Wineries With Playgrounds in Australia

You can taste wine with kids in tow. You just need somewhere for them to be while you do it, and family friendly on a tourism listing does not mean there is anything there. Sometimes it means a lawn. Sometimes it means a kids menu and a firm look.

This is the list of Australian wineries and breweries that actually have something: a playground, swings, a cubby house, a sandpit, a climbing wall. Every venue below says so in its own words, on its own website. Nothing here comes from a directory, a review site or a blog, because those get it wrong often enough to send you an hour down a dirt road to a patch of grass.

One practical note before you go. Most of these are cellar doors first and play spaces second, so the equipment is usually in sight of where you will be sitting rather than fenced off somewhere you cannot see.

The Short Version

• Western Australia has the deepest run of them by a long way, and it has two guides of its own. Start there if you are west.
• The east coast is thinner than WA but better than it looks, and the Hunter Valley alone has four.
• Breweries are quietly the strongest category, because a taproom is built around long tables and open ground, which is exactly the shape a play area needs.

Working from north to south, here is what each state has.

Queensland

All 25 are in the free Jedhi app. Mapped, and you can filter for Playground anywhere in the country, so the next one takes a tap rather than 25 websites. Free on iPhone and Android.

1) Slipstream Brewing Company (Yeerongpilly), a beer garden built for it

Why it works:

• The play area is inside the beer garden rather than off in a corner
• Their own words: spacious beer garden which features a kids play area
• You can watch the brewery through glass from inside if the weather turns

Slipstream sits in an industrial pocket of Brisbane's south side, which is not where you would expect to find this. The beer garden is the point: a wide open space with the kids area built into it rather than bolted on.

2) BrewDog DogTap Brisbane (Murarrie), the big one

A full brewery taproom on the eastern side of Brisbane, and the only Queensland venue on this list at that scale. Worth knowing that there is a second BrewDog venue in Brisbane at Fortitude Valley, so check which one you are heading to.

New South Wales and the ACT

3) The Valley Brewhouse (Nulkaba), open seven days

On Wine Country Drive at the Cessnock end of the Hunter Valley, and the only venue in the region open every day of the week. Their own words: bring your mates, your kids and your dog to enjoy the vast open spaces of our huge venue and outdoor lawn area featuring our new kids playground. The playground is new, out on the lawn, and in view of the tables.

4) Tranquil Vale Vineyard (Luskintyre), the most specific promise on the list

Nobody else east of Western Australia spells it out this plainly. Their own facilities page reads: outdoor children's playground with cubby house, swings and slide. It is in the lower Hunter, away from the Pokolbin crush, which is part of the appeal.

5) Whispering Brook (Broke), a cubby house just outside

Broke is the quiet end of the Hunter Valley. Whispering Brook keeps it simple: a fantastic cubby house is located just outside to keep children busy.

6) Elbourne Wines (Pokolbin), a playground in the middle of the Hunter

Right in the heart of Pokolbin, so it works as the stop where you let everyone out for twenty minutes between the venues that have nothing. Tastings run Friday and Saturday only, so build around it rather than squeezing it in.

Those four are all in the Hunter Valley, and there is a separate guide to planning a day around them, linked at the bottom of this page.

7) Skimstone (Apple Tree Flat), playground plus a giant chess board

Skimstone near Mudgee have thought about this more than most. Their own words: kids can now join in the fun with their very own Cellar Door adventure, plus they can enjoy our spacious playground, giant chess board, and ball games.

8) Mortimers Wines (Orange), a playground with equipment

Orange sits high and cool and is worth the drive on its own. Mortimers describe the cellar door as very family-friendly, with a playground and plenty of equipment to keep the kids entertained.

9) De Bortoli Wines, Riverina (Bilbul), the one out west

Griffith is a long way from anywhere, which makes a playground more useful, not less. Their Riverina cellar door page says: don't forget to bring along the little ones, our children's playground is sure to be a hit.

10) Modus Merewether (Merewether), a brewery a block from the beach

Newcastle's beach suburb, so this is the one you fold into a day that was already going to include sand.

11) Jervis Bay Brewing Co (Huskisson), on the way to the water

Huskisson is the town you stop in on a Jervis Bay trip. The brewery is set up for groups and families rather than for a quiet pint.

12) Capital Brewing Co (Fyshwick), the biggest space on this list

Canberra, and the only ACT entry. Their own taproom page: there's a massive space for small humans to play in, including a cubby house and games, and shady spots for four legged family members to laze around. Two thousand square metres of garden, so nobody is being asked to sit still.

Victoria

13) Badgers Brook Winery (Coldstream), the most equipment anywhere on this list

Yarra Valley, and it is not close. Their visit page: while you enjoy your wine tasting, the kids can burn off energy in our adventure playground. The adventure playground itemises as a ball pit, slides, trampolines and swings. If the aim is to tire children out, this is the one.

14) De Bortoli Yarra Valley Estate (Dixons Creek), the tractor

Their own post describes a well used and well loved tractor in our children's playground here in the Yarra Valley, and puts it better than we could: mum and dad get to play in the cellar door and the kids get to play here.

15) Pfeiffer Wines (Wahgunyah), a sand pit stocked with real toys

Rutherglen, and the detail is the charm. Pfeiffer say they have a sand pit and cubby house, stocked with some of our grown up kids and grandkids most loved and treasured toys.

16) Cape Horn Vineyard & Riverside Bar (Echuca Village), playground on the Murray

On the river outside Echuca. Their own words: kids enjoy the playground and giant chess board, or just playing ball games on the extensive lawn area.

17) Green Olive at Red Hill (Main Ridge), a working farm as well

Mornington Peninsula. The farm is the draw as much as the wine, so there is more going on than a play area alone.

18) Basils Farm (Swan Bay), Bellarine with a view

Looking back across the water toward Queenscliff. A long lunch venue that has made room for children rather than tolerating them.

19) Fallen Giants (Halls Gap), under the Grampians

The most scenic setting on the list by some distance, and a useful stop on a Grampians trip where the rest of the day is walking.

South Australia

20) Sidewood Estate Cellar Door (Hahndorf), swings and room to run

Adelaide Hills, ten minutes from Hahndorf. Asked directly whether children are welcome, they answer: yes, we have swings set up and plenty of space for them to run around while you relax.

21) False Cape Wines (Dudley East), a nature playground on Kangaroo Island

Worth the ferry. Their cellar door page lists an enclosed lawn and kids nature playground and basketball backboard, and their booking form lets you ask to be seated at the playground, which tells you it is a real place rather than a corner.

22) Smiling Samoyed Brewery (Myponga), playground beside the bar

South of Adelaide on the Fleurieu. Their own words: we are proudly family friendly with a playground next to the brewery bar, easy access to the Myponga Reservoir for a walk. Beside the bar is the part that matters.

23) The Suburban Brew (Glynde), the city option

Eight minutes from the Adelaide CBD, so this is the one for a Saturday afternoon rather than a day trip.

Tasmania

24) Puddleduck Vineyard (Richmond), fenced, which is rare

Twenty five minutes from Hobart in the Coal River Valley. Their own site calls it a Kids Zone, complete with children's playground, outside and fully fenced. Fenced is the word most venues cannot say.

25) IronHouse Brewery, Distillery & Vineyard (Four Mile Creek), all three on one site

On the east coast, and unusual in being a brewery, a distillery and a vineyard at once. A long way from Hobart, so it belongs to an east coast trip rather than a day out.

Western Australia

WA has more of these than the rest of the country combined, so it gets its own guides rather than a paragraph here. Margaret River alone has six, including one with a fully enclosed playground and one with a sand pit beside the dining deck. The Swan Valley, twenty five minutes from Perth, is the easiest family wine region in the country to reach.

Both are covered properly in their own posts, linked at the bottom of this page.

If None of These Suit

A few well known venues get listed elsewhere as having playgrounds and do not say so themselves. Brown Brothers at Milawa, Whistler Wines in the Barossa, Captains Creek at Blampied and Your Mates Brewing on the Sunshine Coast are all genuinely good with children, but none of them publishes anything about play equipment, so we have left them off rather than promise something that may not be there.

Two more are honest about being smaller than a playground. Du Cane Brewing in Launceston has an indoor children's climbing wall and play area, which is the right answer in a Tasmanian winter. Bucketty's Brewing Co at Brookvale has a sectioned off kids play area suitable for children aged 1 to about 5, which is exactly as useful as it sounds if your children are that age and no use at all if they are nine.

The Cheat Code: How to Plan a Winery Day With Kids

The trick is not finding one good venue. It is sequencing the day so the one with the playground lands at the right moment, which is usually second, after everyone has burned off the car trip and before anyone is hungry enough to be difficult.

Do this:

• Put the playground venue in the middle of the day, not at the start
• Call ahead only if you need a table, not to ask about the playground, because the ones above have already told you
• Pack for the weather, since almost every one of these is outdoors

Watch for:

• Venues that say children welcome and nothing more, which usually means a lawn
• Indoor tasting rooms that are adults only even when the grounds are not
• Harvest and event days, when the space the playground sits in becomes a marquee

Find them all on the map in the Jedhi app, filtered to the venues that actually have one.

More in this series: Margaret River wineries with playgrounds, Swan Valley wineries with playgrounds and Hunter Valley wineries with playgrounds.