Wilfred Taylor Reserve

Great location. Dog walking. Parties BBQ areas. Children’s steam train on once a month

If you want to get the kids off their iPads on a sunny Sunday, you can’t go past this reserve, particularly on the second and fourth Sunday of the month when the Miniature Train Club are there with multiple little engines and ‘carriages’. At $ 5 for unlimited rides, its popular with both adults and children and although there may seem to be a long queue, there are several trains running at the same time so the wait is never long. Trains not your thing? Bring the dog and walk it around the dog trail where there are a dozen or so obstacles to negotiate (although I had a couple of refusals from mine!).
A lovely playground is a big attraction for the kids as is the remote control car track — and you may be lucky enough to catch the ‘professionals’ there having races. Several sheltered barbecues are available but many people bring their own gas driven ones due to the popularity of the area. You can always guarantee that there will be a birthday party (or two!) happening as well. Several picnic tables and benches plus toilet facilities are available also and there is a kiosk selling most of the basics including tea, coffee and ice cream.
A great atmosphere and worth a visit.

Love the miniature trains and playground here. An enjoyable experience and the train line is just a mere $ 5 per person on first and third Sunday’s of the month. The park is beautiful and is a really great place to have a picnic of sandwiches and other tasty treats. Sausage sizzles on alternative weekends are also very nice during the summer.
Wilfred Taylor Reserve can be very busy near Christmas time.

What a great little (big) place to take the family. This place has far more then your usual reserve will offer. Wait for it. It has a train (little train). Ok it is a miniature train, but you can ride on it. What else does this park have that you have given 5 stars to I hear you say? Well it has archery boards, and an awesome track for your remote control cars. I was a bit of a distance away and was on a school excursion so couldn’t wander far but some big kids (adults) were testing out their skills on this day. It has a great viewing area raised high off the ground so if this is your thing then this is the place.
Unsure of whether there was a BBQ but they do have a new toilet block and plenty of shade around the place.

I tentatively gave this a four star rating… it’s certainly set up to be something wonderful but I don’t think I saw the complete brilliance of the place in between all the Christmas-​partying people. As you can see from the photos, the playground for the youngsters is certainly a hit and in this instance, it was the closest to the majority of the people.
With this being SUCH a huge piece of land, I was kind of hoping to see sky-​scraper sized playgrounds with super cushy rubber floors… I am, once again, reminded that I dream bigger than most ;-)
My concern about this area is that I saw lots for little children to be excited about, but not so much for the older children. Maybe this is where you ship them off down the road to the archery section.
I will have to investigate this area further. I’ll let you know if I find any sky-​scrapers ;-)
*Dogs allowed*
*Large and relatively clean toilet block*
*Surely there has to be drinking fountains somewhere*