HOT: J Park, Oakleigh South

Update May 2021: Temporarily closed for maintenance

Wow Melbourne you have never seen an indoor play centre quite like J Park in Oakleigh South.

As far as indoor playgrounds it's more akin to something you'd find in the crowded metropolises of Asia. The huge 5,000 square metre indoor park is out-of-this-world crazy fun…and crazy busy, especially during school holidays!

J Park has seven different zones for active play ranging from rope climbs to trampolines to a massive ballpit. There's even a flying fox and zipline!

If you have younger children I recommend staying around Kids Playground because it is behind a securely fenced area with a child lock gate.

While it's only one section of J Park there's still enough equipment for a big day of fun for little kids, with two giant slides, three spiral tube slides, a ball pit and more.

It's also a space that bigger kids tend to avoid so your little ones are more likely to feel safer there. Technically the maximum height for the Kids Playground is 120cm (approximately 6-7 years old).

Once they hit 110cm (approximately 6 years old) then they're more likely to be able to handle the rough-and-tumble atmosphere within the rest of J Park. With a large number of people inside the space, high levels of excitement and physically challenging equipment, your child really needs to be able to fend for themselves physically. The sightlines are not great and being such a vast space it can be hard to keep track of where children are, especially if you have more than one child with you.

Once they're old enough to use the equipment safely on their own then you can relax more and spectate from the sidelines or the bridge which spans over the middle of the play centre. It's best to set up a home base where kids can leave their shoes and water bottles and know where to find you.

Note that there are supervising staff on hand at each activity.

You're also welcome to play at full price and join in! Note that if you are spectating in the middle of winter the play centre is really cold and unheated, even with all the kids getting super hot from jumping around.

My foremost piece of advice is to get there early. We arrive around 9:50am on a wet school holiday weekday and there's already a queue. Getting there early means that you can head straight to the high ropes course at the back of the building – don't get distracted by the ballpit, trampoline and ninja obstacle course enroute!

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The high ropes course should be the first activity on your list. It has limited capacity and it gets busy with queues later in the day.

Also if your child happens to be stuck behind a less confident child it can lead to a frustrating climbing experience as you have to wait for people ahead of you to constantly, and the poor child in front gets anxious because they're being pushed too fast.

The staff fit kids with a safety harness and helmet and then they can climb up, up, up a rather nail-biting four-level obstacle course. It's similar to Live Wire Park and Trees Adventure experience.

Make sure your kids are confident going on as it's really hard to rescue them once they are high up!

The trampoline court features competition-grade trampolines and the minimum height is 110cm.

The ball pit is the size of a swimming pool and has a giant rope net hammock suspended over half of it. There's also a boat sculpture for climbing on.

The ninja obstacle course has enough ramps, foam pits, climbing walls and obstacles to exhaust the most energetic kids. The minimum height is 110cm.

It links to the parkour area.

The zipline and flying fox are staffed and run alternately at regular times. Note the entrance to the zipline involves moving through the parkour/ninja obstacle course first.

The zipline opens at 10:30-11am, the flying fox at 12-1pm, the zipline at 1:30-2:30pm and flying fox 3-4pm. It's best to get to each one about 5 minutes earlier to start lining up, as otherwise the line can be up to 20 minutes.

The entry prices are not cheap but if you have a Small Ideas membership you can get 20-50% off for up to three children. My kids play non-stop for 2 hours and are a sweaty mess at the end, even in the middle of winter. The staff seem to be a bit relaxed about the time limit as I see no one policing who's entering or leaving. The 2 hour time limit feels like its really more of a useful tool for adults to declare ‘time's up!'.

Note that no outside food is allowed inside J Park so there is an onsite café. However, once again the policing seems to be a bit lax as I see families openly laying out containers of snacks on the tables. I guess as long as you don't take the food to the play areas you might be ok.

J Park is an incredible play centre and a great cold or wet weather indoor park for active kids. It's worth a special trip! You can also book a party starting from $30 per person (minimum 8 people) every day at either 10.00am- 12:00pm; 12.30pm- 2.30pm; or 3.00pm- 5.00pm. They are usually booked out for weekends, so book your party as early as possible to avoid disappointment.

For a limited time, Deals.com.au is offering cheap discount voucher tickets to J Park. A two-hour entry with unlimited games is $11 which is 39% off the standard price of $18. It's valid until 18 March 2020 for Tuesday to Friday 10am-5pm. Buy discount J Park tickets now!

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