Local students gave the green light to the design for a new playground that will be built at Whenua-roa/ D’Oyly Reserve next year.
Families often make use of the playground on the way to and from Stanmore Bay School but with some equipment broken, and the old playground due for renewal through the Hibiscus and Bays Local Board work programme, it was time to call on the expertise of local students.
Local Board Chair Gary Brown says students gave great feedback, and their efforts really helped shape the redesign.
“With the aid of 145 consultation responses from local families and input from Stanmore Bay School’s Year 5 and 6 students, the playground will be bigger, and include new equipment, with the top three equipment choices being a climbing module, swings and slides.”
The playground is designed for those up to 12 years of age and comes complete with a play area for Taonga Takaro, a traditional Māori game where players jump as high as they can while catching an opponent landing in the same space as themselves.
The area’s larger footprint also has plenty of space for social and creative play, while other features include:
- swings and a rocker
- the old playground’s spinner relocated
- a roll runner and space planets
- a climbing unit with slides, platforms and ropes
- a wavy monkey bar, spider glider and tunnel net
- a netball hoop (also relocated from old playground)
- balancing logs, a planted maze and landscaping
- a concrete path to connect to the existing path network.
Construction on the $280,000 project is expected to start in March, depending on the tender process and building material availability.
It is also the first park to have bilingual signage installed onsite with dual Māori and English names - Whenua-roa / D’Oyly Reserve. Whenua-roa is a traditional name for this area provided by mana whenua and means long stretch of land.
As part of Auckland Council’s Te Kete Rukuruku programme, launched five years ago, the local board has adopted Māori names to sit alongside the English names, for 21 parks and more parks will be included later this year. Other signage will be changed over time to reflect the dual names, but only as it gets old and is due for replacement.
The programme sees local boards partnering with iwi to share Tāmaki Makaurau / Auckland’s unique Māori stories by adding names and the meaning behind them to local sites.
