Playgrounds in Kings Park

Both playgrounds sit inside Kings Park, both are free with free parking, and both will get your kids wet. The difference is scale and age. Rio Tinto Naturescape Kings Park is the bigger commitment: a local guide describes six hectares of bushland threaded with accessible paths, bridges and boardwalks, plus a 40 metre Python climbing structure rising up to seven metres, with a cubby building area at the end. Reviewers keep coming back to the creek sections, and the same guide singles out the Paperbark waterhole, with logs to balance on and rocks to scramble over, warning that children will get wet and dirty. We'd put it at ages 4 to 12, though An Awesome Guide To Kings Park Playgrounds pitches it at 7 through to teens, which tells you the climbing is real.

Lycopod Island is the gentler, all-ages option. It sits out in the lake, with a fort to climb, a water feature, and replica lycopod trees that a local guide says represent some of the world's earliest trees; an early reviewer remembers trees that squirt water. The playground has a rubber mat base, so no sand to shake out of shoes afterwards. Ducks on the lake keep toddlers busy while older kids climb, and Zamia Cafe nearby hands out drawing materials for children. One caution from An Awesome Guide: the water around the island is open and unfenced, so small children need close watching.

Practicalities differ too. The Naturescape has no bins and doesn't allow picnics inside its boundary, and it isn't open every day, so check before you go. Lycopod Island can close without much online notice, and reviewers suggest pairing it with the woodland trails around May Drive Parkland, where the parking is.