In 2018, Harbord Diggers, an RSL club dating back to 1930, opened a swanky new facility right on the headland between Freshwater and Curl Curl Beaches. The club has restaurants and bars set within stylish indoor and outdoor spaces as well as a gym, boutiques and other health and entertainment services. Now, Harbord Diggers also boasts an definitive answer to the question: so what do we do with the kids while we’re dining?
Major Fun Freshwater is the Harbord Diggers’ large children’s play centre, a fully padded labyrinth of slides, tunnels, obstacles and interactive projections that will have kids’ synapses buzzing for hours and help them to burn off all that pent-up energy in a staffed environment.
Imagine your average shopping centre play maze and quadruple it, and you'll have an idea of the scale of Major Fun Freshwater. Kids can push past the bollards to enter a climbing space that has an interactive game projected onto the floor. They can zoom on a mini flying fox, and slide down a four-child wide slide.
The centre showcases a marine-life theme with a quartet of large glowing jellyfish hanging from the ceiling along with a friendly giant turtle, and the play equipment features blue incandescent ‘aquariums’. There’s a separate area for kids under three, and plenty of space for parents to watch from the sidelines and enjoy a coffee from the kiosk. You can even order a meal from the extensive menu and have it delivered to your table adjacent to the play areas. Two dedicated birthday party rooms are part of Major Fun, and birthday packages are available (choose your theme from ‘Coral’, ‘Princess’ and ‘Pirate’).
Time Out visited on a rainy Sunday, so we saw the place fairly heaving with entertainment-starved littlies – safari-suit clad staff seemed to be coping admirably with all the high-decibel squealing. The staff control the entry and exit gates, so kids can’t simply go wandering off – not that they’d want to. Non-anxious parents can even leave their children and go and eat thanks to ‘Drop and Dine’ packages on Friday and Saturday nights – staff will feed and keep an eye on your kid while you relax elsewhere on the premises. Perhaps you have to be a parent to fully understand how attractive a proposition that can be.
Entry to Major Fun is from $3 to $18 depending on the child’s age and whether or not you’re a Harbord Diggers member, and it’s free for adults. Babies under one year old are free too with a paying sibling.
