Our playgroup pals are recognisable friends who have different personalities, ages, interests and hobbies. Our pals reflect the joy of childhood and the playful spirit that comes from learning about the world. They are here to act as a friendly welcome to families, highlighting that playgroup is for everyone and celebrates how unique we all are.

LILY THE LIZARD

Loves: Finding new things and conducting experiments
Dislikes: Cold weather and staying indoors
Favourite game: Finding treasures and studying nature

I am curious and love to explore. I can run very fast and race through shrubs and up into tall trees where I can look far and wide, watching the world around me. I am adventuresome and enjoy discovering new plants to eat and animals to make friends with. I love finding out how things around me work

PETE THE PLATYPUS

Loves: Swimming and diving
Dislikes: Being asked to slow down and come home for dinner
Favourite game: Hide-and-seek

I love swimming and spend most of my time ducking and weaving through Australia’s rivers and streams. My bill is super sensitive and helps me find food underwater. It also helps me navigate in the dark. I am a tad shy and keep to myself, but I am very kind when you get to know me. The best way to bond with me is through water play!

ELLIE THE ELEPHANT

Loves: Playing outside all day long with my friends and family and trunk cuddles
Dislikes: Being alone for too long – I prefer to stay close to my family
Favourite game: Follow the leader

I can walk really quietly and even though I am a big baby, I am very soft and gentle. I like using my trunk to play ball and reach up high for snacks in the trees. I have been a vegetarian my whole life. I love to munch on grass and woody plants. I also love to drink lots of milk – up to 11kgs a day!

OMNI THE OCTOPUS

Loves: Being creative and problem solving
Dislikes: Tidying up and keeping things neat. It stresses me out!
Favourite game: I am very curious and artistic. I love playing with toys and objects and I also love to dance, paint and get messy!

I enjoy learning new things and creating works of art. With my eight legs I am good at multi-tasking. My arms are always busy, and things quickly get messy when I’m around. I can easily camouflage myself in any setting and I love art, music, literature, science and nature. I am easily entertained and can talk underwater, literally!

EUGENE THE EMU

Loves: Pottering around outside with my kids
Dislikes: People teasing me because I cannot fly!
Favourite game: Teaching my children new things and racing them

I love being a Dad. My life changed when my wife laid her first egg. I sat on the egg and looked after it. Now I have two little chicks and we spend all our time playing. We are very fast runners, but can’t fly. We’ve been around a long time. I tell my daughters while we may not be able to fly we are related to dinosaurs. How’s that for famous relatives?

KOBI THE KOOKABURRA

Loves: Having a laugh
Dislikes: Being alone for a long time. I always like to have a buddy by my side
Favourite game: Singing nursery rhymes and telling jokes

I enjoy hanging out with my friends singing Kookaburra Sits in the Old Gumtree. My bird call is wildly known as a Bushman’s Clock as I make a racket early in the morning and later in the evening. I like to be positive and am a glass half-full type of kookaburra. We are so lucky to live in such a beautiful part of the world and I make the most of it.

KIP THE KOALA

Loves: Art, music, movies, poetry and all things creative and colourful
Dislikes: Too much attention and people judging my artwork as it is part of who I am
Favourite game: Creating art and playing in nature

I am a creative type and enjoy daydreaming and making art. Up in the trees I like to write poetry and hum quietly to myself. I am an introvert. Crowds startle me, and I often feel overshadowed by big personalities. I move slowly and create slowly. I believe good things take time and while some may think I’m lazy, my head is always full of ideas.

ANNIE THE ANTEATER

Loves: Exploring the bush and being outside
Dislikes: People cutting down trees and harming the environment
Favourite game: Finding ants and catching them with my tongue

I have a lot in common with other animals. I have a pouch like a kangaroo, I look a bit like a porcupine, some people say my nose is like a beak and I lay eggs like reptiles. I like to keep to myself as I am happy and free when in the bush. I spend all day playing and observing nature. It changes every single day and never ceases to amaze me.

WALZO THE WOMBAT

Loves: Collecting things and giving old objects a new life
Dislikes: Being pestered to clean up and throw away my treasures
Favourite game: Hide and Seek

A perfect day for me involves a slow meander through the bush, finding some bush tucker and materials to play with as I go. I am a friendly fellow and enjoy making things for my friends. I have built a cubby house out of fallen wood and discarded objects for us to play in. I don’t understand why we throw away so many interesting things.

OLGA THE OWL

Loves: Reading, writing and observing quietly
Dislikes: Noisy people, uninformed opinions and getting up early
Favourite game: Storytime and reading quietly to myself

Since I was an owlet I have loved to read. I liked to stay up late, watching the stars and reading books where I discovered the most wonderful things, all without needing to leave home! I am now much older, but I love passing on the joy of reading to my grandchildren and encouraging them to tell our stories to their own children someday.

PJ THE POSSUM

Loves: Dressing up and performing
Dislikes: Cleaning and keeping quiet
Favourite game: Singing and dancing in costume and performing for my friends

I love dancing on my roof! I practice my acrobats and scoot up trees, singing and dancing for all to hear. I rummage through my dress-up box every day and pretend to be different characters. I like showing my friends at playgroup my dance moves and I sing for them, too. When I grow up I want to be a ‘superstar’!

KALI THE KANGAROO 

Loves: Hopping really fast and partying!
Dislikes: Being told to slow down
Favourite game: Who can hop the furthest

I can hop faster than the fastest racehorse! I am speedy, very social and enjoy spending time in packs. There are more kangaroos in Australia than humans. Next time you are out in the countryside at dawn or dusk, you might see me and my friends! Boing boing! Christmas in my most loved time of the year. The warmth! The holidays! It’s great fun

KALEIDOSCOPIC KAI THE BUTTERFLY

Loves: Bright colours, sunny days, making collages, flying with friends and flowers
Dislikes: Cold weather, being stuck indoors, a strict routine, sitting still for too long
Favourite game: Flower picking and nature treasure hunt

My favourite book is The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carl. I can’t hear very well so rely on communicating visually and chemically. I am inspired by the outside world and love to go exploring, picking bright flowers and inspecting the different patterns, colours and scents. I am a very sensory person. Fluttery Fun!

CAM THE CAMEL

Loves: Dad jokes, talking long walks, wandering the desert landscape, hanging with my friends and family
Dislikes: Being rushed and getting up and down and up and down when children try to climb on me. My knees creak!
Favourite Game: I love slowly enjoying a meal with my friends, watching my children play

I can run as fast as a racehorse if I want to! I am quite adaptable and like to help others. I don’t need much sleep at night and am quite strong. I can carry lots of the playgroup toys into the garden for everyone else to play with. One of my favourite attributes are my long eyelashes. They protect my eyes from the sun and sand- which is great because I love to be in sandy areas.

GWEN THE PENGUIN

Loves: Swimming (especially diving into the ocean), snacking, seafood, building things (Nests and cubbies the most), huddling together with my friends to keep safe and warm 
Dislikes: Being away from my family and being judged by my choices 
Favourite game: Diving deep down into the ocean to see what lies beneath the surface 

I like wearing a thick coat to keep warm. I love to ‘waddle’ on land and can sometimes walk up to 60km! When I am with my group of penguin friends in the water we refer to ourselves as a ‘raft’. I enjoy camouflaging with white and black when playing hide and seek and as a non-binary parent, I often spend time looking after my baby eggs while my partner goes out to eat. She is so kind, she nearly always brings something back for me!