MacFarlane Park Playground

The playground at MacFarlane Park sits right beside the MacFarlane Park Centre and a basketball court on Acheson Avenue in Shirley, Christchurch, close to the Mairehau border.¹ It is a neighbourhood play space with one well-equipped structure, set on the corner of a big open playing field.

Equipment

A single loose-fill pad holds a multi-deck climbing structure with two slides, two fireman's poles, a tunnel, ladders, monkey bars, parallel bars and a steering wheel.² Around it are a swing set, a spring horse and a track glide, a short ride along a track for kids who can hold their own weight.² A parent reviewer found it kept both a two-year-old and a four-year-old busy, and the bars and poles give school-age children something to work at.

History and Cultural

The park is a working community hub rather than a destination. It holds three community buildings: the MacFarlane Park Centre, a hall gifted to the council by the Lions Clubs International Foundation in 2018 and moved here; a play centre building owned by Kidsfirst Kindergarten; and the MacFarlane Park Neighbourhood Centre, run by the Shirley Community Trust since 2000.³ The centre's regular users include pre-schools and a Tongan homework club.³

Practical Info

There are no public toilets at the playground, which one reviewer points out, so plan a stop before you come. The pad opens straight onto the playing field with no fence visible in aerial imagery, but it sits well back from the street behind the buildings and court. Shade comes mostly from the large trees along the western edge; the pad itself is open to the sun. There is a seat beside the pad, a sealed path to the court, and a small car park by the centre.

For a longer outing, Macfarlane Park Playground South, about 400 m away at the other end of the park, adds a climbing net and fireman's pole,² and Westminster Park Playground is a similar short walk west.