Metford Skatepark

Metford Skatepark is another suburban pre-fab affair. A bank of 4.5ft quarters at each end (some with coping, some simply roll-ins) and a central funbox with an elevated slide rail. The surface is pretty rough and it’s filled with debri from the surrounding trees and the coping is almost cute! As we’ve seen again and again these kind of skateparks were an easy way for local Hunter Valley councils to get something up quickly and cheaply. They’re all slightly different but are based on the same concept and you can usually have a reasonable session… you’d probably just never go back.

Metford Skatepark seems well used by the local scooter kiddies (the craze that is rampant in the Hunter Valley) and there’s also plenty of older BMX’rs, but they were especially welcoming and loved seeing an actual skateboarder!

There’s  a free carpark and a toilet in the adjoining park, but no food nearby. It’s right near the train station and there’s even a basketball court there if you wanna shoot some hoops!

Bass Hill Skatepark

Cement pre-fab skatepark with a decent variety of quarters, banks, pyramid-boxes, fun-boxes and rails. A few of the quarters have coping and range in size from 4-6 feet. For one of these pre-fab parks it has a much wider range than usual and the’s a good run that you can do around the outside perimeter thats especially good for younger skaters who are learning drop-in’s or roll-in’s and getting used to going fast. But to be honest there is more than enough here for seasoned skaters too, well thought out placement of the fun-boxes and rails mean you can really get some great runs happening. All the cement surfaces are in good condition but the is some wear around the coping on a few of the quarters.

It seems heavily dominated by younger scooter dudes but still enough room for skateboarders to find their own runs and have a great session. Haven’t seen many BMX’rs here.

Located right on the Hume Highway at Bass Hill the park is in an open field and has a large free carpark behind the main skate area. There’s a public toilet and a few covered benches and tables as well as some scattered trees to keep out of the sun. Not really any food too close by but a couple of minutes in any direction and there’s an abundance of fast food outlets.