CY O’Connor Hub Playground is a lovely drive to Mundaring Weir, through Perth’s Hills. You can get there from Kalamunda or Mundaring. Not only is the huge dam essential to WA’s water supply, but it’s a lovely spot for a family picnic. There are historical, natural, play and educational attractions in the “CY O’Connor Hub”, which is found on the north side of the weir, accessed by a road behind the Mundaring Weir Hotel. Here you’ll find modern picnic tables, shelters, BBQ facilities and lawn for kicking a footy or throwing down a rug.
The main attraction is the pipeline themed play area. Being in the forest, the playground enjoys a lot of shade from mature trees.
This play area doesn’t feature stock-standard play equipment like swings and slides. Huge brightly painted pipes have been used to create tunnels…
stepping stones…
and balancing beams.
Kids love climbing all over the pipes. The play area is suitable for most ages, though little ones will need to be closely supervised, so they don’t fall off the top of a pipe!
Being situated in the bush, there is also plenty of opportunity for some nature play and we found a fantastic cubby made of branches.
There’s also public toilets on site and water fountains too.
Around the hub there are lots of information points with historical facts about the weir. Mundaring Weir was constructed in the late 1890’s, by CY O’Connor, to supply the goldfields with fresh water. I remember water spilling over the weir when it overflowed in 1996 (I was about 14!), though sadly It’s not expected that the 63 million kilolitre capacity weir will overflow again. When we visited recently, the water level looked much higher than it has for a while.
We had to do without our usual walk along the dam wall. The walkway gates were locked as it appears that there are some upgrades going on until late December 2017. Usually, a stroll along the wall is the thing to do at the weir, but there is a lookout platform on the north side which we got a good view from. Mundaring Weir is immense and only a portion of it is visible to the public.
Take a short walk down through the gardens to the weir wall and lookout over Lake CY O’Connor. It’s a gradual stepped incline down the hill, walking back up wasn’t difficult for us, though young children may find it a bit of a hike!
We spotted a few kangaroos along the way too.
From the north side you can also see the CY O’Connor memorial, take the steep steps down to the bottom of the weir to the No1 Pump Station Museum and the Construction Camp Hub picnic area.
If you haven’t packed a picnic, the Mundaring Weir Hotel is very close to the CY O’Connor Hub car park.
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Amanda Carlin has her own blog - The Chef, His Wife and Their Perth-fect Life. She loves getting out and about in Perth with her family, as well as brunching, tapas or something a little fancy in equal measures. With her son "Little Chef" in tow, Amanda always has plenty of family friendly eating options to recommend too!
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