Hundreds celebrate opening of Wellard park

WELLARD residents celebrated the opening of a new park with a big party and free family fun day this month.

The new nature playground on Bellingham Parade in Stage 33 of the development is specifically designed to encourage interactive, creative play and for children to get their hands dirty.

Designed in consultation with Nature Play WA, the new playground and surrounding parklands feature retained natural bushland, a grassed kick-about area for ball sports or exercise classes, meandering footpaths, barbecues and picnic tables.

The event was also the official launch of a new initiative for kids and families Go Wild In Wellard – a series of 10 nature-inspired activities designed to challenge kids of all ages and get them playing creatively in the great outdoor spaces around Wellard.

Nature Play WA worked in consultation with Peet Limited to put together a series of 10 challenging missions for kids and families including bush humpie construction, kite making and flying, bush walking, nature-inspired costume making and art, photography assignments, nocturnal animal stalking and star gazing.

The Go Wild In Wellard missions have been produced into a handy flip out brochure and map which is available at the sales office at The Village at Wellard as well as online.

Nature Play WA representatives were on hand on Sunday to help kids and families complete the first mission Set Up Base – making the bush humpies and shelters with fallen branches, found sticks and other natural materials.

Nature Play’s Play spaces consultant Shea Hatch said the opening day activities had worked really well, especially the cubby building activities.

“The saws and tools available were very popular, many kids don’t get the opportunity to use those very often,” she said.

“We promote unstructured play, leaving it to the children to lead the way.

“That builds independence, creativity, conflict resolution and language skills.”

Hundreds turned out for the park and Go Wild In Wellard launch event, which also featured live music, food stalls, face painting and native animal displays.