R J Sillitoe Reserve Dog Off Leash Area

R J Sillitoe Reserve at 2 Lawson Street is Hampton's busy, social off-leash field, a large open grass space shared with soccer and cricket. The standout feature is the lighting: the reserve stays usable on winter evenings, which makes it a genuine after-work spot when most suburban parks have gone dark.

The dog setup

Off-leash runs 24 hours a day, seven days a week, under Bayside City Council rules, but not within 20 metres of any sports event, training session or the playground. Dogs must be under effective control at all times, on-leash in the car park, and kept clear of the playground. Pick up after your dog; bins sit at the entrance and through the park. The reserve is only partly fenced, with gaps along the Lawson Street side, so treat it as an open field with a road on one boundary.

The facilities are better than most off-leash ovals: a tap and dog bowl near the pavilion, public toilets in the rebuilt pavilion building, benches along the edges, practice cricket nets, and shady gums around the perimeter. The pavilion came out of a multi-million-dollar upgrade with accessible facilities and a kiosk, so this is a comfortable place to linger in a way most dog fields are not.

Max: the reserve is only partly fenced, with gaps on the Lawson Street side. If your recall is not rock solid, keep to the middle of the field and away from that edge, especially near traffic.

The vibe

This is one of the more sociable dog fields in Bayside. Weekday afternoons from about 4:30pm to 6:30pm and Saturday mornings are the busy, social stretches, with the evening crowd drawn by the lighting through winter. Midday on weekdays is quieter if your dog would rather have space. Good for active, sociable dogs that like a crowd and do not mind sharing with sporting clubs.

Getting there and parking

The reserve is a short walk from Hampton Station on the Sandringham line. There is a free sealed car park on the Ludstone Street side as well as parking off Lawson Street, and you should leash up before crossing either.

Close by with the dogs

The W L Simpson Reserve is the quieter Hampton off-leash alternative, the Brighton Beach off-leash area adds a swim option up the coast, and the Hamptons Bakery on the Hampton Street strip does footpath tables that take dogs for a post-walk coffee.

More options are on the Victoria dog parks guide and the Hampton destination page.