Pics From The Past | Lost playgrounds of Shepparton revisited

By Geoff Allemand

Apr 26, 2024

John Pick Playground

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For years, this was the best children’s playground in Shepparton. Located on the foreshore of Victoria Park Lake, it was a great place to visit as a family, have a picnic/barbecue and for parents to sit down and watch the kids play on the ‘vehicles/objects’ (probably not deemed safe these days), a few swings and see-saws. My kids played there often in the 80s and 90s. They loved to explore the old tree nearby, which they climbed to perch above the canopy of branches. Then there was the fishing and yabbying in the lake among the willow trees.

The playground was named after John Pick, who was a Shepparton councillor in the 1920s, and he advocated passionately for Victoria Park to be developed into a major recreation centre with an artificial lake. He also became the mayor of Shepparton from 1937 to 1939 and was a keen artist who often painted Victoria Park Lake and district landscape scenes.

Comments from the Lost Shepparton Facebook page:

Jan Stephens

I spent plenty of time playing on Bella [the traction engine], but I couldn’t wait to be able to reach up and climb it myself.

Rex Hamer

I saw Bella in action in the mid-1950s, driving the bridge piles on the causeway between Shepp and Mooroopna.

Peter Sutton

As a child, I enjoyed many hours here. In those days, boating and skiing took place on Victoria Park Lake. We would have family picnics and enjoy the playground.

Ron Holland

It’s interesting to note that the do-gooders have removed just about all the things we played or climbed on. There are no swings, saws, traction engines, slides, or logs, all in the interests of pampered kids and insurance companies.

Robyn Leembruggen

A favourite outing for my kids and a lunch of barbecue sausages. A good play and then an ice-cream from Ollies Trolleys.

Pauline Ford

Getting hurt is part of life. These were great fun, anyway. Loved them as a kid and my kids loved them. Now they are TOO dangerous. What a load of crock.

Peter Phillips

The Jeep! The tractor! The cannon! The log! Loved that playground.

Brenda McDougall

It was a beautiful park. I have many fond memories of family picnics there and playing on that old engine.

Trish Beard

And the old tree… my kids and their cousins had a lovely time climbing and playing in it.

Shirley Hughes

My sister, brothers, and I spent a lot of our playtime in this park. When I got married, my family and our children loved to spend a relaxing Boxing Day here, and we had leftovers from Christmas Day. Great times.

Hilary McAllister Vella

Remember teaching my niece to swing on the swings, forward-legs out, backward-legs under. For hours, it seemed, while other friends were skiing.

Sara Danda

I remember getting takeout and eating it under a tree, with all the seagulls attempting to pinch our food, and then playing on the trains after tea.

David Mundy

They took them away when I was small. We used to eat Ollies Trolleys at the lake and play, and then we went back for an ice-cream before heading home.

Geoff Allemand is an amateur photographer and Lost Shepparton Facebook page admin. Please share your pics of the past at pastpics@mmg.com.au