Tamborine Mountain Lions Park

Update: Revisting the Space 2 Years on

The Lions Park playground at Tamborine Mountain is a hidden gem for locals and visitors alike, with a stunning nature inspired playspace and shaded seating areas set amid towering gumtrees and extensive gardens.

Completed almost two years ago, we wanted to revisit this playspace to monitor the durability of the installed equipment and catch up with Matthew Creedy from Scenic Rim Regional Council on how the space is utilised by the public.

The distinctive grain of the hardwood logs has been lovingly polished to a high sheen by the hands and feet of children as they explore the surfaces.  This enhanced patina then becomes unique to every log and every environment as the community interacts with each element.

Matthew Creedy, Scenic Rim Regional Council

The plantings have grown to soften the hardscaping elements, adding a layer of sensory discovery to the play experience.  Having natural materials and textures available introduces an element of surprise to every visit; children never know what they’re going to find.  It could be gumnuts that have fallen from the surrounding gumtrees, bees visiting the neighbouring flowers or rainbow lorikeets calling from the branches.

The natural timbers have been a breeze to maintain, requiring an easy one-step re-coat every 12 months to maintain the timber protection.  The timbers look as good today as the day they were installed; I expect these to be a feature of the playspace for generations.

Matthew Creedy, Scenic Rim Regional Council

Original Project Profile

Lions Park voted one of QLD’s top playground developments at the 2019 QLD Parks & Leisure Awards!!

The Lions Park playground at Tamborine Mountain has been designed primarily with a nature focus but also to offer a variety of play elements to suit children of varying abilities so that all children can play together.

To complement the natural setting, Australian hardwood timbers set the tone for the play equipment from our Rustik range, with a number of net climbers, challenge trails and embankment scramble net providing varied play offerings promoting balance, coordination, upper body strength and motor skills.  The timber swing, complete with supportive all abilities inclusive seat stimulates the vestibular senses, and an embankment slide runs players down to the lower level where a stunning timber piece lovingly restored by the Lions Club provides an ultimate non-prescribed play opportunity.  Whether clambering over this fallen tree or simply tracing through the natural grooves of the tree trunk, this feature piece complements the main play elements perfectly.

Hand carved timber totems offer a sensory tactile experience and striking visual aesthetic to the playspace, and to complete the design, sandstone block walls provide informal pathways and seating between the landscaped plantings that soften the space and its interface back into the natural surrounds.

A collaboration between Tamborine Mountain Lions Club, QLD State Government and Scenic Rim Regional Council, , the park was a centennial project for Lions Club International and three years in the making.  Its proximity to the local state school and Goodstart Early Learning Centre meant that the design had to cater for a range of ages and abilities and has proven yet another success in Council’s goal of delivering healthy active lifestyle opportunities for its communities.

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