REYCLED equipment from five Frankston playgrounds will soon get a second lease on life overseas.
The equipment will make its way to Cambodia as part of the “Play It Forward” initiative, a partnership between Frankston Council and Rotary Peninsula 2.0.
Rotary has equipment from 19 play spaces on pallets ready for future shipments overseas, and has already sent 26 play spaces to Cambodia in the past 15 months. The first shipment from Frankston is expected to ship out on 7 March.
Pieces of equipment from Ferndale Reserve will soon travel to Siem Reap. Equipment from four more council playgrounds are scheduled to follow throughout 2026.
Rotary Peninsula 2.0 past president Trudy Poole said her visits to Cambodia over the last 20 years opened her eyes to the impacts of projects like Play it Forward. “A playground is more than just a slide, a ladder, or a swing. It is a gateway to adventure, a place where, even for just 10 minutes, kids can escape the pressures of daily life,” she said. “For a child living in a place like Cambodia, this may be the only time they get to feel free to be whoever or whatever they want to be.
“We found a Rotary project – Rotary Overseas Recycled Playgrounds (ROARP) – that harvested playgrounds destined for landfill that were available to be repurposed overseas, so we decided to do something about it.”
Rotary Peninsula 2.0 works closely with local Cambodian NGO Heart Print to install the playgrounds.
First published in the Frankston Times – 24 February 2026