West Epping's New Family Park and Play Space.
On Saturday 24th of March, 2018
City of Parramatta hosted an opening party for the newly transformed
West Epping Park, and as roving reporter for
Sydney Mums Group, I couldn't resist visiting the new facilities with my son.
Epping's popularity as a family-friendly suburb has grown in recent years, much like it's neighbouring suburbs of Eastwood and
Ryde. Gradually, I've seen green spaces in the area renovated to include attractive leisure and play facilities for locals, but on seeing what council have done with West Epping Park, this is the type of outdoor complex the neighbourhood has been waiting for.
On Sunday morning, the parklands were abuzz with activity from club soccer games to families out and about with their little ones, excitedly sampling the new and varied play equipment, with varying degrees of difficulty.
My five-year-old loved the challenging
climbing frame and
lighting-fast slide but was not as interested in other equipment which was tailored to younger children (2 - 4 years of age). For the slightly older kids (early primary and upwards), there are also
skate park facilities with ramps for scooters and skate boards. Another great addition to the space is a
level bike path around the outskirts of the park, so siblings can keep themselves entertained while their big brothers and sisters are playing club comp soccer or cricket on the sports fields.
Another big plus for the park is
ample parking adjacent, and
BBQ facilities with covered picnic tables and plenty of
FREE water stations around the park.
Not so great, and a little bit of a mystery quite frankly, is that there are no dedicated toilet facilities as yet, though there are plans to install a toilet block. Being a new green space, the tree cover is also in its infancy, so you will need to slip, slop, slap on sunny days. This is the same as with another new park not too far from Epping -
Elouera Reserve in Macquarie Park - it's a tops park for kids to play but the basic facilities could be improved.
So apart from those cons, there are many pros and this is a list of
West Epping Park's facilities:
Synthetic soccer and cricket fields (and practice nets);
YMCA facility adjacent to the park;
'Street'-style skate area;
Level bike path around the park;
Well-equipped playground including swings, adventure slides of differing heights (for different ages) and climbing ropes leading up to a high slide;
FREE water re-fill stations
BBQ facilities and shaded picnic tables and
Uncovered seating areas with views of the playground.
If I were a barista living in the area, I would definitely be setting up a pop-up coffee stand on weekday and weekend mornings but for now, mums, you'll need to BYO coffee and picnic snacks for the kids. This is a great place to catch up with your neighbours and other mums with kids, and hopefully the facilities and the tree-coverage will only get better with time.
Are you a local to the Epping area? What do you think of West Epping Park? Please feel free to
Join the Conversation and leave a comment...
#Family Friendly
#North West Sydney
#Playgrounds
#Outdoors
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