Christsen Park and Playground Bargara
The newly revamped Christsen Park and Playground at Bargara was an absolute hit with our Wide Bay Kids, they love it! What a great addition to the Bargara foreshore. The playground backdrop is spectacular!
The park is beautifully shaded with lots of space to picnic, bbq or have a game of cricket! There are 4 fantastic areas to the park, the playground, the open spaced areas, the paths and the bbq shelters. This park is great for kids and adults of all ages with something to suit everyone.
The Playground
The large Playground is located at the entrance to the Park. There is equipment to suite all age levels from a little cafe, tiny slide and swings for the younger kids to a large low rope course for the bigger kids.
The Playground is well spaced out with kids easy to spot from most vantage points and is surrounded by lush picnic areas. Make sure you bring a rug as there is little seating by the play area. Fingers crossed the the Council may erect some bench seats along the outer edge of the playground.
The Open Spaced Areas and BBQ Shelters
There is one large open spaced area adjoining to the Playground perfect for a run aground, a game of cricket, soccer or tiggy. 5 large bbq shelters adjoin the playground and open area extending down to the Basin swim hole entrance.. There are 10 bbq's all up with each shelter area housing tables and bench seats and 2 bbq's.
I can't wait for the warmer months so we can have some twilight picnics here!
The Paths and Banana Lounges
The park is surrounded by a path suitable for bikes, scooters, skates and prams. Heading north the path continues along the Esplanade. Today we scooted up to the Turtle Park, as well as Schuhkraft and Nielson Parks. You will also find 4 really cool banana lounges along the path perfect for taking in the view. I'm sure these are going to be very popular.
The Facilities
What's there
Playground, shade sails, sheltered eating areas with picinic tables, bbq's, water bubbler, toilets, picnic areas, paths, banana lounges, lovely shaded areas.
What's missing
The playground is not fenced and adjoins a rocky entrance to the ocean. Not much seating around the play area bring a rug or chairs to sit on. No cafe, however, there is a coffee van on site sometimes that operates from the park (usually Sundays and more often during school holidays) if they are not there the Golf Club and Esplanade shops close by.
Location
Name: Christsen Park and Playground Bargara
Address: Esplanade Bargara
Open: 7 days
The completion of the renovation of Christsen Park was looked forward to with much anticipation. The BBQ’s with the undercover tables, the loungers and the picnic tables near the pathway etc are excellent as well as the nice playground for the kids. I used to picnic on the grass at Christsen before the renovation if we were too late to grab a table and BBQ. The area was quite large and children could play in the playground and the occasional game involving a ball didnt interfere with anyone.
Now however its all changed. Despite how much nicer it looks, no longer can anyone just simply put down a picnic blanket, bring out the sandwiches and cold drinks and relax. My first attempted picnic was interrupted by a ball knocking over my soft drink, followed by the same ball landing hard on my back. On my second visit we decided it would be safer to sit at a table near a lounger. As we blissfully gazed out to sea a ball came flying onto our table landing in the middle of our lunch. Later that day after we had decided we had seen it all a father and son threw a football around our table over our heads as if we were not there. This park is described as a picnic area but seriously how can anyone safely picnic when selfish people are behaving like the park is their own personal backyard. I am not against small children gently playing with a small ball but I am now seeing adults playing football here. The area can get quite crowded and its a shared space so I do think there needs to be respect for one another. Right now I am not seeing that. It seems to be too one sided with soccer and football games taking precedence over picnickers.