Frequently Asked Questions
We are open every day of the week! Our trading hours during school term are as follows:
- Monday: 9am – 5pm
- Tuesday: 9am – 5pm
- Wednesday: 9am – 5pm
- Thursday: 9am – 5pm
- Friday: 9am – 5pm
- Saturday: 9am – 6pm
- Sunday: 9am – 6pm
Please see our Facebook or Instagram pages for up to date information regarding our opening hours on Public Holidays.
Our General Admission sessions run for 3 hours.
We also offer our “end of day – little play” sessions. Which are only available for purchase at the end of the day, when there is less than 3 hours until closing time.
They sure do!
Babies under 12 months and adults are free, but we still need you to book yourselves in! This helps us know at all times how many people are in the venue at a time to make sure we manage our capacity appropriately and avoid overcrowding.
There is a car park just outside of the venue which you can absolutely take advantage of, however this is limited to 2 hours.
We recommend parking on the upper level of the Woolworths carpark, which is just across the road from Sea Stars, as there is free parking for 4 hours, as well as all day paid parking for $5!
There is also plenty of street parking in the surrounding streets that do not have any time restrictions on weekends.
Sea Stars do not have control over the parking situation, as it is owned by the council, the best we can do is offer you suggestions on the most appropriate parking spaces to avoid parking fines. Any complaints or suggestions are asked to be brought up with the council.
That’s okay! The activities within Sea Stars are designed to be free roamed at your leisure, so you can arrive late and still be able to play when you arrive.
It’s important to note however that a delayed arrival does not mean a delayed finish. Your session will still end at the time detailed in your booking.
We are a family venue and want to do our best to make sure our customers have everything they could need for a fun day out. Some of the facilities we have for our customers to use are:
- A parents room with a changing table, hand washing facilities, safe disposal bins, and a microwave .
- Male, female, unisex, and disability accessible bathrooms.
- Temperature controlled venue, allowing for consistency across hot and cold days.
- High chairs.
- A fully operational café with all the favourites for both you and your little ones.
It sure does.
We will always do our best to maintain a comfortable environment. If it’s hot outside, we’ll cool it down. If it’s cold outside, we’ll warm it up!
We don’t use a formal booking system for our dining space, meaning you can’t reserve a table. We do however, manage our capacity to prevent over populating the venue to ensure we have a good balance between tables, chairs, and people who need them.
Sea Stars do not have lockers available for your personal belongings and is not held responsible for any lost, stolen or damaged items. Your property is your responsibility. If you are feeling uncomfortable leaving your bag unattended whilst chasing your little one around, feel free to speak with our friendly reception staff, and they would be happy to hold it for you!
We accept EFTPOS and cash payments in venue.
We do not accept AMEX.
No. We ask that outside food and drink is kept outside to preserve our safe and controlled environment from potential contaminants and allergens. As kids can often have undiagnosed allergies, we do our best to limit the food coming in and out of the venue and we ask for your support in this.
If you have any concerns regarding this, or have a special request due to severe dietary requirements or food aversions, please call the venue on (08) 7093 3433 to discuss options with a team member.
No, if you are unable to purchase an online ticket, that means that we are booked out!
Once we hit our capacity limit, we won’t allow more people into the venue until we see people starting to leave. By letting people into an already full venue, we risk dampening the experience of those who are already in, as well as offering a poor experience to those who would be walking in.
We strongly encourage booking online in advance to avoid this sort of disappointment.
Alternativley, you can give us a call on (08) 7093 3433 to confirm the current venue capacity.
They sure are! All of our staff need to maintain up-to-date First Aid and CPR training just in case its needed.
We don’t like to set too many limitations for those who come in to play at Sea Stars, we do not have restrictions for guests to use our All-Stars playground. Ultimately, it is up to you, as the caregiver, to decide whether you are comfortable with this. Children under 3 years old are required to have an adult accompany them on the All-Stars playground.
We do have a designated play area for our Tiny Stars, “The Splash Pool”. This playground is designed for little ones, and is restricted for use for children under 3 years of age only (and their caregivers). Children over not permitted to play in this space, as this is a “safe zone” for little ones, away from the big kids! Children are not to be left in this space unsupervised.
Socks are required to be worn by all guests accessing the playground. You can wear ordinary socks if you like, however for a safer and more enjoyable experience, we recommend grip socks.
Grip socks are available for purchase at reception.
Absolutely, in fact, we encourage it! It’s always great to see adults getting in and having a play with the kids. After all, adults are just grown up kids.
Of course!
Children under 3 years of age must be accompanied by an adult at all times. Older children do not need to be accompanied, however, you do need to ensure that you are keeping an eye on your child and aware of their whereabouts at all times.
Sea Stars staff are trained in playground supervision, and are there to support you if needed, however, we are not here to look after your children for you, and it is ultimately your responsibility to ensure they are playing safely.
The Splash Pool is made for children under 3 years old, but we say this loosely. Children develop at such different rates it isn’t always fair to enforce age restrictions, so we prefer you think of it this way – if your child is still trying to figure out how their legs work, this is a good space for them. If they love to run, and are a little rambunctious, it’s best they play on the All-Stars playground!
The Splash Pool is about giving wobbly walkers and little ones a safe place to move slow and fall over of their own accord, without the risk of being knocked over by the big kids!
They sure do! Children under 3, or “Tiny Stars”, as we call them at Sea Stars, must be accompanied by an adult. They are not to be left alone, unsupervised in the Splash Pool.
Yes please! Especially in the Splash Pool! As our Tiny Stars are still rolling about and spending a lot of their time close to the floor, we ask that you remove your shoes, and wear socks, before entering the Splash Pool. This helps us keep the floor clean, and avoids bringing in yucky germs from the bottom of your shoes!
If an older child wishes to come in while their younger sibling or friend is playing in the Splash Pool, that is fine. As long as they are staying calm, and accompanying the little one. If they need to use big movements and burn some energy, they need to go back on to the All-Stars playground.
Our mini cars and arcade machines both work by using tokens to play! Some arcade machines do also accept pay-wave!
Tokens are available to purchase with cash, or card, from our token dispenser in the venue. Each token is the value of one credit.
Children under 3 are required to have an adult with them to use the mini cars. Adults are able to sit in the cars with their child under 3.
Children over 3 do need an adult to supervise them on the sidelines, however don’t require an adult to sit in the car with them.
Adults are welcome to use the cars by themselves too!
An adult must accompany a child under 3 on the Mini Cars, however aside from this rule, only one person at a time is allowed in each car. There isn’t a specific weight limit, as long as you can fit in the car safely, you can have a go!
Children need to be at least 6 years old, and 120cm tall in order to access the Island in the Sky course.
Adults are welcome to use the course too, however, there is a weight limit of 110kg.
They sure are! Each session will have at least one Sea Stars team member present at all times! They will guide your child how to safely maneuver themselves around the course before heading up and having a go!
Staff have been trained in all safety procedures and operations for the high ropes course, ensuring that your child is in the safest hands possible!
We like to allow children to figure some things out themselves, but staff are always present to help out if your child is stuck or distressed whilst on the course!
Being that our Island in the Sky course is only for children 6 years or older, we don’t run sessions on weekdays during school terms, as most children are in school at this time!
Sessions operate multiple times throughout the day, on weekends, public holidays, and school holidays.
All guests who purchase an Island in the Sky pass are required to sign a waiver upon purchase. Children under 18 require a guardian over the age of 18 to sign on their behalf.
Shoes must be worn in order to use the course.
To book a party please click on the “book now” icon at the top of the screen and follow the prompts!
Alternatively, you can call the venue directly on (08) 7093 3433, or visit the venue to book in person.
Yes, all birthday party bookings require a non-refundable $100.00 deposit to secure your spot.
We require a non-refundable deposit of $100.00 at the time of booking. Remaining amount owing does not need to be paid until you arrive on the day of your party, however, you are welcome to make payments before this date by calling the venue.
You can, however, if it is showing that there are no available times for your preferred date online, that likely means that our parties are booked out for that day.
Usually there will be a party on before yours, which finishes 30 minutes before your party.
This gives staff 15 minutes to clean up from the last party, and 15 minutes to set up for the next one! We allow for the party family to come into their party room no earlier than 15 minutes prior to their booking time, unless discussed and approved with the Events Team prior.
No. As we have a high demand for birthday parties, we like to keep our bookings for 2 hours each, to ensure that more people get a chance to book in a party each weekend.
If you or your guests would like to stay after the 2 hours has finished, you are able to purchase a 1 hour playground extension, for $5 per child. This is subject to availability and to be discussed with your party host to ensure we have the venue capacity for this.
If the child is old enough to be eating the party food, and playing on the equipment. Essentially, any child over 1, is counted in number of guests in the birthday party package.
If you have any questions regarding this, please call the venue on (08) 7093 3433 to discuss.
We don’t currently supply birthday cakes as we don’t have the storage space for this.
All birthday party booking holders are welcome to bring along their own cake, ensuring there are no nuts or nut ingredients. We are unable to store your cakes in a fridge, so please avoid bringing in ice-cream cakes! Any cakes brought in must be stored and eaten inside your party room.
It depends on the requirement. We do offer some gluten free, dairy free, and vegan options, however these are quite limited at the moment. Food items such as chips and wedges are cooked in the same fryer as gluten containing items, and we can not guarantee that these will be Coeliac friendly.
Please call the venue directly on (08) 7093 3433 to discuss any dietary requirements or requests. If given enough notice, we can generally cater to most requests.
No. Sea Stars is a children’s venue, with many of our guests having undiagnosed allergies.
By only allowing food that is ordered and prepared by our in-house kitchen team, we are able to better control the food being consumed and ensure our premises are a healthy and safe environment for those with severe food allergies. This also allows us to inform any families of the allergens that may be present in the venue, in the event of an allergic reaction.
Not at all! Whether you’re 3, or 30, we would be delighted to celebrate with you at Sea Stars!
You certainly can, however, we do have our very own party supply store right here at Sea Stars! We have all sorts of party supplies and decorations, from licensed party stock, to extravagant balloon garlands! Meaning you can leave everything, including decorating, up to us, and you won’t have to lift a finger!
We have a few different party invites available, all are printed and ready for collection!
If you have paid your deposit for a birthday party booking at Sea Stars, you are welcome to visit the venue and collect some invitations any time during business hours.
We sell basic party bags at $4 each, which you can add on to your party package. They contain things such as gummy lollies, stickers, bubbles and your typical novelty party bag toys!
Our Super Duper Splashtastic Party package does have party bags included in the package.
You are welcome to bring in your own party bags for your party if you’d prefer to personalise and suit them to your party theme too! Just ensure that these do not contain any items with nuts in them.
You certainly can. Please speak with your party host on arrival, and they will be able to organise this for you. Payment for this will need to be paid upon departure.
That depends on what you would like! Every event is different, contact the venue directly to discuss your dream event, and we’ll give you a quote based on your wants and needs!
It is up to you! Our base pricing is just for hire of the venue for 3 hours.
Extra inclusions such as unlimited Mini Cars access all night, access to our High Ropes course, coffee/tea services or children’s entertainment can be organised at an additional cost.
Please contact the venue directly for more information on pricing!
As long as we have recieved the $500.00 deposit to secure your booking, we don’t require final payment until the time of your event.
If you need to cancel your event, we can do one of two things.
Reschedule your event to a later date or, if you have to cancel entirely, we can do this, however, we can not refund your $500.00 deposit as this is a non-refundable payment.
We generally run our private events for 3 hours, however, you are welcome to extend this at an additional cost! After all, we are here to give you the event of your dreams, we are happy to party a little longer if you need! However, we can’t party any later than 11pm!
Unfortunatley no. We understand that after hours events don’t work for everyone, but we like to keep our venue open for the public for our regular daytime hour and only offer private hire events for outside our regular business hours.
No. Firstly, Sea Stars do not hold a Liquor License, so we legally can not allow this.
Sea Stars is a family friendly venue, guests are not permitted to consume alcohol on our premises. Adults are required to actively supervise children, and being intoxicated can make it difficult for anyone to supervise a child and keep them safe. Any persons that enter the venue under the influence of alcohol, or other recreational substances, are not permitted to access any of the equipment in the venue due to health and safety regulations.
Adding alcohol into private events makes it difficult to regulate this, thus having made the choice to keep our venue an alcohol-free zone. For now.
We have a delicious catering menu to order from, which we prepare and serve in-house for you, meaning you don’t have to lift a finger all night!
We do understand that some people may have specific dietary requirements, or would just prefer to serve something different at their event, and we are happy to discuss for guests to organise outside catering upon discussion with the Events team. If approved for outside catering, you will be required to sign a waiver to state that you take full responsibility for any injury, illness or loss caused from consumption of your own food and that Sea Stars holds no responsibility for any food brought in from outside the venue.
Sea Stars can not provide any heating, refrigeration or preparation facilities for food brought into the venue as this could pose a threat for contamination in our kitchen.
You certainly can, but to take the stress out of organising everything yourself, Sea Stars does have an in-house party supplies store! We sell things such as licensed party supplies and decorations, to extravagant balloon garlands and backdrops!
We have a very talented balloon artist who can create just about anything! If you have something specific in mind, feel free to send us some inspo pictures, and we’ll do our very best to bring your ideas to life!
You can prepare your own playlist leading up to the event, and share it with us on the night, or guests can make requests all night! Alternativley, we can play our own playlist which is full of all the best hits, with music everyone’s bound to enjoy!
Our Messy Stars Playgroup is a program designed to give children opportunities to get messy and freely explore their senses through a variety of sensorial play experiences and art exploration! Sessions are designed to allow children to freely explore the environment at their own pace.
There will be a variety of themed experiences each week, many experiences will involve messy play, so keep in mind, children MAY get a little messy sometimes!
Our programs have been inspired by a small team of Sea Stars staff members, who each have a background in Early Childhood education and/or experience working with neurodiverse children, or children with additional/complex needs. Our Messy Play sessions are aimed to provide an outlet for all children (and grown-ups!) to explore creativity, nourish their senses and embrace the messes, all in a safe and controlled environment!
In term 3, we will be running playgroup on Tuesdays and Wednesdays from 10-11am!
Tuesday’s session is suitable for all ages and abilities!
Wednesday’s we run our “Discovery Stars” session, for babies 0-18 months!
Tuesday – 10am-11am
Suitable for all ages and abilities!
Our Tuesday Messy Stars Playgroup is for everyone!
Inviting children of all ages and abilities to come along and explore their senses! Sessions are unstructured, allowing for children to engage and explore at their own pace. Each week there will be something new to see and do! And even better, there will be no clean up involved for you!
Wednesday – Discovery Stars 10am-11am
0-18 months
Providing an opportunity to meet other parents and carers in the community and their little ones! A chance to have a coffee, whilst your babies explore through exciting sensory and messy play experiences, songs and socialisation in a safe and controlled environment! All experiences planned will be taste safe and developmentally appropriate.
Anything can happen during our Messy Stars sessions! We don’t tend to stick to a specific structure, and it depends on the children as to how structured our sessions are each week!
Generally, families will arrive at different times, so for the first 10 minutes or so, children freely play and explore the experiences set up.
Once most of the group have arrived, we try to sit down to sing a ‘Good-Morning” song and introduce ourselves, and talk about the different experiences set up. The children aren’t always interested in doing this, so we don’t force this, sometimes, children spend most of the session exploring and getting messy, whilst the grown-ups join in or chat amongst themselves.
To wrap up the session, we like to bring out some bubbles to the mat for a little group time! We might sing a couple of our favourite songs, or read a book. Then it’s time to say thank-you, and goodbye, before cleaning ourselves up and heading out!
Given that these sessions are designed for the children to engage at their own pace, our sessions are always different and sometimes we won’t always have a group time at all, but we do encourage everyone to join in!
Children of all ages are welcome to attend our Tuesday session!
Wednesday’s are suitable for babies from 0-18 months only!
You sure do! Our playgroup is getting more and more popular and we do sometimes book out! Be sure to jump on our “book now” tab at the top of this page to secure a spot in our next Messy Stars playgroup session!
It’s highly advised to dress your child, and yourself in clothing that you won’t mind getting messy in! Although not compulsory, we do also recommend bringing along a change of clothes for those extra messy days!
If you’d prefer to attempt to keep the mess off your child’s clothes, we can provide the children with a Sea Stars Art Smock to wear! Although most materials we use during our Messy Play sessions are intended to be “washable”, this doesn’t guarantee that things will always wash off. Sometimes materials such as paint, markers or food dye may temporarily stain clothing, or skin.
We do have a small washing-up area, with some hand towels and water, available for you to use to help clean up your children! However, we do encourage you to bring in your own hand towel or similar if you would prefer, as well as a wet-bag for dirty clothes!
Please call the venue directly if your child has any food allergies or other health conditions that we may need to be aware of at least 1 day before your session.
Due to the nature of Messy Play, there are lots of different messy experiences each week. Some experiences may contain food products/ingredients and/or detergents. We do our best to ensure these experiences are taste-safe, as children do LOVE to put everything in their mouth! Which is why it is so important to ensure staff are aware of any allergens or sensitivities your child/ren has, prior to your session, to ensure we can provide alternative experiences for them.
Given that many young children are yet to have been exposed to some allergens, by participating in a Messy Stars session, your child may be exposed to an undiagnosed allergy. Staff running these sessions are trained in First Aid and Anaphylaxis training, in the event your child has an allergic reaction, staff are confident in how to respond.
We do use messy products which are non-toxic, however, the products provided are not intended to be eaten.
Although we do our best to ensure all materials are safe and age appropriate, some materials can still pose a choking hazard. We understand that many children instinctively mouth items, however, please ensure you are actively monitoring your child, especially when they are exploring their oral senses to avoid the occurrence of choking.
Parents/Carers must be present at all times throughout the session, and are responsible for the supervision of their child/ren. We highly encourage all parents and carers to join in with the sessions and get a bit messy too!
3 years! All Sea Stars gift cards are valid for 3 years from date of purchase!
Sea Stars gift cards can be used to purchase any general admission tickets online, or in the venue. You may also use your gift card to purchase any items in reception, such as grip socks and party supplies!
Gift cards are not able to be redeemed in the café for food or drink items.
You can use your gift card when booking online, just select “redeem gift card” as your payment option at the online checkout.
Alternativley, you can also use your gift card to pay for your admission in person at Sea Stars! Just show one of our friendly reception staff and they’ll know what to do!
Yes you can. Simply book online as per usual, and when proceeding to the online checkout, press the “redeem gift card” payment option, and enter the gift card code.
We keep a record of all gift cards that have been issued, so if you do lose yours, give us a call and we can look up your name on file and find your gift card code to re-issue to you!
Not at all! You can use your gift card to pay for as many visits as possible, until the balance runs out, as long as it’s within the 3 year expiry date!
All kinds of fun things!
We have licensed party supplies, with all your favourite characters and themes such as Frozen, Spiderman, Bluey, Cocomelon, Pokemon and many more, available to purchase at Sea Stars any time!
It doesn’t stop there, if you want to go big for your event, we’ve got you! We offer a range of custom balloon designs, from small balloon boquets, to gigantic balloon garlands and backdrops!
You certainly can! We have a variety of party and event supplies available for hire, such as garland frames, cake stands, plinths and giant light up numbers!
For more information on what we have available, please contact the venue directly on (08) 7093 3433, or send the Events Team an email – events@seastarsplaycafe.com.au
You are welcome to purchase anything from our party supply store, whether you’re holding an event at Sea Stars or not! However, we don’t offer hire of our event supplies outside out of our venue, to ensure these items don’t get damaged and are available for those who are celebrating within Sea Stars!
For hire of any event supplies such as our garland frames or light up numbers, we recommend organising this with us at least 2 weeks in advance to ensure you don’t miss out!
To allow us time to order any additional balloons or other elements required for custom balloon designs, all custom balloon design orders require at least 2 weeks notice.
Please call the venue on (08) 7093 3433, or visit the venue, to discuss all party supply orders.
