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Creating Stanley Park North Play Space

One-of-a-kind play space

Stanley Park North is a one-of-a-kind play space recently developed in Harcourt, a major apple-growing town in Victoria. The new space provides families and children with an engaging destination to have some serious fun!

The vision for this space was to create an amazing and exciting play area for the local community that was reflective of Harcourt’s culture and history. Bringing this vision to life was an incredible collective effort in which adventure+ was excited to play a key role. 

adventure+ was engaged by Mount Alexander Shire Council to create the central pieces of play equipment in the space. As a local Australian manufacturer, we worked closely with local landscape architects, Karoline Klein and Justine Image, to create a unique play tower and other equipment that suited their vision perfectly.

Watch key project contributors Karoline Klein, Justine Image, and Kim Whitehouse speak about the thought behind the space.

Play tower design

With a six-metre play tower incorporating a thrilling ten-metre slide, the play space at Stanley Park North cannot be missed. Incidentally, at the top of the tower, there’s an excellent viewing platform to enjoy views of Mount Alexander and the surrounding area. The beauty of the tower design is that it can easily be accessed by adults as well as children.

The tower is designed with a nod of appreciation towards Harcourt’s rich fruit-growing history. In fact, the inspiration for the play equipment design is traditional apple crates! While timber paneling on the tower reflects the conventional apple crates, engraved plastic panels reflect the modern crates used today. More finer details on the tower, such as the apple motifs engraved into the plastic and perforated sheet metal, as well as the apple names inscribed into the timber paneling, create a connection to the rich fruit growing history.

Nestled among beautiful established trees, the design called for careful colour selection. Including timber in the structure provided a natural feel, while the brightly coloured steel and slide ups the fun and lively vibes.

Creating Stanley Park North Play Space
Nestled among beautiful established trees, the design called for careful colour selection.

Like many projects, the landscape architects faced the challenge of achieving something unique and special while meeting budget requirements. Thankfully, the adventure+ customised modular system helped get a perfect balance. The landscape architects were given the freedom to express their creative flair by changing materials, components, and other design elements, while maintaining a standardised structure that is key to an economical and Standards compliant outcome.

Not game enough to try climb the tower? There’s also plenty of other play equipment to enjoy, including a Gyro multidirectional swing, community swing, and multi-user rocker.

Manufacturing & installation process

Thanks to the adventure+ tried and tested modular system, the on-site construction took only three days to complete. This process allows virtually all the fabrication to be completed even before installation begins on-site. As well as saving time, this also greatly reduces the overall cost compared to custom-built, bespoke playgrounds.

To view the three days’ work in under two minutes, check out our time-lapse.

Apart from the design itself, the installation process saw additional features unique to the project. Due to the indigenous heritage in the area, non-destructive excavation was required for all play equipment footings.

It was great working with the Mount Alexander Council and landscape architects throughout the whole process.

Peter Kelsey, adventure+ project manager

The adventure+ project manager was Peter Kelsey, who noted that the unique components to this project added a touch of extra interest to the project management phase. However, he says “The play tower and other equipment installation was completed smoothly. Our 35 years of experience in this field, the use of a safe and innovative Australian-manufactured modular system, plus the choice of experienced contractors, are all key elements of our successful and efficient play equipment installations.”

He added that the methodology aims to minimise the time spent on-site – in this case, around three days.

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