The Ponds Playground – Sydney’s Best Playgrounds

The Ponds playground is a terrific play space for children young and old. It makes a terrific place to meet up with family and friends for a picnic and a play.

the ponds playground slide swings
Bright modern equipment, great for the primary-aged kids
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The arty mirrors by the lake

The Ponds Playground

Address: Lakes Edge Park, Camomile St, The Ponds NSW 2769

The Ponds is a relatively new suburb of Sydney located in the North West, about 42km from the Sydney CBD.

It is home to some amazing shacks and apparently it is has the highest percentage of married people per suburb in Australia (thank you Mr Wikipedia for that fact). So it stands to reason if there are so many married people that there must be, as a result, quite a few offspring of those people living in The Ponds as well.

Hence why I presume a very cool new playground has been built right on the pond at The Ponds.

I took my 4yr old for a road test this week to see if the playground was really as good as I had heard it was, and from about 500m away I knew that it was.

The first thing I noticed was how brightly coloured it was, the colours really stand out against the subdued coloured homes that are across the street from it.

The location is also fantastic right next to the pond – actually it’s a lake, with ducks too!

A fabulous metal sculpture is rising out of the lake – metal reeds are grouped together to form a birds nest like installation.

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The parking for the playground is on the street. At 9.15am in the morning we scored a spot easily but I think later in the morning you may have to head to nearby streets to park your vehicle.

The playground is not completely secure, there is only a fence on the lake side, so you do need to be careful of little wanderers as the road and the lake are very close by.

Under the only shaded area in the playground, you will find the cute play area for smaller people. There is a little fort them to climb up as well as a small spider’s web. If they take a tumble the ground is covered in spongy soft fall – actually the whole playground is.

There is also a spinning disc that kids can spin by themselves or hop in to and be spun around.

There are park seats located around the playground as well as a couple of undercover seating areas where you can sit back and watch your kidlets at play.

Bigger kids will love climbing up the tall climbing frame and sliding down the tubular slide from the top.

Now my 4 year old is a bit of a safety Sam like his mother, he doesn’t like heights (poor kid has probably heard me say too many times don’t go up there cause I ain’t coming to get you!).

So when it came to climbing up the ropes to the slippery slide he only made it half way up before he baulked and started to climb back down again. However I’m sure big kids will have great fun scrambling to the top and sliding straight down numerous times over.

There are of course swings – one has a safety seat for little ones and the other is suitable for older ages. Plus there is the awesome arc swing where kids of all ages will love being pushed high or low, slow or fast, depending on their “feardar”. (That’s my term for a child’s/Mother’s fear radar).

Toilets: Of course the inevitable “Mum I need to wee” had to happen but this time it was me and not he that needed to go. I could see some loo like structures on the far side of the lake and after consulting a lovely Mumma in the playground to make sure that’s where they were, we headed off.

They are a wee bit of a hike (pardon the pun) from the playground so if you have a busting toddler or if you are like me and suffer from a bit of pelvic floor damage due to something called giving birth, then you will find this quite annoying!

I waddled around the boardwalk as the 4yr old bolted off in front of me and up the knoll to the loos.

Along the way I spotted some decent looking picnic shelters complete with BBQs.

I’ve since discovered that this area is called the Lake’s Edge Park and besides the picnic shelters and loos there is also loads of green space for kids to run around, fly a kite and kick a ball.

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After our pitstop, we had a most pleasant wander around the rest of the lake. Directly across from the playground on the other side of the lake are some fascinating mirrored sculptures that reflect images of the water and its surrounds. There are lovely messages written on them talking about the dream time.

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As you keep walking around the lake you get better views of the birds nest in the middle of the water and we also found some swans swanning around looking as serene as ever.

There are loads of different spots to feed the ducks but you actually probably shouldn’t feed them your stale bread as it is bad for them. Some barley, cracked wheat or bird seed would probably be best.

By the time we got back to the playground it was heaving with gorgeous little tackers, so we decided to leave in search of morning tea.

Cafes/coffee:  There are plans for a café/community centre to be built next to the playground so if this happens it will be brilliant. Until then your closest choices are the cafes in Stanhope Village shopping centre (a 7 minute drive) with our favourite being the Leaf Café.

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The Ponds Playground Map


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Best Cafes Beside Playgrounds

Do pop over to visit Rebecca at  Little Munch, it really is a fab blog about eating out with kids in Sydney. 

Rebecca is on Facebook at Little Munch here.

The Ponds playground looks great?

Love those sculptures!

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4 Comments

  1. says: S

    Please don’t feed the ducks. Human food is bad for ducks and makes them sick. It makes them expect food from people, and stop eating their natural food. It also makes them aggressive. Wildlife should not be fed. Look at them and enjoy their natural behaviours.

  2. says: alana

    My 2 and a half year old couldn’t climb the ropes so instead climbed the slide on a busy Saturday afternoon. Slide has since been named the slide of death. Still not sure whos, mine for the heart attack and yelling or master 2 for doing it!

    1. says: Seana Smith

      He sounds like a fiesty young fellow, I bet you have a lot of daring escapades and tricky moments. Do you think the whole playground would be better for older kids in general??

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