Como Park@South Yarra (My rating B)

Como Park is located on Alexandra Avenue, South Yarra.  The car park entry is via Como Avenue.  The park is an offleash park with playground, tables and benches, and toilet facilities.

The park is green and peaceful, with plenty of space for children to kick a ball, and dogs to run.  The park is also a home of many big trees, there would be no problem at all to find a shady place if the sun is burning hot.

The park isn't particularly wheelchair/pram friendly as it has stairs to go down to the oval.  And the other thing which isn't as good as the park itself is the toilets were a bit filthy when we were there on a Saturday morning. 

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)

 

Ballam Park@Frankston (my rating B)

Ballam Park in Frankston is a big offleash park.  It features 2 big adventurous playgrounds, a half basketball court, toilets, car park, etc.

It seems very appealing to me, but the kids didn't really enjoy the adventurous playgrounds, and because it's a such popular park, the basketball court was always in use.

But Jessica liked the park, she was quite active in this park, and wagging her tail, introducing herself to other park users.

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......

Ford Park@Bellfield (My Rating B)

Ford Park in Bellfield, a suburb in North-East Melbourne, 13km from CBD (about 30mins drive).  It's in Banyule City Council, offleash park.  (according to Banyule website, all parks in Banyule City are offleash, how good is that!)

2 big ovals, a small but nice playground, a basketball hoop and toilet facilities, plus trees and shades, and carpark, all make this park on my B list.

 

(Playground)

 

(Basketball Hoop)

 

(Oval on playground side)

 

(Oval on Basketball Hoop side)

 

(toilet)

Penders Park@Thornbury (My rating A)

I don't often rate a Playground / Park A, but Penders Park at Thornbury, oh, I've fallen in love with this park since the minute we arrived. 

The park is in Thornbury, inner Melbourne.  With ample carpark, you won't be a struggling to find a spot to park your car even in the most beautiful day.

The park offers you large grassy area, big trees (wonderful for a shade in a sunny day), a fenced playground for young children, an open playground for older children, a basketball court (yes, with 2 hoops), BBQ, rotunda, quite a number of benches and picnic tables, paved path for young children to ride bikes.  The park also provide the toilet facilities.

And Most of all, the entire park is offleash!!!!!!!!!!!!

The park doesn't have any sport ground / oval, thus there's no team sports / games expected.

The park is just toooooo good, we spent about 3 hours in the park, everyone got to do what 'perfect' Saturday afternoon means to them.

I was relaxing on the picnic rug, enjoying the sun, and the fresh smell of the grass, while the kids were busy between the balls and the playground. 

Because the park is situated on the local streets, there's no noise from heavy vehicles and trams / trains.

 

(Basketball Court)

 

(Open Playground)

 

(Fenced Playground)

 

(Rotunda)

 

(Paved Path)

JJ Holland Park@Kensington (My rating C)

JJ Holland Park is a big park with big offleash areas.  An advanced skatepark at the cnr of Kensington Rd and Childers St for intermediate players, a nice medium playground and basketball court at the other end of Childers St (near Ormond St).

The shared path gives young children a nice place to ride bike.

The only downside to me is the constant loud noise from nearby rail tracks.

 

(basket ball court next to the playground)

 

(playground)

 

(oval opposite the playground - offleash)

 

(Offleash areas - highlighted in yellow)

Special Post: DogParks-VIC Australia

I've just published a free Android App on Google Play called "DogParks-VIC Australia".  Feel free to download it to your Android Mobile Device if you have one.

The whole idea is to locate dog offleash (mainly) parks near you (based on GPS location).  The app can also show the entire dog offleash network,  Hope that will help you plan your adventure with your loved ones.

I'm still building up the list, consolidating the different info from local councils, visitor centres and Victoria Park.

I'm focusing on Melbourne Inner Suburbs and Other Cities in Victoria at the moment.  I guess people in rural and remote victoria areas aren't strict as long as your dog behaves.  However, I was told off (not by a civil servant, but by a tearoom lady) when we were holidaying at Silverton NSW (near broken hill).  Jessica was offleash exploring around in her graceful manner.  :-(


Anyway, hope you find the app handy.

Markham Park in Ashburton (my rating A)

My rating is A, especially in a sunny day.
Right beside Gardiner Creek Trail, a well paved bike track, it's an offleash park, with a large oval & a big & nice fenced 'adventurous' playground, toilet facilities.
Da & kee enjoyed the playground. Even though it was raining, they had fun. 
why not bring skates / skateboards there......

 

 

(Climbing Frame)

There is a small skate park next to the playground, and also a basketball hoop.

The skate park is very small and simple.  My kids only spent 3 mins there.

 (Skate Park and Basketball Hoop)