Sydney water playground

On walking back to our hotel yesterday, we spied a boy desperately pumping on an old-fashioned water pump.  Interested by this, we went to investigate.  Here are the series of water pumps with troughs that funnel the water downhill:

Below the troughs, there were a series of channels, with little gates that opened and closed to change the direction of the water flow, and also drawbridges that you could lower to fill a lake and lift to release the dam.

Kurt letting some water out:

The little gates:

In between some of the gates, the ground would be sloped up so that to get water from one side of the playground to the other, you had to fix the gates just so to raise the water level enough to flood across.

There was a wheel that would bring water up from the main stream to flow into the raised channels, every half turn sent water either left or right.

Also a corkscrew - twist the handle and the water would climb the corkscrew into the pool at the top.

Half of the water playground hill.

We could have stayed and played awhile but, we didn't stay too long... I suppose Dad will find this disappointing !