Epping Reserve is a small landscaped park on Epping Road Double bay which allows pedestrian access from Epping Road to Kiaora Road.

Kioara Reserve is a roadside reserve stretching along Kiaora Road in Double Bay, about 200 metres from Epping Reserve. It is a popular pedestrian access way for locals of all ages and presents an opportunity for informal seating and play elements.

Our Play Space Strategy identified a need for an additional eight play spaces in our local area, however, there is limited available open space to create new traditional play spaces. We found that we could fulfil the need for more play spaces by adding unobtrusive play elements to an open space or small park such as such as Epping Reserve, which encourage exploring and experiencing nature and surrounds.

Epping Reserve and Kiaora Reserve are precious green spaces which can be used for play.

The Woollahra Play Space Strategy identifies the community desire for nature play (or unstructured play) areas. These areas are intended to encourage more children into the outdoors and away from forms of technology that have negative impact on a child’s physical development.

The Strategy also identifies the need for play spaces for younger children age 0-6 years in close proximity to their homes, and identifies a need for a variety of play equipment areas which include imaginative natural play areas which offer alternative play elements to other parks in the local area which may have more traditional play equipment.

The proposed play elements for Epping Reserve and Kiaora Reserve are designed to help to meet these needs.

They are intended to provide local families with nearby informal play opportunities as well as providing an informal socialising space for older children and added interest for people who walk through the reserves.

This project was identified as a high priority in the Play Space Strategy and has received an allocation of $150,000 in Council’s budget.

It is proposed to use recycled tree trunks and branches from Council’s tree removals to create the play elements where possible. A number of pieces of timber have been kept aside for this purpose.

The tree trunks and branches will be reimagined to become artistic and playful objects for the Reserves.

The elements within the proposed design are designed to feel interconnected and include a variety of timber play for children to move through the play elements. The two Reserves are easily accessible from one another and present an opportunity to add elements which work together.