Take a look back at the long-lost playgrounds of SA, including Monash, Puzzle Park, Magic Mountain and Greenhills
From risking the giant scrap metal slide at Monash to the gold tokens to play arcade games at Downtown, we look back at how South Aussie kids used to have fun.
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Remember having to grab a hessian bag to sit on, just to avoid your backside getting burnt on the giant slide at Monash? You’re not alone.
Kids growing up in Adelaide in the 1970s, ’80s and ’90s were spoiled for choice for places to have fun – from getting up close and personal with sea life at Marineland to going down the water slides at Magic Mountain.
Getting a gold token to play games like Space Invaders or to have a try at the shooting gallery at Hindley Street’s Downtown was a rite of passage for many kids.
Unfortunately these beloved establishments are no more, but take a trip down memory lane with these historic photos of the places kids used to play in Adelaide’s past.
MONASH ADVENTURE PLAYGROUND, MONASH – 1967-1992
It was free, it was huge, it was risky and it never closed.
Daredevils could take to the vast array of equipment at Monash Adventure Playground at any hour of the day or night.
Local self-styled engineer Grant Telfer had designed all manner of ways to pick up speed, hurtling towards the ground or in circles just above it.
The Riverland park, which covered more than 2ha, was started in the late 1960s.
Beginning with sedate swings and slides, Telfer built more than 200 play pieces over the years, including a 15m tower with three different slides attached.
No doubt he had conventional notions of how each piece of equipment should be used but children and young adults had their own ideas.
They hung on and flung themselves from moving and static equipment, sometimes at great height or great speed.
There was the occasional broken bone and by the 1990s, with a growing culture of litigation, Mr Telfer closed the park.
At the height of its popularity, the playground had attracted more than 300,000 people a year.
Although free, some equipment had been added to provide an entertaining way for visitors to climb and release coin donations for the upkeep of the park.
The site is now home to a more sedate Monash Adventure Park, run by the Berri Barmera Council, which opened in 1996, with a fundraiser to erect a bronze statue of Grant Telfer in the park for the town’s centenary in 2021 underway.
DOWNTOWN, ADELAIDE – 1970s-1980s
For many Adelaide kids, Downtown was the place to hold your birthday parties and catch up with mates.
Downtown had everything from a shooting gallery and dodgem cars to a roller skating rink.
But one of its major selling points was its mass of arcade games, where kids could play Space Invaders, Frogger and the latest Sega racing games.
For kids in need of a fast food fix, there was also a Hungry Jack’s restaurant conveniently located on the ground floor.
In 2018, Bordertown farmer turned major Hindley St hotelier John Meek announced the creation of a new nightclub and entertainment complex at the site on Hindley Street.
Today, Downtown on Hindley still offers a top spot for a fun time, but for a much older crowd.
MAGIC MOUNTAIN, GLENELG – 1982-2004
Glenelg’s Magic Mountain was popular for its giant water slides – and responsible for one of the biggest urban myths to ever circulate throughout Adelaide.
A rumour spread that some children were injured when vandals crept in one night and, using Blue Tack, attached upturned razor blades along Magic Mountain’s water slides. The story was not true, and while the rumours continued to persist for years they did not dent its popularity.
Opening in 1982, Magic Mountain resembled a giant – albeit fake-looking – rock.
But inside it held a world of wonder, from bumper boats, arcade games, mini golf and sky cycles.
Magic Mountain closed in July 2004 and was demolished soon after. Replacing Magic Mountain was a new development called The Beach House, which opened in July 2006.
MARINELAND, WEST BEACH – 1969-1988
Kids from across Adelaide developed their love of the ocean and appreciation of its creatures at the Marineland complex and it was the place of many school excursions.
Some of its major attractions were performing dolphins and sea lions and another of the huge drawcards was the famous pelican Mr Percival from the movie Storm Boy, based on Colin Thiele’s book.
Dolphins even jumped through hoops of fire as part of their tricks at Marineland.
Today, the legacy of Marineland can still be seen in the Port River.
Marineland dolphin Billie learnt to tail-walk — “standing” upright and running backwards along the water line — at the complex.
When she was released to the Port River following Marineland’s closure, Billie would perform this trick in the wild and soon other dolphins began to mimic her.
More than 30 years later, the feat is still seen among the Port River dolphins.
GREENHILLS ADVENTURE PARK, VICTOR HARBOR – 1982-2016
For many years, kids used to bug their parents for a trip to Greenhills Adventure Park on a journey to the Fleurieu Peninsula.
The Victor Harbor amusement park operated for more than three decades but closed its doors in 2016.
Opening up in 1982, the park had a huge number of amusements for kids, with water slides, mini golf, aquabikes, archery, go-carts and a 12m rock climbing wall.
But with the residential boom at Victor Harbor, the land that used to be home to Greenhills Adventure Park eventually became housing allotments.
An increase in electricity and water bills was also blamed for the park’s demise.
PUZZLE PARK, MURRAY BRIDGE – 1985-2007
The 4.57ha Puzzle Park, which won a host of SA Tourism Awards, featured go-karts, slides, a maze, paddle boats, water slides and dry slides, as well as a giant rocking horse.
More than 95,000 people visited in the first year, including almost 3000 a day over the Easter and October long weekends.
By 2007, rising public liability insurance costs had priced the park out of business.
Rivergum Homes Group purchased the 398 Jervois Road property for $3.19 million in late 2007 intending to construct a retirement home, but the initiative never took off despite council support.
There were also plans to develop the site into a new tourist attraction, but the park sold in March this year for $1.265m. It will be cleared of equipment and the site will become home to a commercial agricultural business.
SKATELINE, MODBURY – 1980s-1995
Modbury’s Skateline was the place to be seen as an Adelaide teen in the 1980s.
At the time, roller skating was all the rage, and there were rinks across Adelaide, including at Elizabeth, St Clair, Payneham and Hindmarsh.
Skateline was so popular, there is still a Facebook page dedicated to its memory, with more than 900 followers.
The end of the line for Skateline came in the mid-1990s, when the Clovercrest Baptist Church moved into its new home in the former skating complex in 1995.
What are your favourite memories of these playgrounds and leisure centres growing up? Tell us in the comments below.
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