'What is this for?' Sydney mum baffled by new playground item

A new playground feature is leaving many parents baffled about exactly what it should be used for.

Excited to check out a playground's new makeover, one mum, from the Canterbury Bankstown area in Sydney's south-west was left scratching her head as she tried to work out why three wooden poles were sitting idly in a corner.

Turning to Reddit to help find an answer, she wrote: "What is it for? And is it a good swap for swings? The redesign of the playground is now complete so it's not something half done."

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The large wooden poles are not part of any other equipment feature and don't have any markings.

Other Redditors explained the poles were there to encourage kids to use imaginative play, rather than rely solely on the equipment.

"Whenever you see random things like this that don't seem to do anything in a playground, they're for creative play. Kids can hit them, climb them, hide behind them, run around them, whatever," said one.

"That's pretty good. I remember as a kid sometimes you just wanted a solid post or a wall you could throw balls at, use as a cricket stump etc," added another.

"Helped install similar few years back and they were for the kids to draw / decorate with colour chalk," commented a third.

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However, others were less convinced it was a worthy inclusion and were equally confused.

"It's just a low-budget nothing," said one. "[I] think drunk teenagers will find more creative ways of using them than young kids," agreed another.

"When I was a kid I didn't know anyone who played with these kinds of things, they just sat in the corner rotting. Creative play requires a little more than a couple vertical sticks — can't play pole tag, can't hide behind them, can't hang things from them."

Others took the opportunity to make a joke at the playground's expense.

"I'm stumped," laughed one. "Men's toilets," declared another.

And this: "That's where the bodies are buried."