VUPlay

Fremantle

We’ll be at Esplanade Park tomorrow, Friday 20rh June , 10 am –12 pm.

Loose parts, open space, time to play.

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International Day of Play: Protect play, protect childhood.

I keep returning to this theme as I watch children move through Pop‑Up Play spaces — reshaping materials, forming micro‑communities, testing boundaries, and making meaning in ways only they can.

Play is how children claim space, culture, and connection. It’s how they rehearse the world and re‑imagine it. When we protect play, we’re not protecting an activity — we’re protecting a way of being in the world.

Through a Playwork lens, our work is to hold open the conditions where play can breathe: time, trust, loose parts, and adults who know when to step back.

On this International Day of Play, I’m honouring the courage, creativity, and insistence of children everywhere.

Protect play. Protect childhood.

Playwork isn’t haphazard.

It’s deliberate, thoughtful, and responsive — to children, to place, and to the subtle cues that shape how play unfolds.Loose parts aren’t just “things to put out.”

They’re part of an environment that speaks.
Where they sit, how they lean, what they’re near, what they open onto — all of this matters.

Today I spent time at the Pop-Up in Yarraville (in partnership with Maribrynong Council) tuning the space: removing what was deadening it, repositioning what might invite something, and paying attention to how the site wanted to breathe.

One small example from the photos: a cardboard box lying flat on the ground wasn’t offering anything. Once it was assembled, oriented toward the site, and paired with chalk, it immediately became a cue. Children moved toward it. They used it. It mattered.

This is the quiet work behind tomorrow’s International Day of Play — the understanding that play doesn’t emerge from clutter or chance, but from environments shaped with care.Loose parts become signals.

Signals become invitations.
Invitations become play.
Playwork is intentional.
Playwork is relational.
Playwork is environmental literacy in action.

And tomorrow, as we celebrate the right to play, I’m thinking about the conditions that make that right feel possible.

There’s a moment, just before things begin, where everything is still… undecided.

Materials waiting.
Spaces holding possibility.
Children not yet arrived — or just starting to gather.

Tomorrow, as part of International Day of Play (Thursday 11 June- lets celebrate all week!), we’ll be holding a Pop-Up Playwork session in partnership Maribyrnong City Council.

📍 McNish ‘Dinosaur Park’, Yarraville
⏰ Wednesday 10 June | 11:00 – 12:30

We’ll be there, not to lead or direct, but to open up the conditions —
time, space, materials, and trust.

And then… we wait, watch, and see what emerges.
If you’re nearby, come through. Stay for a minute or an hour.
Let’s notice and celebrate play.

There’s something I love about these small, in‑between moments — the beginnings, the almost‑somethings, the quiet signs that a story is forming.

As we head toward International Day of Play I’m paying attention to the conditions that make play possible: time, space, materials, trust.

The subtle things. The overlooked things. The things children transform.

More thoughts later this week, through a Playwork lens.

Remnants of today’s play at our Hobart pop‑up.

A tub of damp sand holding a single purple pom‑pom.

A bottle half‑filled with water and drifting colours.

Small traces of big thinking — boundaries tested, ideas poured out, stories paused mid‑flow.

Nothing staged. Nothing added.

Just what the children left behind.

Hobart, we’re popping up this weekend.
Find us at Marieville Esplanade Playground, 18 Marieville Esplanade, Sandy Bay.

Saturday 6 June & Sunday 7 June
10.00 am – 2.00 pm

Loose parts, open space, and time to play — free, all ages welcome.
Come by and explore with us.

🌧️ Weather Update – Eltham Pop-Up Location Change 🌧️

Due to the weather, our Eltham Pop-Up originally planned for Alister Knox Park has been relocated indoors

☔➡️🏫

📍 New Location:

Our Lady Help of Christians School
1–13 Henry Street, Eltham

🚗 How to find us:

Drive to the end of Henry Street – the hall is on the right. Parking available on site.

📅 Pop-Up Times:

• Tuesday 2 June: 10am–12pm & 1–3pm
• Wednesday 3 June: 1–3pm

Earlier this year we ran a series of Pop-Ups at so it’s fantastic to continue our partnership with this wonderful school 💛

Come along and say hello – we’d love to see you!

A big welcome to all our new followers — we’re so glad you’re here.

A few quick FAQs:

• You don’t need to book into our Pop‑Ups. Just come along for a play.
• All Pop‑Ups are free, community‑based, and open to everyone.
• Our regular sites are pinned at the top of the page with a small disclaimer.
• Some sites may not run on the day — usually due to illness, extreme weather, or low student numbers.

I don’t have the capacity to update socials daily, but the pinned post will always hold the most accurate info.

Thanks for being here and for supporting child‑led play in our community.