About Best Trampoline Australia
Best Trampoline Australia is an independent comparison site covering backyard trampolines sold in Australia. It is written and edited by Steve Callahan, and it is funded by affiliate commission rather than by manufacturers.
How we assess trampolines
We are going to be direct about this, because it is the thing most buying guides are vague about on purpose.
We do not run a testing laboratory, and we have not jumped on these trampolines. Nobody who tells you a trampoline is “the safest” on the basis of having bounced on it in a backyard is telling you something meaningful, and we are not going to pretend otherwise in order to sound more authoritative than we are.
What we actually do is this:
- We read the published specifications. Frame material and gauge, mat dimensions, enclosure mounting position, spring design, maximum user weight, warranty terms and what the warranty actually covers. Where a manufacturer does not publish a figure, we write “not published” rather than estimating it.
- We assess everything against AS 4989:2015, the Australian standard covering trampoline structural strength, enclosure protection, head-entrapment gaps, padding colour contrast and weight ratings. It is the objective axis in this category and it is the one buyers actually care about, even when they do not know the number.
- We cite independent testing rather than competing with it. CHOICE physically lab-tests trampolines against AS 4989:2015 and publishes the results. That testing is the thing we cannot do. When it is relevant we link to it and say what it found. We never restate someone else’s rating as our own.
- We read verified Australian owner feedback — including, and especially, the negative reviews — looking for patterns rather than for individual complaints.
- We check Australian prices with an Australian delivery address set, and we publish the date we checked on every page carrying a price.
What we will never do
- Claim testing we have not done. There are no “we tested 40 trampolines over six months” claims on this site, because we did not.
- Make a safety claim we cannot source. Every safety statement here traces back to the standard, to a manufacturer’s published specification, or to a published test result. You will not find “we found this one safest” anywhere on this site. It converts better. It is also not something we are in a position to say.
- Publish a star rating we did not collect. Other organisations publish ratings for these exact models. We cite them in prose and link out; we do not re-emit them as ours.
- Rank a product higher because it pays more. Several products in our roundup earn us nothing at all — some because the brand is not on any affiliate network we use, some because we could not find an Australian retail route. They are ranked on merit anyway, and each entry says plainly that we make nothing from it.
- Hide the drawbacks. Every review on this site has a “what’s genuinely bad” section and a “who should not buy this” line. Neither is optional.
Why a pen name
Steve Callahan is a pen name. Writing under one is ordinary publishing practice and it is not the same thing as inventing credentials — which is why you will not find any credentials claimed on this site at all. Everything here stands on sources you can check yourself, not on who wrote it.
This site has no ownership connection to, and receives no payment, product or editorial input from, any trampoline manufacturer or retailer.
How this site makes money
Affiliate commission. When you click through to a retailer from this site and buy something, we may receive a percentage of the sale at no extra cost to you. That is the entire business model, and the full disclosure explains exactly how it works.
Corrections
Prices, specifications and stock change constantly, and we will sometimes be wrong. If you find something on this site that is inaccurate, tell us at hello@besttrampolineaustralia.com and we will correct it and update the date on the page. We would rather be corrected than be confidently wrong.
A note on safety
Nothing on this site is safety certification, and we are not a certifying body. AS 4989:2015 compliance is stated by manufacturers rather than verified by us, and we mark models as “unverified” wherever we could not locate a published compliance statement or an independent test result. Always follow the manufacturer’s instructions, install the enclosure and anchoring as directed, and supervise children using a trampoline.