling / skateboarding" (on the path).  I guess it applies to scooters too.

The 3rd thing that made me shake my head was when I see see basketball court............. THAT BUSY!!!!  It's almost impossible for the kids to throw a ball.

Then we came to the skate park area where is near the basketball court, the graffiti and the set up of the skate park especially the traffic going from different directions towards the middle made the kids say 'no no no'.......

The biggest dismay was when I had to use the toilet.  Yes, only 1 toilet room (unisex), so called hi-tech 'ex-loo', button controlled, but yuck!  I always try to stay away from 'ex-loo', because I've seen way to many failed 'design', but this one made its way to the top list of 'dirties ex-loo'................

The only good thing is the playground, nice one.

Sunbury Recreation Reserve@Sunbury (My Rating A)

 It's not easy for me to find a Skate Park that ticks off all my requirements, which says:
offleash, playground, grassy, children friendly (or beginner friendly, I should say), and toilets.

This one, Sunbury Recreation Reserve, I picked purely by judging the facts provided on Hume City Council website, is the ONE that ticks off all the requirements.

Sunbury is a suburb in Melbourne, near Melbourne Airport.  We went to this park after the walk at Woodlands Historic Park (just 15mins drive from Greenvale)

Big offleash grassy park with ample space for dogs to run.  2 nice playgrounds, one on each side of the bridge, toilets are near the playground near Aqua Centre.

The Skate Park which is suitable for all levels (looks like to me, coz my kids love it, and I see some big kids doing amazing tricks on their BMX bikes),  The BMX dirt track is just next to the Skate Park, featuring different ramps.  A patchy grassy area (under trees) near the Skate Park where I set up my picnic rug and made myself comfortable.

I knew this park to be on my A list when I heard the kids say "Mum, can we come to this park again?"

 

(My baby exploring)

 

(The playground that close to the Skate Park, the other one is even better)

 

(a Skate Ring)

 

(Ramp to the BMX dirt track)

 

(BMX dirt track)

 

(Skate Park)

 

(Skate Park)

See the blog entry of Woodlands Historic Park.

Western Reserve@Castlemaine (My rating C)

Castlemaine is about 1.5hrs drive from Melbourne City.

The Western Reserve at Castlemaine features a skate park.  The reserve itself is an offleash park.

We went to this skate park after visiting Maldon, on the way back to Melbourne.

The skate park is suitable for my kids, meaning, not too advanced, and doesn't scare my kids off.

 

(skatepark)

 

(skatepark)

 

(This is what my baby was doing while the kids were on the scooter)

We visited the Mt Tarrangower, Anzac Hill, Playground at Maldon while we were at Maldon.

Beach at Apollo Bay (between Apollo Bay and Marriners Lookout Road) (My Rating A)

Apollo Bay is about 3 hrs drive from Melbourne City.  It's the last stop on Great Ocean Road before the road goes inland.

The beach is awesome!  It doesn't have cliffs, thus we don't need to worry about falling rocks.

The beach between Apollo Bay and Marriners Lookout Road is offleash from May 1 to Dec 23.  And no dogs allowed from Dec 24 - Apr 30.  It makes Apollo Bay more appealing in non-summer time.

 

(Beach between Bay and Marriners Lookout Rd)

There's a very nice skate park and playground in Apollo Bay.  Don't forget to bring the scooters with you when you plan a holiday in Apollo Bay!