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    The Top Family Activities and Playgrounds in the Ballarat City Council Region



    The Ballarat City council region is located about one and a half hours drive north-west from Melbourne, and includes Ballarat and its suburbs plus the towns of Buninyong, Learmonth, Miners Rest, Mount Clear and Mount Helen. Ballarat, with a population of 107,000, is the largest inland city in Victoria.

    The region has a rich gold mining history and Sovereign Hill, a recreated goldfields township, is an iconic attraction to experience and learn more about life during the times of the gold rush. Pan for gold, take a ride in a horse drawn carriage, watch craftsmen at work, go underground in a mine or watch demonstrations and performances staged across the 25 hectare site. At night, the site hosts a sound-and-light spectacular.

    The extensive Ballarat Botanic Gardens, which cover 40 hectares of gardens on the banks of Lake Wendouree have lots of interesting exhibits. Ballarat Wildlife Park is another highlight with a chance to interact with native animals.

    Kryal Castle, which is located just outside Ballarat, is a replica medieval castle with a range of medieval themed activities including jousting.

    A map of the region is:

    Map boundaries Ballarat City

    The best playgrounds in this region are:

    Ballarat East

    Eureka Playground, Ballarat East

    Eureka Playground, Ballarat East

    Located next to the Eureka Centre. Large wooden playground with a Eureka Stockade theme which is complete with wooden troopers standing guard. There are lots of ramps going in all directions, very high slightly slanted climbing wall, disks on a vertical pole, panels, two wave slides of different heights, full size wooden statue of a horse laying on the ground, wooden dray, lots of equipment to make different sounds, tunnels, interesting tic-tac-toe and chain ladder. See-saw and swings without safety chain.

    Located in a big park with a shelter containing BBQs and tables, large pond with ducks plus shaded tables and seats. Water tap.

    Lake Wendouree (Ballarat)

    Windmill Drive Adventure Playground, Lake Wendouree

    Windmill Drive Adventure Playground, Lake Wendouree

    Large wooden adventure playground with great range of levels, nooks and crannies. Plenty of narrow corridors, traverses, tic-tac-toe, walkways, balance beams and slides (tunnel and wave) plus monkey rungs, flying fox, sandpit and eight swings (only a few with safety chains). Liberty swing.

    An area next to the playground has shaded and unshaded tables, shelter with BBQ and water tap.

    Indigenous Playspace, Lake Wendouree

    Indigenous Playspace, Lake Wendouree

    A lovely playspace with indigenous themes throughout, Beautiful features include mosaic animals in the path, eagles flying above on poles, big wooden platypus, little sandpit, stories on information boards such as Bunjil the Eagle and Baarlijan the Platypus. Some lovely unusual musical instruments, wooden seats and more modern (dare I say garish) orange slide plus swings.

    Around this area are plenty of tables with some shade. 100m away is a huge shelter with BBQs, table and plenty of seats around the outside. There is a great adventure playground close by.

    Lucas (Ballarat)

    Lucas Central Park Playground, Lucas

    Lucas Central Park Playground, Lucas

    A two-tower structure connected by a high rope bridge with a large tunnel slide starting at the top of one of the towers. The playground also has a double flying fox with disk seats, agility trail, wizard's hideaway hut, boulder climbing wall, jumbled log climbing area and spinning four arm swing. The park also includes a series of wetlands, shaded BBQ area, shaded picnic tables, toilets, mixed-use basketball / netball / soccer court and an AFL sized multi purpose oval.

    Newington (Ballarat)

    Livvis Place Playground, Newington

    Livvis Place Playground, Newington

    A super play space which provides all abilities access to all the play equipment with a wide range of play elements including a water play space. Play items include a large sandy area with five swings including a birds nest swing, fun rope cone on a spinning disk, lotus leaf spinner with hand wheel, large family sized see-saw, spinning stand-up carousel, vertical logs with climbing holds, logs of different heights to jump across, digger, surfboard springer, sand play equipment, an elevated sandpit, huge striking wooden structure set in sand, some lovely musical instruments to make music, a significant play structure in sand with four swings and a birds nest swing and a flying fox with a disk seat and another with a harness seat.

    In the corner is a water play area with water spray, some water play tables with various metal taps, sprays and valves and a large concrete area cut with channels which the water flows along. There are little metal flappers which can be used to control the channels which the water flows down.

    The play elements are centred around an oval grassy area with shelters containing tables and BBQs on the edge. Near the entrance are toilets and water taps. There are more shelters with tables and BBQs in the huge grassy park outside the fenced area.

    The best skate park in the region is Ballarat Skatepark.

    Ballarat Skatepark

    One of the best street and bowl courses you will find in Victoria. The park contains two bowls, spine, great fun box, flat bars, fun channel, euro gap and vert extension. There is also a little beginners section away from the main area.

    Other skateparks in the region are Ballarat Civic Skatepark, Ballarat Skatepark (Wendouree), Ballarat Skatepark (Delacombe), Sebastopol Skatepark, Buninyong Skatepark and Learmonth Skatepark.

    The best BMX track in the region is Sebastopol BMX Track

    Sebastopol BMX Track

    A huge track located in the Marty Busch reserve with concrete starting area, four big banked turns and about 30 jumps of various heights and width.

    Reviews of all playgrounds, Skateparks and BMX Tracks in the Ballarat City council region are here:

    Family activities in Ballarat region include:
    Ballarat Wildlife Park

    Sovereign Hill

    Gold Rush Mini Golf

    Ballarat Botanic Gardens

    Golf City Indoor Mini Golf

    Eureka Outdoor Aquatic Centre

    • Midlands Reserve Water Play Park (Features water cannons, fountains, high pressure jets, a 260 litre-per-minute waterfall, soaking buckets, water umbrella, a five metre high tower and a gentle play area for toddlers)
    Midlands Reserve Water Play Park

    • Ballarat Indoor Go Karts and Laserforce (Offers indoor go-karts and Laser tag)
    • Black Hill Outdoor Aquatic Centre (Solar heated 25m outdoor pool, diving board, toddlers pool, BBQ and picnic facilities)
    • Black Hill Mountain Bike Park (Located at the Black Hill Reserve with six cross country trails, four downhill trails, two pump tracks, skills area and advanced jump park.)
    • Brown Hill Outdoor Aquatic Centre (30m unheated pool, toddlers pool, water slide, BBQ and picnic facilities)
    • Lake Wendouree (There are playgrounds, picnic areas and BBQ facilities around the lake while lake-side cafes and restaurants provide welcome stops from walks by the lake. There is a 6km scenic track around the lake is named after the local marathon Olympian, Steve Moneghetti. Activities on the lake include rowing, canoeing, sailing and fishing - the lake is stocked with 90,000 rainbow trout)
    • James Egan Gallery (Galleries and a working artist studio featuring 1000 totally unique paintings in Addington. All paintings are for sale)
    • Learmonth Trout and Fauna Park (Enjoy the fauna and catch trout or yabbies)
    • Buninyong Blueberry Farm (Buy delicious fresh blueberries direct from the shed door or pick-your-own)
    • Buninyong Parkour Park (Parkour area with a skate park, BMX track and basketball court close by)
    • Buninyong Botanic Gardens (A pleasant place to have a picnic or short walk with a playground and some historical areas)
    Buninyong Botanic Gardens

    Sebastopol Water Play Park

    A YouTube playlist of family activities in Ballarat is here:

    Web Links


    → www.ballarat.vic.gov.au


    The Top Family Activities and Playgrounds in the Ballarat City Council Region, Ballarat, Victoria, 3350