Area: North Ajax

Age Range: 18 months and up

Parking:  
Weekdays: limited street parking on Old Harwood Ave
Weekends: at Dr Roberta Bondar public school

Ground Cover: mulch
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Main Equipment:

• 4 slides
• 2 swings
• 2 infant swings
• 2 rockers (1 motorcycle, 1bulldozer)
• 1 rock climbing wall
• talking tubes
• 1 hanging zip line

Accessibility Features: none

Facilities/Other:

• washroom (seasonal portable)
• 1 softball diamond

Surrounding Park Area: A small green space beside the playground

Seating: 6 park benches!

Shade: no shade over the playground, some shade in the surrounding trees


Overall assessment: There are more than enough benches at this park! And how great it is to see a seasonal washroom right beside the playground! Try out the zipline, monkey bars, or climb around the playground for a great afternoon.

Area: Ajax North

Age Range: 5 to 12 years

Installed: 2013

Parking:  plenty of parking in the adjacent Audley Recreation Centre lot off of Audley Rd and Williamson Dr

Ground Cover: mulch

Main Equipment:

• 2 saucer swings
• 2 pedal racers
• 2 zip lines
• 1 slide
• 1 teeter rocker
• 1 body roller
• 1 rope web
• 1 four seat spinner
• 1 Dinosaur Dig

Accessibility Features: zip line bucket seat, ramp, body roller, saucer swings, four seat spinner, arm pedal racer, music stations

Facilities/Other:

• Splash Pad
• 1 basketball court
• 1 tennis court
• Audley Sportsplex playground
• Audley Recreation Centre skatepark

Surrounding Park Area: located on the south side of the Audley Recreation Centre (not visible from the parking lot off of Audley Rd & Williamson Dr) and adjacent to a Splash Pad; there is also the Audley Sportsplex playground on the north side of the Recreation Centre

Seating: many long concrete benches surrounding the playground and beside the Splash Pad (under a canopy)

Shade: no shade on the playground, some shade under a canopy beside the Splash Pad

Overall assessment: One of the best Accessible playgrounds in Durham!  A challenging all inclusive play area with many different pieces of equipment to interact with including a special climbing rock and four seat spinner.  This is definitely a playground for the older kids (although our three year old loved it) as little ones would find it difficult climbing the step ladder to reach the slide (but they can always help out at the Dinosaur Dig!).

Area: South Oshawa

Age Range: infant to 12 years

Parking: plenty of parking just off of Lakeview Park Ave beside the Jubilee Pavillion Banquet and Conference Centre

Ground Cover: rubber surface on the toddler area, mulch for the larger structure and other activities

Main Equipment:

• 4 swings
• 3 infant swings
• 2 accessible bucket swings
• 1 two person you and me swing
• 1 saucer swing
• 1 balancing rope swing
• 1 large tube slide
• 2 slides (1 metal)
• 3 toddler slides
• 1 three person teeter rocker
• 2 rockers
• 2 seat spinners
• 1 rope web
• 2 zip lines
• 1 supernova carousel

(https://www.kompan.us/play/freestanding/supernova-carousels-spinners/supernova)

Accessibility Features: ramp onto toddler playground, wheelchair height music station, accessory stations throughout toddler structure talking tubes, 2 accessory bucket swings, supernova spinner

Facilities/Other:

• picnic table area
• concession stand (open daily from 11am)
• Oshawa community museum (open daily from 11am to 4pm; small fees apply)
• public washrooms
• soccer fields
• baseball fields
• Splash Pad

Surrounding Park Area: a beautiful waterfront trail as well as plenty of fields and greenspace surround this park (note: for soccer and baseball you will have to cross the street from the main building and playground area)

Seating: 4 picnic table benches in the centre of the playground (no backs on these benches), seating rocks around the parks, some benches by the swings, and picnic tables scattered around the park

Shade: none on the playground itself, but plenty in the surrounding park area

Overall assessment: This is a fantastic park for toddlers! There is a large splash pad too so if you are going to this park expect the wee tykes to want to get a bit wet if they're hot. There are plenty of areas for imaginative play here from the accessible boat like structures, to the balancing rope swing, to the two person you & me swing seat. We appreciated seeing another rubber surface for toddlers too.

The big kids loved the giant tube slide and tower as well as the zip lines. It was great fun to explore when the park was quiet and a cold Spring day (still had 15 kids running around us though). There are so many different things to do that are spread out it that makes the kids feel like they were always exploring something new. There are a few things that I didn't like though 1) there are few sightlines where you can see mpre than one area if you bring multiple kids to the park (which includes not being able to see in the tower) 2) the tower itself acts as a bottleneck funneling kids up (so once you're up, you're up) which is an issue with several openings for other features like a slide, fireman pole, and dual bars (where we have heard pushing has lead to injuries, especially if kids are not expecting to go down a firepole because of a traffic jam issue in the tower) and finally 3) the toddler area had a couple of ground accessory stations with tubes (usually meant for water play or sand or woodchips) well this makes the rubber surface a mess as the toddlers have figured out they 'need' to bring woodchips from the big playground over.

Things we did love? A quiet day to explore everything, as there are a lot of different features here! My favourite is the you & me swing because our 8 yr old could help swing the 5 year old, while I pushed the toddler in the infant swing.