About 80 people turned up at a much-loved Dunedin playground on 7 November 2026, to protest plans to partly replace its famous dinosaur slide.
The slide is the star attraction at Marlow Park in St Kilda, known to locals as “Dinosaur Park”. It has been there since 1969, but Dunedin City Council voted on 5 November to approve a big upgrade of the whole playground.
Under the plan, the dinosaur’s head and neck will be kept, but the rest of the slide will be rebuilt because of safety concerns about its age. The new playground will also get an 11.5-metre whale with a slide and climbing nets, a six-metre waka, flying foxes, a climbing tower, and an accessible carousel and swings.
Not everyone is happy about the changes. Five-year-old Mason Schumacher held a sign reading “Hands Off Our Dinosaur” at the protest.
“I am sad the slide will be taken away. I like it here and it is just so fun for me,” he said.
One councillor, Jo Galer, voted against removing the old slide. “I had a real lump in my throat after that debate the other day,” she said.
Builders aren’t expected to start major work until late January, and the whole project should be finished by June 2027 — so there’s still plenty of time for one last slide down the dinosaur’s back.
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