Frew Park seem to have sprung from the imagination of a mad genius with an endless supply of concrete, steel, rubber and chutzpah. It occupies the park next to the Roy Emerson Tennis Centre in Milton, which itself was once the Milton Tennis Centre, scene of major tournaments and rock concerts by anyone from the Rolling Stones to David Cassidy. In acknowledgement of this heritage the playground takes the form of a sports grandstand, radically deconstructed. Kids can scramble up the structure via ropes, steel poles and handles to slide back down via super-wide, super-steep slide. Separate sections are joined by tubes of steel mesh and cargo rope. Check out the crazy hanging net next to a trompe-l'oeil mural; the dizzyingly high 'Commentary Box' overlooking the park; and the fast, twisting tube slide taking you all the way back down again. Robot-like bronze statues celebrating tennis and other sports add the overall mood of futurism. An absolute must.
Brisbane is the town where the trees are as elaborate and weird as any play equipment ever dreamed up by an industrial designer. Those strangler figs are bizarre – and are even incorporated as a feature of some of the best children's playgrounds in town.
Water play, lengthy tube slides and flying foxes are other playground highlights that will have parents cursing the fact they aren't kids anymore. Just try and resist getting in on the fun with your little charges at some of these brilliant parks. And who's to say your local playground won't end up immortalised in an episode of Bluey, which is made in Brisbane and takes inspiration from its real-life locations?