Reviewed By:
Nicole Spence
Travel Date:
September 2001
We travelled North in September 2001, visiting Townsville for 4 nights. The Townsville end was business related for my husband and I was dreading being stranded in a strange town, in hot weather, 6 months pregnant, with a 20 month old and no car. The drive in from the airport deepened my trepidation - it was dusty, drab, rather neglected looking and uninspiring. Then our coach turned down onto a road called The Strand, where our accommodation at Quest Townsville was. And the world changed! Dusty and drab became tropical, green and clean with amazing endless waterviews and exciting glimpses of an incredible waterfront development that stretched further than the eye could see.
The Strand is 2.2 km of stunningly well-planned community playground. If you are travelling North or to Magnetic Island, it is well worth detouring for a daytrip.
The Strand hugs the coastline capturing all the cooling sea breeze and immediately creating that relaxing holiday feeling, is beautifully landscaped, lush, pristinely clean and with free family outdoor facilities that are out of this world.
There is a generous bike/walk path running the length of the Strand, perfect for rolling a stroller and wide enough so that you can let a toddler run free without worrying about him being skittled by a passing rollerblader. Great BBQ facilities and rest benches are dotted throughout the area, thoughtfully located under shading palms. There is a children's pool at one end and a Rock Pool at the other with a terrific fish and chippery. Look outs, fountains and eateries add further interest.
But the absolute winning feature for a family with kids is the playground facilities. Playgrounds are scattered along the stretch, catering for infant to young primary school age all the way up to teens (and Mums and Dads whose children aren't appalled by them hanging, swinging and balancing in public).
At the Southern end (next to a community outdoor pool) is an incredible water park play area: an all ages, non-slip floored riot of colour and water and screamingly happy children (luckily, the muffling effect of the water makes the kids noise enchanting rather than grating). There are mushrooms showering water from their caps for the littlies, revolving fixed fireman's hoses and a wonderful multi level climbing frame with water slides, water wheels to turn on and off to redirect the flow of water, gidgets and gazmos to pull, pump and lever and spray and topping it all, a huge (and I mean HUGE) bucket on the roof that fills and dumps enormous volumes of water every 2 minutes of so. The bucket was a huge hit with older kids - not so popular with the smaller set although there were many bold 4 and 5 year olds seemingly enjoying the thrill of being knocked completely flat by the torrential avalanche of water pounding down around them. The water feature was turned on for about 4 hours a day, but my toddler son was completely enchanted with this area, water or no. Older kids also seemed to think that the gadgets and gizmos and hoses held appeal pre-water, and they used them more imaginatively.
Next is a large children's playground, designed for children with disabilities as well as the able bodied. Wonderful toddler to young primary school age playground facilities, including meandering paths for ride-ons and trikes, sit and spin whirly poles, a wooden sand castle with intriguing attached scoopers and diggers and dumpers, a sit in lever controlled digger, a horizontal spiders net, swings (of course) - all on a level or gently sloped area with child safe surfaces under the moving equipment. Fully fenced with child safe gates, plenty of shaded tables and benches - not surprisingly, it was a popular meeting spot for family day carers. We whiled away many an hour in this wonderful area.
Further along there is a lovely water fountain that the kids can get their hot hands trailing through, and a well regarded restaurant behind. We rarely got much further than this! The only downside to being so close to the playgrounds was that I couldn't leave our hotel without the playground becoming the sudden focus of our day. This was perfect for a 4 day stay sans Daddy, but could be tedious with older less distractible children or a longer stay.
We did get a single look at the northern end of the Strand on Dad's day off. Worth a special mention is the Teen Rager playground facilities. This is not kiddies park - this is a place for teens to practice daring balancing and strength exercises. Tumble rollers, suspended swinging boogie boards, high flying foxes - think "Almost anything goes". Lots of fun and it was cool enough that even the older teens didn't shun it.
There is a huge open oval area perfect for playing soccer or tossing a Frisbee or just watching the game.
This is the best community facility I have seen in Australia. Fun-packed (free!) outdoor activities that will have the family happy to be away from designated tourist activities and shopping. No cars, encourages plenty of walking and exercise and in a wonderfully appealing environment.
Very highly recommended.
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