New play ideas could be as easy as falling off a log

Jacquelyn Collins is a woman on a mission – to make children’s play more adventurous and less managed.

The Auckland Council play-advocacy adviser is asking local boards across the city to support a new approach, and says Devonport already boasts good examples.

These include swings on street trees, tree houses and opportunities for children to climb and jump in public spaces.

Encouraging children to play freely is a good thing, she says.

It also keeps them engaged in play longer, whereas older children soon outgrow most standard council playgrounds.

Introducing traditional Māori play elements into public parks is another idea she supports to engage people in having fun and being active.

Collins says leaving the likes of a fallen tree to climb on in a council reserve is another example of the sort of lower-cost option she has been trialling, albeit with the tree trimmed for safety’s sake. This was being piloted elsewhere on the North Shore, she told the Devonport-Takapuna Local Board at a workshop last month.

Collins would like the design of public spaces to be done in a way that children can enjoy.

The area outside Devonport library, provided a fine example of how this could be done, she said, with a sculpture of Benjamin, the late library cat, being something that would draw children’s attention and the seating nearby robust enough to be climbed and walked on.

Another example was in Sunnynook, where a community project had painted

Branching out... Some of the driftwood piled up recently in Windsor Reserve would seem to fit the bill for the kinds of low-cost options advocated by council play advisor Jacquelyn Collins hopscotch squares on a footpath, using te reo to denote numbers.

Other more ambitious ideas she wants to encourage include ‘play streets’ where, with the approval of authorities, streets are temporarily closed and games and activities, set up to encourage community get-togethers.

The concept was successfully trialled in 2021, with guidelines from Waka Kotahi, and Auckland Transport is looking into further pilots.

Board members praised Collins for her enthusiasm and expressed interest in some of the ideas.

But they questioned whether play streets might be costly because of transport-management requirements.

Board member Mel Powell also encouraged Collins to look at how various non-Western cultures liked to play to see if this was another opportunity to add diverse appeal.

It was agreed that Collins would come back to the board later in the year to talk about more opportunities in its area.

The board wanted a clear understanding of who would do any work it authorised in local parks.

Domain eyed for Maori style of play

The Devonport Domain playground opposite Torpedo Bay is a likely candidate for more Ma-ori play elements.

Devonport-Takapuna Local Board chair Toni van Tonder says the site is important to iwi, having once been the location of a papaka-inga, and they will be consulted in efforts to restart a stalled project to renew old play equipment.

The location would be a great opportunity to host equipment with a kaupapa, she said.

“The nice thing about traditional Maori play is it’s about ways to challenge – to balance, leap and climb to get strength and skill.”

Because the site requires archaeological supervision, a ‘no dig’ approach will likely be adopted there, she says. This is similar to what occurs on local maunga, which are under Tu-puna Maunga Authority (TMA)management. “They use screw piles, rather than digging in posts, so they can be screwed out again.”

Devonport Domain the likely site of new play style

Van Tonder, who is on the TMA board, wants to improve local-board relationships with local iwi. Board staff have previously indicated a poor relationship has been a reason for lack of progress in getting work at the domain, and some other sensitive sites, underway.

The condition of the popular playground, especially the foundations of its climbing equipment, has been raised at the board several times in the last few years.