In my opinion, Newstead Park is the nicest Sunday afternoon hang out in Brisbane. Granted, it's not…read moreas huge as New Farm Park, but the benefits of this are that there's often more space and less crowds. And the trees are beautiful! A friend of mine celebrated their birthday in Newstead Park recently and it had been years since I'd hung out there. We had an afternoon full of food, friends and fun. There's an infectious relaxed vibe to the place and it's hard not to relax when watching the City Glider ride by on the river. Oh, the river! It looks so beautiful from the angle, especially on a beautiful day. It would be a beautiful place to host a wedding or any special occasion. Another friend of mine from overseas has fond memories of Newstead Park and maintains that some of his best times in Australia were simply spent taking a picnic there with some friends and kicking a football around for an afternoon. It proves that it's one of the best picnic spots in all of Brisbane.

This park is small but perfectly formed. The river curves beautifully around the manicured lawns…read moreand there's plenty of gorgeous old trees for shade. Kids can roll around and scream without bothering anyone, and adults can eat cheese and sip wine while enjoying a relaxing afternoon (what is it about the river that just instantly chills you out?) This is definitely a great picnic spot and although it is popular it never feels too crowded.

Got a chance to see the Belle Lume Sculpture and just wow! So very aesthetically pleasing to the…read moreeyes. Very sturdy and beautiful!

From the owner: Over the last 40 years the staff of Natureworks has produced the masters for most of the "high…read morequality" fibreglass life-size animal art currently being sold on the world market. Natureworks has been sculpting moulding and casting life-size wildlife for almost 40 years. The collection of moulds of sculptural features now numbers over 2000 different individual pieces. Casts can be made in a variety of materials from Fibreglass, Glass Reinforced Cement (GFRC), Hard-Coated Urethane Foam and Cold Cast Bronze. New pieces are being created all the time. They can be adapted for domestic use, playground or zoological standard and are designed, reinforced & finished to varying standards as appropriate to its use.

So let's be honest, there is not much at Crosby unless you play sport. Not much in the way of play…read moreequipment or attractive water features. It does however have a lot of beautiful tall trees and lush green grass which is why I like it. I have grabbed a coffee once or twice from somewhere in Albion and then wandered down to the park with a book in hand to relax in the shade on a sunny day. It is really peaceful if there are not too many people around. You don't get a whole lots of traffic noise and there is plenty of parking space.

Downey Park is home to a lot of sports associations in Brisbane. The Women's Hockey Association of…read moreBrisbane, the Softball Association as well as the Brisbane Table Tennis Association can all be found along Downey Park. It is THE park to go to if you're an avid sports person of almost any kind. They've got heaps of basketball courts, and a grassy area with basketball hoops there if you just want to practice shooting hoops. They've got at least two football sized fields for use. A bikepath runs past Downey Park and so cyclists can either continue on or have a rest stop at the park. At the southern end of the park, there's a fenced off lease dog area with training jumps put in place for owners who want to train their dogs or teach them tricks. The sporting options are many, and the facilities are fantastic there. It's a great park that really allows you to do everything you could possibly want to do in a park, except perhaps skate. No skating facilities. Other than that, Downey Park is your oyster.

I was one of those kids who tried just about every sport available to me in the hope that I would…read moreexcel in one. I sucked at them all and eventually came to terms with the fact that I'm just not athletic. In fact, I'm totally uncoordinated and pretty much the last person you should pick in that humiliating team selection game thing. My sporting pursuits meant that I spent a lot of time at Downey Park. Whether I was tripping over clods of dirt on the hockey fields, tripping over the bases on the softball diamonds, or tripping over a painted line on the netball courts (do you see a pattern here?), I was always at Downey Park on a Saturday morning in one hideous uniform or another. Because I live quite nearby, even though I've given up my dreams of Olympic gold I still come to Downey Park quite often. For one thing they have a nice big enclosed dog park area at the back which is ideal for my two crazy terriers, but there's also a nice walking path along the creek which will lead you to City Farm. The playground at Downey Park was recently redone and now includes a dizzying whirly-gig that I can never walk past without taking for a spin and some swings under the shade of big jacarandas. There's always something to do at Downey Park, even for those of us who are athletically-challenged.

Outside of my own sentimental affection for this park (I used to sleep under it's trees on long…read morewalks home from the Valley), Bradshaw Park is actually a lovely little park to go and have a picnic while in the 'burbs. It's got a barbeque there if you want to put some snags on, and it's got plenty of shade provided by the grove of trees there. The park is also big enough for you to have a game of cricket or footy if that's your thing. The Kedron Brook bike path runs through Bradshaw Park, giving cyclists a nice place to rest alongside the waterway.

Melrose Park is situated on the corner of Roseleigh Street and Rose Street in Wooloowin. It's a…read morepretty all round public space for young families and young adults to hang out at. There's a giant playground full of jungle gyms, rope castles for the tille one's to climb. In addition, the council have also installed a two-plated electric barbecue for an afternoon out. What's best is that the area has plenty of green covering to help you avoid getting sunburned. Connected to the playground is a small and tight skate park with a 4ft quarter pipe, a little fun-box and a selection of blocks and rails of different height to grind. The park itself is a little hard to manoeuvre around and if it gets too busy there's going to be a long wait for you to get a line on. Melrose also has an adjoining concrete basketball court and cricket nets. If you're hungry or thirsty there are shops about 200m up the road.