Imaginature began as an idea of Bayswater Primary School’s (BPS) principal – Steve Hovitch – to “do something” with the fenced off, vacant land below what was then called “the junior playground”.
On Friday 9 November 2018, the school and the P&C gardening committee celebrated the official opening of Imaginature.
Students are now enjoying the benefits of open-ended, creative play through the use of loose parts play.
Before Imaginature
This land belonged to the school but was not accessible by the school students and had been used for decades as an unofficial rubbish dump and thoroughfare. It was also thick with plumbago and asparagus fern and an extensive Japanese pepper tree thicket. The first stage of the development of Imaginature was to then remove skip bin loads of rubbish, kill and remove the pepper tree, plumbago and asparagus fern, and to fence off access to prevent further rubbish being dumped. As later became apparent, the site also required remediation in 2017 to remove pollutants from the soil resulting from its dumping ground past.
Pre-Imaginature - weeds, pepper tree, plumbago, rubbish - 2015
The Design
In 2015, the gardening committee commenced consultation with students, teachers and parents about what they would like to see in a “nature playground”, while teachers worked with students to develop their designs and wish lists. Here are some images of the students’ designs.
The Concept Plan
The gardening committee’s own talented and indefatigable landscape architect – Eleanor Reuvers – developed these ideas into a concept plan, which was adapted over time to make the most of salvaged and available materials and the community’s skills.
See the concept plan here.
Students were also invited to submit names for the new playground. The winning entry – ‘Imaginature’ – was the brainchild of year 6 student Caitlin Annesley and perfectly captures in a single word the confluence of children’s imaginations and nature. The sign bearing the new name and that of its creator was created by parent Shannon Jones and attached to its own frame constructed by parent Gavin Phillips.
The official commencement of works and the unveiling of the name occurred on 31 July 2015.
Guiding Principles
The development of Imaginature has been guided by these principles.
- Provision of diverse opportunities for students to engage in nature play – that is, open ended play with branches, dirt, stones and water
- Provision of a space for all children from years 1 to 6 to interact (rather than only years 1 to 3, as it had been previously)
- Use of natural materials wherever possible
- Planting with local indigenous and native Australian plants
- Use of second hand, salvaged and re-purposed materials, both in construction and for loose parts play
- Created by the school community
- Thriftiness!
Imaginature Projects
The development of Imaginature comprised many individual projects. These were:
- Tyre stairway and balance challenge
- The creek
- The sand kitchen
- The fort
- The amphitheatre
- Logs, boulders and plinths
- The dividing fence
- The loose parts play shed
- The Forest of Poles
- Teepee and cubby making frames
- The frog pond
- Gravel and sawdust paths
- Planting
- Mulching
Cost of Imaginature
The funding of Imaginature was as follows:
- $7,000 provided by the P&C
- $4,800 from a Telstra Kids grant
- $1,900 from the school
- $900 from a Yates Landcare grant
- $500 donated by Rio Tinto
Imaginature therefore cost a grand total of $15,100. To put this in perspective, Imaginature is 2,500 square metres in size and if the P&C had paid a business to construct Imaginature for us, it would have cost the P&C at least $100,000!
We received many donations of materials and trees. We therefore thank the following organisations which donated skip bins, mulch, logs, steppers, sleepers and trees:
- City of Bayswater
- Specialised Tree Lopping
- Tree Wise Men
- Ellenby Tree Farm
- UGL
We also thank all the individual parents who have donated materials over the years.
Without these donations, Imaginature would not have been built for only $15,100.