Named Princess Elizabeth Playground in honour of then-Princess Elizabeth (now Queen Elizabeth II) following a visit to Adelaide by the Duke and Duchess of York in 1927, it was opened by Lady Mayoress, Lady Constance Bonython on 17 September 1929. The playground’s first supervisor was Miss Grace Shannon. Existing historical aspects of the playground include its shelter shed, original signage and early tree plantings.

The playground was established in the South Parklands at Mirnu Wirra (Park 21 West). Similar in design and concept to the Glover Playground (for it too was the brainchild of August Pelzer), it comprised a rectilinear layout covering approximately one acre (0.4 hectares), a symmetrical arrangement of trees, and centrally-located shelter shed. According to Pelzer, it also featured ‘a supervisor’s room and lavatory accommodation…a hedge…planted along the southern boundary fence…[a] total of 18 pieces of apparatus of various kinds…[and] plenty of seating’.