Holiday Park Playground Equipment Done Differently: BIG4 Dunsborough Southern Stars
The best test of any playground is what happens after the install team leaves.
At BIG4 Dunsborough Southern Stars Holiday Park in Dunsborough, WA, one guest commented on Instagram that their child had played non-stop from 7am to 8pm. Another noted that around every corner, something intricate waited to be discovered — and that the people who built it clearly cared about their work.
This is what holiday park playground equipment looks like when it starts with a relationship, grows through a design process, and arrives as something a venue can genuinely call its own. Van Ryt Industries designed three products for this installation: the 524-MTH Motorhome — a life-size West Australian Jarrah timber motorhome playground — the 432-CLC Clothesline Climber, and a 205-DAS Double A-Frame with Basket and Double Swings. The Motorhome and Clothesline Climber are both now part of the VRI range — because that is how VRI products come to life. Bespoke to a client, then available to the world.
A Five-and-a-Half Year Relationship
The park owners first engaged Van Ryt Industries at Riverside Holiday Park in Eaton — over five years ago. When they were ready to transform the play space at their Dunsborough property, they came back.
That existing trust changed everything from the outset. VRI lead designer Luke Priddle didn't arrive with a catalogue. He arrived with context. A site visit led to pen-and-paper sketches. Sketches became concept drawings and Revit renders, issued to the client as they developed. The brief included a specific requirement: the park's Southern Stars branding — white, gold, and olive — had to live inside the equipment itself. Stencil star cutouts on the Motorhome's Jarrah cladding. Colour-matched slide, trimming, and painted accents throughout.
Not a product with a sticker. A playground that was theirs.
450 to 500 Hours of Jarrah Craftsmanship
The Motorhome took 450 to 500 man hours to build in VRI's O'Connor WA workshop. It is life-size — approximately 4 tonnes of West Australian Jarrah hardwood and steel — and loaded with play from bonnet to back bumper.
The driver's cabin features a stainless steel steering wheel, hand-carved dashboard controls, and UV-stabilised windows. Painted Jarrah wheels with polished stainless steel hub caps sit at each corner. A laser-etched Jarrah radio head unit occupies the dash. A swinging hammock waits at the rear. A novelty washing line runs through the awning. And under the stairs — a loo, complete with a resident frog. 🐸
"Everywhere you look, everything has been executed meticulously — no fixing out of line, every brushstroke done with care."
— Luke Priddle, Lead Designer, Van Ryt Industries
The Clothesline Climber came from a different kind of memory. Luke had spent years wanting to capture the childhood experience of swinging off a Hills Hoist — in a safe, fit-for-purpose setting with proper engineering behind it. The result is a hot-dip galvanised steel frame with a spider web rope net face climb, chain-suspended pommel disc platforms at varied heights, an elevated clothesline cable traverse, and a carved Jarrah winding block that doubles as a foothold. A rotating design was explored initially; however, it was set aside for safety and play value reasons. The fixed structure delivers significantly more challenge.
Completing the Stage 1 play space, the 205-DAS Double A-Frame with Basket and Double Swings brings high-capacity social swinging to the mix — a West Australian Jarrah double A-frame housing an inclusive basket swing and two additional swing bays. For a park that draws families all day, every day, this is caravan park play equipment built to handle the load.
A Regional Install with a 4-Tonne Crane Lift
Getting approximately 4 tonnes of Jarrah playground to Dunsborough requires planning. VRI worked with Proline Logistics (Perth) to manage freight and engaged a local machine operator for footing excavation. A local civil company organised by the client was boxing out the area on the same morning as the crane lift — so the VRI team worked concurrently alongside them from the outset.
Trees, subsurface irrigation, and a service corridor all shaped crane positioning decisions that had to be made on site. VRI managing director Ben managed the day with the kind of site experience and cross-trade communication that keeps complex regional installs on schedule.
Stage 1 Complete. More to Come. 🏕️
The park called this Stage 1 — and Stage 2 of this playground is already in the works. Keep an eye on VRI's projects page and social channels for further updates as this play space continues to grow.
Within weeks of the Stage 1 completion, BIG4 Dunsborough Southern Stars posted about the playground three times on Instagram — tagging Van Ryt Industries each time. Their installation reel reached over 213 likes, after 1 month of installation. Comments arrived that said exactly what the VRI team had set out to earn: "It turned out amazing." "It looks incredible and the kids love it!"
One guest commented on Instagram that their child had played continuously from 7am to 8pm. Another noted that around every corner, something intricate waited to be found — and that the team who built it clearly cared.
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"It's a 10 star experience. It's 10 out of 5."— A young visitor, BIG4 Dunsborough Southern Stars
Planning holiday park playground equipment for your venue? Whether you need a full design-build service in WA or you're a landscape contractor sourcing caravan park play equipment anywhere in Australia, contact Van Ryt Industries to start the conversation.
