In June 2018, I had the privilege of visiting South Australia’s newest natural play space – Mukanthi at the Morialta Conservation Park, just outside Adelaide. It is a beautiful example of what happens when children are actively involved in the design.

As with all sector leading practice, it’s the attention to detail and the subtleties of the design that lift the place into that “above and beyond” realm of heaven.

If you look at the photos above, the attention to detail can be seen. There are choices in how to cross the creek. The higgledy piggledy nature of the logs provide lots of choice about how to climb up them. This sort of thing can keep a very young child busy for a very long time.

However the playground is truly an all ages playground. Loads of adults were joining in the fun of climbing, sliding and clambering around. The slide above in the Eagles Nest feature is steep and fast. Some of the ways up the tower are not for the feint-hearted.

The playground includes a natural creek within the Frog Island feature. This may not seem remarkable, but most playgrounds tend to sit alongside a place like this (often with a fence to provide a barrier) rather than integrate the natural space into the play space elements. So moving into wilder space is a normal part of the process.

This has been achieved with remarkable success. One challenge many national park playgrounds have is to encourage children and families to move beyond the playground during a day out.

The space and range of features and the integration of the creek and the access to the playspace from all side – no boundaries or barriers – means that the wilder areas are calling…

With Frog Island there is a pathway with lots of dens – the framework is provided and then there’s lots of branches around to add to these. This is a quieter area, with spaces to hide and be alone.

One of my favourite features were these play posts. They were dotted around and between the five main sites. The idea is that you can use them for building dens. However they are strong enough to support children playing on them in a multitude of ways.

The other area I loved was the Giant Boulders – three lumpy outcrops that provided bouldering for all ages.

Mollie, in the photo below is a particularly able 8yr old climber, with rock climbing parents.

Her five-year old brother, Lewis, is equally challenged in another part of the play area. (NB Check out the lizard on the rock. All around the park were beautiful designs to be found, including a hand print… )

The snake is the fourth play area. It is huge and 100% playable inside and out. Below is the dry creek leading up to the snake. It feels like the giant snake has shed its skin…

It adds depth and scale to the snake area.

The snake even has  a climbable head…

And an amazing body which can be walked along…

Or you can go into the snake and climb it from the inside as well as the outside…

It’s almost circular so children who like the option to move under, though, over and round and round can be happily absorbed in the options here for hours on end.

The fifth and final play area is the Kookaburra’s Nests. I’ve seen quite a few examples of nests in playgrounds and to be honest, most bore me senseless and are not used much by visiting children.

These nests are refreshingly different. To begin with, they are not always easy to climb up. Here’s Mollie using the pole to access the nest.

You can climb around the outside of the nests…

Or you can balance and hang out on top of the nests – each one is different inside.

The nests are all connected by this old fallen tree that was in the park. The materials were not transported long distances. Local wood was used.

Nearby was this quirky climbing frame…

Mukanthi Playground was created by Simon Hutchinson of The Climbing Tree playground design company. Although he’s created lots of school playgrounds, this is his first public playspace. I think it is quite a startlingly powerful achievement that will establish his reputation, not just in Australia but far beyond. I blogged about his natural pop up play area recently.

Finally, do watch the video for a short introduction to Mukanthi. There’s a couple of other videos that can also be found on YouTube but I liked this one the best.

If you do visit, remember to being snacks and drinks. There’s no nearby shop or cafe which means everyone focuses on the play 🙂 and the place is litter-free.

Since this original blog post was published in August 2018, this playground has won several awards. I’m not surprised. It’s one of the best I’ve ever visited. I wish the UK invest in playgrounds in the way that Australia does especially as they are all free and provide families with hours of fun in natural spaces, engaging with the world around them. Is this really too much to ask?