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. 

Greenmeadows Gardens at St Kilda East (my rating B)

Greenmeadows Gardens is in St Kilda East, it's a small garden with a fantastic playground.

The garden is beautiful, relaxing and peaceful, the grass is very green and comfortable.  There's no oval in the garden, thus no ball games.  But the open grassy areas are big enough for kicking a ball.

The shared path is good for scooters and in-line skates.  Drinking taps are available in the park.  The toilet is the "Exceloo", the computerized toilet.  Unfortunately the toilet wasn't in a clean state when we were there in a Saturday afternoon.

According to the sign and the Council Website, the park offers offleash area at the northern end (i.e.: Not the end where the playground is) between 6am and 9am.  Dogs must be on-leash all other times.

I was not made aware of the offleash time restriction until it was time to pack up and ready to go (when I read the sign).  However, Jessica stayed on the picnic rug all the time, so technically we didn't break the rule.  But I did see dogs run offleash, sniffing and wandering around freely, and apparently nobody made a fuss.  Looks like it's a friendly neighborhood.

Dunns Rd Reserve@Mt Martha, Mornington Peninsular (my rating C)

I'm glad that I chose this park for today.  Within an-hour drive, we arrived at this park just before lunch.  Guess it was partially because of the weather (scatter showers with chance of thunderstorm), we were the only ones in the park.

A big shed with tables and benches is perfect to setup the 'base camp', in case of the rain.  Playground is not bad, about the average; large open grassy area is ideal for frisbee.

BBQ stoves, water tap, toilets, all these things make this park friendly. 

Along the walking path, there're fitness equipments for  people to use.

Next to the playground is a doggy playground (fenced up) with play equipments for them to enjoy.

 

(Open Grassy Area)

 

(Playground)

 

(Playground, the climbing frame in the distance)

 

(Shed with BBQ facilities)

  

(Doggie Playground)

 

(Walking Path, fitness stations along the path)

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)

 

Glen Park, Bayswater North (my rating B)

Glen Park in Bayswater North, about 40mins drive from Melbourne City, via M3 / Eastlink.

It's an offleash park, with a playground and toilet facilities, as well as tennis courts to public and a basketball court.  It has also a few fitness equipments near playground.

It is overall a nice park that can keep the kids busy for one or two hours.  My children loved the RAMP especially, they went round and round over the ramp in-line staking and scootering.

 

(RAMP close-shot)

 

(Ramp and Fitness Station)

 

(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.

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.

Hardy Gallagher Reserve@Princes Hill (my rating C)

Hardy Gallagher Rerserve is located near Princes Park and is on the Capital City Trail and within the Inner Circle Railway Linear Park.  It is an offleash park with a few unusual play equipments.

There's no toilet facilities on site, guess you may use the one in Neighbourhood Centre (next to the park).

This makes a nice rest spot if you ride a bike along Capital City Trail.

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)

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.