News

Oct 27, 2024

Aussies in awe of incredible nostalgic playground photo: 'Wouldn't be allowed these days'

An incredible photo of an entirely metal playground extremely popular with Aussies throughout the 1970s and 80s has brought back waves of nostalgic memories for many. From soaring on the flying fox to

An incredible photo of an entirely metal playground extremely popular with Aussies throughout the 1970s and 80s has brought back waves of nostalgic memories for many.

From soaring on the flying fox to whizzing down the dauntingly tall — and hot — slides during the school holidays, the Monash Adventure Playground was “the” place to be in the “good ‘ol days”, locals recalled online this week.

In its prime, 200,000 to 300,000 revellers would reportedly travel from all over the country to visit the five-acre tourist hotspot near the South Australian and Victorian border. Several of which relived their favourite memories about the playground online this week after a vintage picture went viral.

Some joked that they were surprised anyone got through to adulthood after venturing up the slide's stairs, while others lamented that such features “wouldn’t be allowed these days”.

Speaking to Yahoo News Australia, Labor MP Louise Miller-Frost said Monash was one of her “favourite places” to go as a kid.

“As a migrant family we spent every school holiday camping and exploring the country,” she said. “After a long drive in the Ford Falcon (vinyl seats, no air conditioning — it was the 1970s!), there it was — a glistening metal playground in a dusty red paddock.”

Ms Miller-Frost said the “giant slippery dips with humps” used to launch small children like her and her brother “into the air”. “You felt you might fly off the edge,” she added, noting if you were “lucky” you could find a hessian sack or cardboard box to stop “your skin from burning on the shiny hot surfaces”.

“If you slipped off the sack as you flew down the slippery dip, you would know about it!” the mum laughed.

For the spinning tops, revellers had to run around the edge to get it going, Ms Miller-Frost explained. “Once it started, you had to hold on or you would slide across the floor and hit the other side with force,” she told Yahoo.

“The entire structure was made of metal bars which made for fantastic bruises and probably a few broken bones. And there was always the risk of falling through the arms onto the hard ground a couple of metres below. Soft-fall playground surfaces hadn’t been invented.”

The politician said the “really interesting” thing about the site was that so many of the rides were “entirely human powered” and took significant effort to push.

“All the equipment was big enough for adults to go on at the same time as children, and with adult weight behind getting the equipment moving meant once it got a bit of momentum, small children could get thrown around like twigs.”

Aussie council tells kids to 'consider their noise' at playground

Mum's warning after little girl's 'brutal' injury

'Simple' solution to common bin mistake for Aussie councils

So who was the mad genius behind the iconic slice of Aussie history? A local businessman named Grant Telfer who built sheds for a living and invented the gopher mobility scooter.

While the playground first started as a single slide in the 60s, it was later filled with 180 of his metal creations, the ABC reports.

Mr Telfer’s daughter, Alison Halupka, told the publication last year that her dad’s “mind went into overdrive” with ideas after he semi-retired in his mid-40s.

“He had a brilliant mind, while never having done, you know, an engineering degree or anything like that,” she said. “And once [onto a] project, he really got his teeth into it for a long time, and he would really focus on it. His fun was thinking up the next thing.”

The playground was forced to close in the early 1990s after it was unable to secure insurance. It reopened a couple of years later as the Monash Adventure Park and features modern equipment and grass.

Do you have a story tip? Email: [email protected].

You can also follow us on Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, Twitter and YouTube.