Parks & Leisure Winter 2019 Issue 22.2

parks &leisure AUSTRALAS IAN

Volume 22.2 Winter 2019 ISSN: 1446-5604

Recreation & Physical Activity

FIND YOUR WILD in Wellington

ACTIVE CITIZENS WORLDWIDE

The Heart of

FACILITY MANAGEMENT NO GIRLS ALLOWED? Gendered Playspaces

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CONTENTS INTERNATIONAL

FEATURES 8 9 12 16 18 20 23 26 29 32 34 38 40 42 44 46

Basketball Australia’s New CEO Find Your Wild Penshurst Park Sporting Hub A Local Idea with Global Benefits Peter McMaugh Awarded AM Active Citizens Worldwide At the Heart of Facility Management Te Taitimu Trust: Teaching Resilience & Responsibility Zencare Aquatic Wheelchair Brett Phillips: My Journey Through Sport Community-led Connectivity Anderson Park Playground: An Inclusive Winner No Girls Allowed?

Bathing Bonanza at Belmont Drinking Fountains in Public Spaces Insights Into Action

International News UNEP Director Appointed Avoiding Green Gentrification The Leading-edge of Urban Liveability 56 Greenspaces & Mature Wellbeing 58 A Generational Investment in Parks

49 49 50 53

REGULARS 4 From the PLA President & CEO 6 From the Recreation Aotearoa Chair & CEO 60 Research Connections 64 PLA Advisory News 64 Courses & Events 66 Join Us on Social Media

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ADVERTISING ART DIRECTOR Martha Rubazewicz PRODUCTION EDITOR Nicole Mulloy nmulloy@umco.com.au

ADVERTISING PRODUCTION COORDINATOR Thomas Pena

EDITORIAL COORDINATOR John Senior journal@parksleisure.com.au EDITORIAL & PRODUCTION MANAGER Nicoll Parton marketing@parksleisure.com.au DESIGNER Michaela Primiano PUBLISHING MANAGER Marcus Hucker SALES/ACCOUNT MANAGERS Marcus Hucker (NSW) 0410 338 119 Antonia Bewley (QLD & WA) 0418 424 410 Pilar Danlag (VIC & SA) 0414 468 243

CHAIRMAN/CEO Prema Perera PUBLISHER Janice Williams CHIEF FINANCIAL OFFICER Vicky Mahadeva ASSOCIATE PUBLISHER Emma Perera FINANCE & ADMINISTRATION MANAGER James Perera

CIRCULATION BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT MANAGER Mark McTaggart CREATIVE DIRECTOR Kate Podger MARKETING & ACQUISITIONS MANAGER Chelsea Peters

COVER IMAGE PxHere.com

Circulation enquiries to our Sydney head office 02 9805 0399 PLA Journal is published by Universal Magazines, Unit 5, 6-8 Byfield Street, North Ryde 2113.

Phone (02) 9805 0399, Fax (02) 9805 0714. Melbourne office, Suite 4 Level 1, 150 Albert Road, South Melbourne 3205 Phone (03) 9694 6444, Fax (03) 9699 7890. Printed by KHL Printing Co Pte Ltd, Singapore. This book is copyright. Apart from any fair dealing for the purpose of private study, research, criticism or review as permitted under the Copyright Act, no part may be reproduced by any process without written permission. Enquiries should be addressed to the publishers. The publishers believe all the information supplied in this book to be correct at the time of printing. They are not, however, in a position to make a guarantee to this effect and accept no liability in the event of any information proving inaccurate. Prices, addresses and phone numbers were, after investigation, and to the best of our knowledge and belief, up to date at the time of printing, but the shifting sands of time may change them in some cases. It is not possible for the publishers to ensure that advertisements which appear in this publication comply with the Trade Practices Act, 1974. The responsibility must therefore be on the person, company or advertising agency submitting the advertisements for publication. While every endeavour has been made to ensure complete accuracy, the publishers cannot be held responsible for any errors or omissions.

This magazine is printed on paper produced in a mill that meets Environmental Management System ISO14001 * Recommended retail price ISSN 1446-5604 Copyright © Universal Magazines MMXIX ACN 083 489 463 umco.com.au Please pass on or recycle this magazine.

Winter 2019 | AUSTRALASIAN PARKS AND LEISURE 3

FROM THE PLA PRESIDENT elcome to the winter edition of the Australasian Parks and Leisure Journal. I want to thank all those who have submitted award nominations this year for our Parks and Leisure Australia Awards of Excellence. I look forward to learning about the outstanding contributions our members have made to the parks and leisure sector, and in particular the projects that change the way we think about our work.

In this edition of the Journal, we look at new technologies and their applications. There is no doubt that the demands on our industry to accomplish more with fewer resources, coupled with maximising efficiencies and achieving cost-savings, will drive our work toward technological innovation.

These demands are amplified with an increasingly sophisticated and digitalsavvy public, where information and metrics are a base expectation — no longer a trend but the current reality.

W PAUL JANE

For the generation that grew up amazed at the power of a Commodore 64 — my generation — the ability to avoid the technology train has passed. We need to learn from and engage with the leading thinkers in this space to drive our own evolution. The great news is, we are moving forward into the collaboration space with our PaRC library and web forums, which are now up and running, making it easier to hear about and learn from the best as it happens.

Finally, I would like to acknowledge our colleagues at Recreation Aotearoa.

At the time of writing this, the Christchurch attacks had just occurred, and while we watched in horror as the events unfolded, the country’s response and the unity shown highlighted the strength of the spirit and the people of New Zealand, a spirit you all should be proud of.

Paul Jane PLA President

FROM THE PLA CEO

MARK BAND lot’s been happening over the last few months with our new membership restructure; meaning all hands on deck to help members transition to the new system. Our new structure means even more people working in the industry can benefit from our

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services, networking and professional development opportunities.

We also welcome back our partners Syngenta, Christie, Otium Planning and Moore Stephens, and thank Troy Mansell and his team at GreenLife Group for their continued support for their professional association.

We’ve also been working closely with Keep Britain Tidy to secure the ongoing licence for the Green Flag Awards. We are happy to say that we now have an agreement to continue rolling out the programme across Australia for the foreseeable future.

This is a great initiative and I encourage all park managers and planners to get involved and ensure your parks are recognised as well–managed, quality experiences for the communities we serve.

Currently we are holding discussions with the Federation for Environmental Education (FEE), which is based in Denmark. This is a new initiative and talks are developing to look at administering a number of products

We thank our national sponsors and partners:

4 AUSTRALASIAN PARKS AND LEISURE | Winter 2019

and services aimed at recognising the importance of the environment and greenspaces to include marinas and beaches, promoting a conservation ethic with our youth, and benchmarking tourist and hotel chains for environmental management.

Planning is also well underway for this year’s National Conference, which is to be held from 27–30 October in Perth.

PLA2019 will focus on the importance of linking parks, open spaces and facilities to our health, wellbeing and sporting performance. The conference will address the fundamental need for good policy, planning and provision of parks, open spaces and facilities.

On a closing note, I’d like to congratulate all regional award winners and wish you all good luck at the prestigious Awards of Excellence gala dinner to be held on 29 October at the Crown Perth in Western Australia. I look forward to seeing you all there.

Mark Band PLA CEO

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FROM THE RECREATION AOTEAROA CHAIR

MARK BOWATER ia ora koutou.

Welcome to the winter edition of the Journal. At the time of writing this article, recent tragic terror-related events in Christchurch are very much front of mind, so I wanted to reflect on elements of diversity, inclusivity, and the role that recreation plays in this.

Firstly, our organisation has recently worked through a very positive rebranding process in consultation with our membership to become Recreation Aotearoa.

The New Zealand Recreation Association (NZRA) was first established in 1992, and it was time to ensure that our brand proposition spoke to being both a strong and meaningful membership organisation, as well as the voice of recreation in New Zealand.

We needed to be able to communicate the broader benefits of recreation to stakeholders, partners and the general public, as well as arming our members with the resources, knowledge, language

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and skills they need to deliver high-quality recreation at a more tactical level.

We have a unique proposition. We are the voice of recreation in Aotearoa, representing all professionals in the industry. We empower our members to deliver the quality recreation experiences, places and facilities that fuel a more active, healthy and connected New Zealand.

Our new brand design captures the four sectors of our domain clearly (parks, aquatics, outdoor, and community recreation), while encompassing sport. It reflects that we are active, environmentally engaged and inclusive, and it looks unique, is simple and strong.

Inclusivity and diversity are key elements of the world of recreation.

Appropriately, the board of Recreation Aotearoa has recently introduced three new policies that will help drive the forward focus of the organisation: • Inclusivity | A commitment to inclusivity in the governance and operation of Recreation Aotearoa with respect to gender, ethnicity and age.

• Treaty of Waitangi | A commitment to reflect the principles of the Treaty within our governance and operation across the areas of participation, protection and partnership.

• Aspiring Director | A commitment to being more inclusive of young

professionals at the governance level of the organisation.

Consequently we now have two new members on the board: Tania Te Whenua will bring a Māori world view of recreation; and Hannah Chapman-Carr, Chair of the Generate Group, will be the voice for young professionals. The board will also be working through an inclusive leadership assessment programme. I believe these will be key initiatives for our organisation and the recreation outcomes we seek to deliver.

This brings me back to the recent terror-related activity in Christchurch, where 50 innocent people lost their lives in an extreme act of violence, hatred and racism. The impact this has had on our nation should not be underestimated.

The acts of heroism, the immense show of humanity and compassion, the way in which so many people in our country have stood in solidarity in support of those lost and grieving, and the political leadership collectively account for a turning point in New Zealand’s history. We need a future of inclusivity and diversity, and I have no doubt that recreation in all its forms will play a pivotal role in achieving this, one that will only increase in importance.

Ngā mihi nui Mark Bowater Recreation Aotearoa Chair

FROM THE RECREATION AOTEAROA CEO

ANDREW LESLIE ne of the things we love most about our industry is the passion that our members have for ensuring that New Zealand has high-quality recreation experiences for all.

Recreation is a top priority for New Zealanders, with 63 percent of young people and 62 percent of adults

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only participating in non-competitive activities, and a huge number using facilities such as pools, playgrounds, parks and fields every week.

Participation in recreation can increase a population’s capacity, capability and wellbeing. Recreation can add value to the measures used in the Government’s Wellbeing Framework, which measures wellbeing using a set of indicators that include cultural identity and activity.

Recreation Aotearoa works for the benefit of New Zealanders by building capability and networks within the recreation workforce, raising awareness of best practice and advocating for the benefits of recreation. We equip our members with the resources, knowledge, language and skills so they can deliver high-quality recreation for all.

We want our brand to reflect this passion, to show that we are both a

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strong and meaningful membership organisation, as well as the voice of recreation. This is a fresh and exciting time to be part of our industry, and we want our brand to show that.

With this in mind, NZRA has been rebranded. You may already have started to see a new logo, imagery and collateral from us. While New Zealand Recreation Association will remain our official name, we are now known as Recreation Aotearoa.

We are the voice of recreation in Aotearoa, representing all professionals in the industry. We empower our members to deliver the quality recreation experiences, places and facilities that fuel a more active, healthy and connected New Zealand.

Andrew Leslie Recreation Aotearoa CEO

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BASKETBALL AUSTRALIA GETS NEW CEO

ON THE BACK OF HER JOURNEY IN SUPPORTING HEALTH AND WELLBEING IN AUSTRALIA, JERRIL RECHTER HAS BEEN APPOINTED THE NEW CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER OF BASKETBALL AUSTRALIA

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ith an executive-level career spanning over 20 years, Jerril Rechter is known as an innovator, a leader and an influencer. She is an experienced CEO who over the last seven years has played a significant role in promoting health, wellbeing, sport and physical activity in her role as the CEO of VicHealth.

Jerril’s breadth of career experience spans high-level stakeholder management in many complex environments, including local, state and federal government bodies such as Sport Australia; peak state, national and international health and sporting bodies, together with local and national media outlets. She has embedded innovation at the centre of organisations she has worked with, and at VicHealth has sought to shine a light on the impact that sport can have on the lives of an individual and the larger Australian community.

Bringing her strong sense of enthusiasm to engage with players, fans and fellow basketball association bodies in Australia, Ms Rechter also has a personal passion and interest in basketball and its important role in connecting with women and men, girls and boys across the country. She is excited to be leading basketball in Australia into the next phase of its development as it moves towards being the sport of choice for Australian families in the 21st century.

“I am delighted to be taking up the CEO role of Basketball Australia at a time of significant growth for the sport in Australia

and internationally,” said Ms Rechter.

“Interest in basketball is rising across the nation, with Australia boasting some of the best athletes, coaches, officials, talent pathways and administrators, with a strong volunteer base and grassroots participation across all ages.

“Basketball is the sport for everyone and its role in uniting communities and sectors in a global movement is a fantastic opportunity for the sport in Australia. I am looking forward to working with all stakeholders to develop a united vision for the game that builds upon and extends existing strong foundations and relationships.”

Commenting on the appointment, Basketball Australia Chairman Ned Coten said, “Jerril has an incredible track record of building partnerships on a state, national and global level. She is a strong and proven leader who has the respect of the sport, business and government communities in Australia and internationally. We have been through a rigorous and thorough process, and Jerril came out ahead of a talented, committed and passionate field of excellent candidates for this pivotal role. I’m looking forward to working closely with her to take advantage of the amazing opportunities we have in basketball.”

As the CEO of VicHealth, Jerril steered the development and implementation of a significant innovation and change agenda that now sits at the core of its work.

Formerly concerned with activity funding, VicHealth now takes the

8 AUSTRALASIAN PARKS AND LEISURE | Winter 2019

role of strategic investor; working inventively with agencies, organisations and researchers to help reform the areas in which it invests. Led by Ms Rechter, this rejuvenated approach has seen the organisation’s leadership role expanded, and brought VicHealth national and international recognition; including designation as a World Health Organization Collaborating Centre for Health Promotion Leadership, Committee for Melbourne’s Melbourne Achiever Award, and the successful rights negotiation and creation of the awardwinning This Girl Can Victoria campaign from Sports England.

Ms Rechter has received numerous awards and acknowledgements: Recognised in the 2016 Australian Financial Review and Westpac 100 Women of Influence; Winner, Victorian Telstra Businesswoman of the Year Award (Victorian Government and Academia); Finalist, National NAB Women’s Agenda Leadership Awards; Recognised Top 50 Public Sector Women (Victoria).

Image © Jay French

FIND YOUR WILD

Participants arrive on Rangitoto Island

WITH OVER 2500KM OF OFF ROAD TRACKS, THE WELLINGTON REGION IS A TRAIL USER’S PARADISE WORDS SARAH MURRAY, WELLINGTON TRAILS GROUP

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region characterised by hills, harbours, native bush, rugged wild coastlines and nature on its doorstep, Wellington has a vast trail network running all through it. But until recently the network’s potential was unrealised. The Wellington Region was better known for its culture, craft beer and the Wairarapa’s wine trails than for its outstanding trail network.

That all changed in 2017 when the region’s eight city and district councils, regional council, regional economic development agency and the Department of Conservation came together to develop Wellington Regional Trails for the Future, a framework for the planning, development and promotion of the Wellington Regional Trails Network.

Like all good stories, it began with an awakening. Prior to this project, the network was managed and promoted by 11 different agencies, working alongside over 120 stakeholder groups comprised of trail builders, mountain biking, walking and tramping clubs, trail running and horse riding groups, trail related businesses and event organisers.

The region has a proud legacy of volunteer trail building and a large existing network, much of which was built by volunteers, but there was growing pressure to develop new trails, improve the standard of existing trails, and promote the network more. This included a significant commercially driven proposal to build a new adventure park on the slopes of Rangituhi in Porirua, and a large community driven proposal to develop the Five Towns OffRoad Trail in the Wairarapa.

Nationally there was increasing central government investment into walking and cycling through the New Zealand Cycle Trail programme, and around the country other regions were jumping on board and seeing significant economic, social and wellbeing benefits for their communities. The Wellington Region was missing out.

In Sept 2016 the Wellington Regional Parks Managers Group came together and agreed to co-fund a piece of work looking at how we could better manage our trails as a regional network. This ambitious project saw the coming

together of not just 11 different agencies and 120 different stakeholder groups, but a need to work across multiple policy and planning frameworks and with multiple elected representatives. Layered on this was a healthy amount of existing user conflict and differing views on what the network could and should offer.

Sponsored by the Wellington Regional Park Managers Group, the first step was to form a steering group and develop terms of reference outlining the scope and parameters of the project.

Central to this was recognising that the framework would guide and drive trail decision making at a local level, rather than replace local policy or the decision making. Two stakeholder representatives — one representing walkers and one representing mountain bikers — were invited to sit on the steering group, and in January 2017 TRC Tourism began development of the framework.

Working together across multiple agencies and stakeholder groups is challenging. Multi-agency projects take time, patience, perseverance and lots of good will from all parties. There is a

Winter 2019 | AUSTRALASIAN PARKS AND LEISURE 9

Image © Jay French

Image © Jay French

need to balance competing priorities, community aspirations and political interests, all the while maintaining momentum and political support across different jurisdictions. But despite all of these challenges, the project succeeded, and in August 2017 Wellington Regional Trails for the Future was endorsed by the Regional Mayoral and CE Forums, less than 12 months after the project started and with all partners still at the table.

Wellington Regional Trails for the Future sets out a plan for realising the potential of Wellington’s trail network and turning it from a sleeping giant into a world-class network that provides outstanding experiences in nature, and delivers health, lifestyle and social benefits to the region’s residents, as well as economic benefits to our communities.

A key outcome of the project was the creation of a Trails Framework Advisor position to lead and drive implementation. The steering group recognised early on that realising the network’s potential required more than just a plan. Success meant ongoing resourcing and a mechanism to deliver on the opportunities identified in the framework. The position is hosted by the Wellington Regional Economic Development Agency, who leads destination marketing for the region, and is supported by a coordination committee and community and industry forum who provide oversight, guidance and a connection back to the partner agencies and trail stakeholder groups.

The framework creates a trail hierarchy and prioritises the most significant trails in the region — the top 5 signature trails and top 20 regional

Image © Jay French

trails — which together form the best of what Wellington has to offer. It is focused on agencies and stakeholders working together to develop, manage and promote these trails as the core of the regional trails network.

In the first year of implementation, much has been achieved: • A new website and brand — Find My Wild — positions and promotes the network as a “must visit” trails destination and showcases the region’s offerings.

• Design guidelines have been developed to set the standard for priority trails and ensure the region is delivering on the promise of providing high-quality end-to-end visitor experiences.

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• A community and industry engagement forum is up and running, capitalising on strong community interest and involvement in trails management.

• An audit and gap analysis is underway to inform development plans and make the case for further investment in priority trails from local and central government, as well as community and private funders.

• Work has begun creating shared use and behavioural guidelines to help manage user conflict and make sure the network is delivering great experiences for all types of trail users.

Until 2017 there was no single source of trails information for Wellington’s residents and visitors, and low levels

Image © Jay French

of awareness of what the network had to offer. The network had a low profile and trails were not valued or positioned as part of what makes it great to live, work or visit the Wellington region.

Information was difficult to find and investment in trails was modest at best.

The potential of the network as a driver of social benefits and economic growth was unrealised.

Wellington Regional Trails for the Future got the region peddling in the same direction. It is a great example of the power of collaboration and what can be achieved when local authorities, central government, stakeholder groups and key agencies come together to work for the good of the community, regardless of territorial boundaries In the space of two short years, and as a result of the combined effort of the partner agencies, the Wellington region has gone from being a network of inconsistent and fragmented trail experiences to taking a major step toward being a truly world-class trails destination delivering real benefits to residents and visitors alike.

So next time you are in Wellington, grab your boots or bike and come and check out what this amazing part of the world has to offer.

Image © Jay French

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PENSHURST PARK SPORTING HUB

Participants arrive on Rangitoto Island

ANTICIPATING THE NEEDS OF A RAPIDLY EXPANDING REGION, GEORGES RIVER COUNCIL TOOK STEPS TO DELIVER ACTIVE PLAY AREAS FOR ITS COMMUNITY WORDS MICHELLE WHITEHURST, MANAGER PROJECT DELIVERY, GEORGES RIVER COUNCIL

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eorges River Council was formed in 2016 following the amalgamation of Hurstville City Council and Kogarah City Council. Located in the southern part of the Sydney metropolitan area, the Council area has a population in excess of 150,000, with a high proportion of people born overseas (over 44%). With a forecast increase in population of over 18 percent over the next decade, it was evident that Council would need to invest in open space for its community.

Georges River Council owns and maintains 266 parks and reserves over a total of 477 hectares. These parks and reserves range in size from less

than 0.007 hectares to parks over 50 hectares. Within these parks there are over 23 active open spaces. As with most councils within the Sydney metropolitan area, Georges River Council faces the challenge of an undersupply of active play and an increased utilisation of grounds for its sporting codes.

In 2010, anticipating the population growth within the area, the former Hurstville City Council highlighted through its Open Space, Recreation, Community and Libraries Facilities Strategy a key action that included the development of a masterplan for Penshurst Park. The masterplan would

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utilise the sports hub and precinct development model to address the growing community needs and provide a district-level facility.

Penshurst Park was viewed as a highpriority location, due to its proximity to the Hurstville Central Business District and synergy with residential developments in the area. With over 500 residential units being constructed in the vicinity of Penshurst Park, the location was deemed a high priority community development for the area.

Penshurst Park is located at the corner of King Georges River and Forest Road in Penshurst. Encompassing 3.78 hectares and housing the Hurstville Aquatic Leisure Centre, the Park is home to active recreation users including football, cricket, netball and school sports. Penshurst Park also provides passive recreation for the community, including picnic and barbeque facilities, public amenities and a children’s playground. Penshurst Park is an expansive suburban parkland providing facilities for speciďŹ c and casual recreation activities.

The existing Hurstville Aquatic Leisure Centre hosts over one million patrons per year. Its facilities include a 25m indoor pool, learn-to-swim pool,

Penshurst Park Sporting Hub Artist’s impression

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ASIA PACIFIC Winter 2019 | AUSTRALASIAN PARKS AND LEISURE 13

slides, gymnasium, group fitness rooms (including a mind and body studio), creche, and the Johnny Warren Indoor Sports Centre, which includes three indoor basketball courts.

In 2015, community engagement was undertaken to develop a masterplan that would meet the needs of the community and key stakeholders.

Feedback was sought from over 5200 surrounding residents, 39 sports groups and associations, 22 schools and 16 community groups. This feedback was used to develop a masterplan for the site and a Plan of Management that would provide a long-term vision for the Park.

The masterplan and Plan of Management for Penshurst Park was adopted by Council in 2015. The purpose of the Plan of Management is to provide clear guidelines for the management of the community land.

The Plan of Management would govern the use and management of the site, to ensure that Penshurst Park can be better utilised to meet the needs and demands of the expanding wider community.

The Penshurst Park Masterplan and Plan of Management was developed

by Conybeare Morrison International Pty Ltd, linking to Council’s Integrated Planning and Reporting Framework.

Its key objective is to provide optimum and equitable universal access to Penshurst Park and its community and recreation facilities for all users and stakeholders.

The Penshurst Park Masterplan provided an action plan that identified the Penshurst Park Sporting Hub to include a bespoke regional cricket training facility, youth centre, grandstand, synthetic field and associated amenities, plus additional indoor multipurpose courts at the Johnny Warren Indoor Sports Centre.

These regional facilities would be available for community use and were to be complemented with passive recreation elements.

Following the adoption of the Penshurst Park Masterplan and Plan of Management, Georges River Council embarked on fostering key relationships with industry partners, including Cricket Australia, Cricket NSW, Football Federation Australia, Football NSW, AFL, St George Football Association and local sporting associations and community groups. This would ensure that the new Penshurst Park Sporting Hub would be a premier regional facility for the wider community.

In December 2015, Council appointed Baker Kavanagh Architects Pty Ltd to develop the detailed design for the sporting hub, and then divided the project into three stages: • Stage 1 | Construction of the indoor cricket centre • Stage 2 | Synthetic field, grandstand, youth facility and passive recreation • Stage 3 | Expansion of Hurstville Aquatic Leisure Centre to include additional multipurpose courts The new Penshurst Park Sporting Hub has been estimated to cost in excess of $30 million.

Construction of Stage 1 of the Penshurst Park Sporting Hub commenced in 2017, with Lanskey Construction Pty Ltd appointed as principal contractor for Stage 1. In partnership with Cricket Australia and Cricket NSW, a design was developed to ensure that all Cricket Australia codes and guidelines were incorporated into the facility. This new facility will include: • Six outdoor turf wickets • Six indoor wickets (slow/medium/ fast and spin bowling wickets) • Reception area and office area • Male, female and accessible changerooms • ASADA-compliant medical room • Coaching and storage rooms • Baggage storage around the perimeter of the indoor wickets • Integrated lighting and data to enable video coaching • Kitchen and viewing area

14 AUSTRALASIAN PARKS AND LEISURE | Winter 2019

• Maintenance sheds • Three outdoor synthetic wickets Construction is anticipated to be completed in May 2019.

Stage 2 of the Penshurst Park Sporting Hub will commence late 2019, following detailed design of the key elements in conjunction with Football NSW. These works will include: • New synthetic football field (with hydraulic cricket wicket) • 275-seat grandstand • Gender-neutral changerooms and player facilities • Sports medical, physio and referee rooms • Youth centre • Canteen, plus storage and public amenities • Passive recreation elements, including children’s playground, walking track, outdoor gym equipment, landscaping and seating Stage 3 of the Penshurst Park Sporting Hub will incorporate the expansion of the Hurstville Aquatic Leisure Centre.

This will include the construction of two new multipurpose courts, a purpose-built gymnastics area, café and outdoor deck, and additional amenities for the Centre.

The Penshurst Park Sporting Hub provides a regional facility to the greater community and is an excellent example of partnering with key sporting codes like Cricket Australia, Cricket NSW, Football Federation Australia, Football NSW, AFL, and local sporting associations and community groups. Fostering these key partnerships has resulted in Georges River Council securing funding contributions from key sporting codes and State and Federal Government.

PROJECT SUCCESS

This project is an example of how a local council can future-proof existing facilities by identifying key sites that integrate a number of sports and cater for all generations.

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Innovation is about the ability to recognise that nothing is impossible or cannot be improved upon.

A LOCAL IDEA WITH GLOBAL BENEFITS THE STORY BEHIND THE INNOVATIVE, AWARD-WINNING GREENWELL WATER SAVER WORDS BRIAN MEASDAY

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ew people can claim that the constant scattering of mulch and fertiliser by blackbirds led them to develop a product that not only solves the problem, but also has many other positive environmental benefits.

My wife Helen and I have lived in Torrens Park in South Australia for many years on a steep block of land. As much as we both enjoyed gardening, our efforts were continuously frustrated by the endless scratching of blackbirds.

It was impossible to keep applied mulch and fertiliser around our newly planted shrubs and trees. Watering our trees and shrubs was an even bigger problem, due to water runoff caused by the slope of our block.

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me to thinking seriously about finding a permanent solution to our blackbird and water runoff problems. I was fortunate to come up with an idea that not only solved both problems but also dealt with many other issues associated with the establishment of newly planted trees and shrubs. The product I came up with I named GreenWell, and it is currently sold across Australia and in several other countries. It has proved a winner!

In the first instance, I had a prototype made by a friend of mine involved in the plastics industry. Even at that very early stage, I suspected that my Greenwell prototype may well appeal to a wide range of people. I spent many months travelling across Australia armed with confidentiality agreements and my GreenWell. I spoke with home gardeners, arborists at municipal councils and

16 AUSTRALASIAN PARKS AND LEISURE | Winter 2019

land developers, seeking their opinions about its applications and possible improvements to the design.

The positive feedback I received led me to be confident that I had a product that could appeal to a very wide range of people involved in the establishment of trees and shrubs and interested in saving water.

The final design was settled on in collaboration with an extremely skilled plastics designer by the name of Neil Reynolds. One feature I considered to be essential to the Greenwell was ensuring the plastic surrounds could be opened and closed easily while staying water tight. This proved to be quite a difficult technical problem, but after many weeks of trial and error, this essential feature was incorporated into the final design.

I was then at a stage where the homefront problems had been solved and the chance for commercial opportunities were showing up clearly on the radar. It was a time of great excitement and anticipation of the possible future commercial benefits.

The GreenWell plant surround was developed to save water and optimise deep-root watering. The design of the GreenWell maintains an efficient bowl integrity around the tree base, facilitating deep water delivery during tree watering.

Expensive to construct and maintain, earthen berms would no longer be necessary. Deep-root watering is obviously a high priority for most home gardeners and municipal councils, but it is not easily achieved without GreenWell.

Before GreenWell, when newly planted street trees were watered using council watering trucks, much of the applied water was wasted due to runoff that ended up in street gutters. GreenWell manages to deliver every drop of applied water directly to the tree root ball, with no runoff. This saves a great deal of water and money for GreenWell users.

Not a drop of water is wasted. By using the GreenWell, councils no longer have to build and maintain earthen berms around trees, and have found this to be a further cost reducing factor of considerable magnitude.

In the early stages, it became obvious that a single-sized product would not meet all needs, so the GreenWell was manufactured in two sizes. A regular size that is 430mm wide by 190mm high and a larger size that is 600mm wide by 250mm high. The regular size delivers 26 litres to the tree root ball, while the large size delivers 50 litres.

Another benefit provided by the GreenWell is its quick and easy installation, due to its sharp serrated base and its special zip join. The product is made of recycled plastic, which makes it attractive from an environmental point of view, and is UV protected. It can be installed in the soil at whatever depth is desired and will guard against the intrusion of lawn or grass. It will also guard against trunk damage caused by whipper snippers.

GreenWell can be simply taken off an existing tree as it is easily opened and closed.

I should, of course, also mention that GreenWell stops the scatter of applied mulch and fertiliser. Therefore blackbirds can scratch all day and the mulch and fertiliser stay within the Greenwell plant surround.

I am the first to admit that having a good idea is a good thing. But the real test is to navigate the legal and manufacturing requirements to launch it onto the market. I appointed a Patent Attorney who guided me through the process and attended to my intellectual property requirements — which

were very complicated! Tooling was manufactured, and after many months the GreenWell was born.

I then arrived at a point where a major decision was made. I appointed HR Products, a major irrigation company in Australia, as licensee. The decision to appoint HR Products as the GreenWell wholesale distributor and manufacturer is a decision I have never regretted making.

For potential innovators, my advice is, if a unique idea is in one’s head, it is important to first produce a functional prototype and then spend a considerable amount of time testing the market. If positive, honest and encouraging responses are received, who knows, chances are that your idea may just be a winner. It will then be up to your judgement whether you embark on the winding and expensive road to achieving success in your chosen market. I suggest you appoint a Patent Attorney early in the proceedings.

The GreenWell tree surround has done exceedingly well in the water saving awards stakes. It was a finalist in

the Australian Yellow Pages Business Ideas Grants awards, it won a Green Thumb Award in the USA, it was a finalist in an international award competition related to saving water (1200 entries from thirty eight countries!), and in 2017 was a finalist in the Design For Export Awards organised by the South Australian Chamber of Commerce and Business SA. GreenWell has been a marketing success of substantial proportions. It is sold by Bunnings and several other retailers throughout Australia. GreenWell is used by a large number of municipal councils and home gardeners in Australia, Europe, Canada and the USA. It has also recently been introduced into New Zealand, and the early signs are great.

As the Greenwell inventor, I think the things that please me the most are the product’s ability to save so much of our precious water, particularly as climate change has become a reality, and greatly improve the survival rate of newly planted trees in so many countries.

To learn more about the GreenWell visit www.greenwellwatersavers.com

Brian Measday

“Because of its permanent bowl integrity, and therefore its ability to eliminate water runoff, Greenwell is a proven product to ensure deep root watering during tree watering events. During a tree establishment period, particularly during hot and dry summer periods, deep root watering is essential. Greenwell has been designed to channel all applied water direct and deep into the tree root system.”

Winter 2019 | AUSTRALASIAN PARKS AND LEISURE 17

PETER MCMAUGH AWARDED ORDER OF AUSTRALIA HONOURING FIVE DECADES OF OUTSTANDING AND SIGNIFICANT CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE AUSTRALIAN AMENITY HORTICULTURE AND TURFGRASS INDUSTRIES WORDS GARY BEEHAG AND JOHN ODELL

P

eter McMaugh has recently been awarded the Order of Australia at the level of Member of the Order (AM) for his services to the Australian turfgrass industry, making him Peter E McMaugh AM. BSc Agr. FAIAST. The Order of Australia celebrates and recognises Australian citizens who have made outstanding and significant contributions to the Australian way of life. Peter has had an unequalled and dedicated career in the Australian amenity horticulture and turfgrass industries spanning over five decades, and continues to serve the sector.

Peter graduated with a Bachelor of Science in Agriculture (BSc Agr) in 1964 from the University of Sydney. His passion for botany and plant science led to him becoming the first person in

Australia with an agricultural degree to be appointed on a permanent full-time basis as a consultant and researcher in the turfgrass industry. In 1964 Peter was employed by the Grass Research Bureau (Australian Turfgrass Research Institute), and was its director from 1975-1978.

His unrelenting quest for knowledge of all things turfgrass and his acute understanding and practical application of plant science and physiology of grasses became unequalled in Australia and was later recognised overseas. In 1979, Peter established his consulting company Turfgrass Scientific Services Pty Limited.

Peter has amassed a multitude of professional accolades and awards across his professional career. Some of his highlights include, being elected

18 AUSTRALASIAN PARKS AND LEISURE | Winter 2019

President of the Turf Growers Association of NSW (1985), becoming a Fellow of the Australian Institute of Agricultural Sciences and Technology, being the recipient of the Graham Gregory Award for Excellence in Horticulture (2009) — the first person in the Australian turfgrass industry to be given this prestigious award — and receiving the Medal of Excellence from the Weed Society of NSW (2013), among many others.

In 2010, Peter initiated the Peter McMaugh Scholarship with the NSW Golf Course Superintendents Association (NSWGCSA), which covers the first year’s tuition and expenses for successful candidates enrolled in the Master of Agriculture (Turf Management) degree at the University of Sydney.

Peter is widely known throughout

UNQUESTIONABLY RECOGNISED AS AUSTRALIA’S FOREMOST AUTHORITY ON TURFGRASSES, PETER’S LIFE-LONG DEVOTION TO ITS MANAGEMENT HAS BENEFITED THE WIDER AUSTRALIAN TURFGRASS INDUSTRY. Australia and overseas as a turfgrass consultant, educator, researcher and turfgrass breeder. However, very few people are aware of his involvement in turfgrass technologies.

Unquestionably recognised as Australia’s foremost authority on turfgrasses, Peter’s life-long devotion to its management has benefited so many people and organisations in the wider Australian turfgrass industry — not just cricket wicket curators, golf course superintendents and racecourse managers. For over forty years Peter has also been a notable keynote speaker at numerous regional, state, national and international seminars and conferences. There are many strings to Peter’s career bow.

One of Peter’s single, greatest legacies as a turfgrass educator was exposing the Australian turfgrass industry to notable, overseas turfgrass researchers and scientists, by interacting with them and inviting them to speak at national conferences in Australia.

The benefits were two-way. Australian turfgrass managers received a wider knowledgebase, and overseas professionals recognised the worth of the Australian industry.

In 1988, speaking of Peter’s depth and breadth of industry knowledge at a conference in Perth, Dr Jim Beard made the comment, “In Peter McMaugh, you have here in Australia the only man I know who knows the turf literature as well as I do!”

Understanding the importance of turfgrass education, over many years Peter has devoted time as a member of the Advisory Committee of the University of Western Sydney (Richmond), and member of the Advisory Committee of Ryde TAFE (Sydney), where he made a significant contribution to the reconstruction of the Greenkeeping syllabus. He was also involved in the post-graduate diploma/ masters course taught by Professor Peter Martin at the University of Sydney, and has been a guest speaker at the University of Queensland (Gatton).

Outside golf, Peter has been involved in numerous elite sports and cricket grounds, polo fields and racecourses around Australia and in Singapore. He consulted for

Consolidated Press on cricket wickets for the introduction of World Series Cricket to Sydney in 1978. He originated the concept of drop-in wickets used everywhere today. He has also consulted on the Melbourne Cricket Ground (1981/82), among many others.

Peter also grassed seven polo fields for the late Kerry Packer at Ellerston. During recent years, Peter has been consulting on turf matters at the National Stadium in Singapore.

Peter is the author of two booklets, Bowling Green Construction (1968) and Golf Green Construction (1970), coauthored with the late Vince Church, along with a multitude of extension articles and scientific papers in Australian and overseas conference proceedings and journals — far too many to list.

One of Peter’s greatest passions is the improvement and commercialisation of turfgrass varieties. Among his most notable projects is the selection and commercialisation of Greenlees Park (early 1970s), Wintergreen (1981), WindsorGreen (1993), and Sir Walter soft-leaf buffalo (1996). Collectively, these four varieties represent the most widely grown and successful turfgrasses on turf farms throughout Australia.

Peter has been engaged since 1996 as a Qualified Person for Plant Breeders Rights (PBR) applications and continues to develop improved couchgrass varieties. During the 1980s and 1990s, large quantities of his turfgrasses were exported to South-East Asia and the Middle East.

Over the years Peter has been intimately involved in the design and development of several turfgrass industry technologies. During the early 1970s he provided technical assistance to Frank Forrest, then owner of the Ron Kaye-designed motorised bowling green roller. Today, the Australian multiple-roller technology of greens rollers is exported worldwide. Peter also introduced Verti-Drain technology to the Australian turf industry and codeveloped the tractor-mounted Level Lawn with the late Charles JP Smith.

During the 1980s Peter independently developed a mechanical, row-planting unit and a horizontally-oriented, pressurised water-washing unit to produce washed

sod — which still benefits turfgrowers around Australia today. Peter was also involved in the development of a Eucalyptus/Leptospermum oil-based insecticide mixture. This mixture was subsequently registered as the first organic-based insecticide for turfgrass application in Australia.

From 1974 to 2005 Peter owned and developed Qualturf in Richmond, NSW, a 40ha farm where he grew his own turfgrass varieties. He served as honorary secretary for the NSW Turfgrowers Association, and was primarily responsible for making submissions to NSW Water on behalf of the Association (1998–2001), which ultimately saved the turf farmers water extraction rights on the Hawkesbury River. The racecourse industry has also benefited from his expertise in building and supervising horse racing tracks in Sydney, country NSW and Perth.

Peter’s involvement in turfgrass research began way back in the late 1960s, supervising research into plantfeeding nematodes in the Newcastle region. In more recent years, Peter has led the investigation of the occurrence and taxonomy of turfgrass mites in warm-season turfgrasses funded by Horticulture Australia Limited (HAL).

This project was the first of its kind ever conducted on turfgrass in Australia.

Peter’s contributions to weed control saw him conduct efficacy trials for the introduction of the then new herbicides Endothal for winter grass control and Siduron for the control of couchgrass invasion into bentgrass putting greens.

The ground-breaking work on nut grass control earned him the NSW Weeds Society Medal of Excellence in 2013.

Peter is currently engaged in developing new herbicide and insecticide mixtures to meet current industry needs.

Winter 2019 | AUSTRALASIAN PARKS AND LEISURE 19

Auckland has a vision to be the world’s most active city

AKTIVE CITIZENS WORLDWIDE AUCKLAND SPORT & RECREATION HAS A VISION TO MAKE AUCKLAND THE MOST AKTIVE CITY IN THE WORLD WORDS NICOLE GAMBLE, AKTIVE AUCKLAND

T

o achieve the goal of making Auckland the most active city in the world, it is important we understand what is driving current physical activity in the city, and where we can achieve the best return on our investment for the city.

This requires more accurate data, better evidence, and a deeper understanding of what works and what doesn’t, which is why we signed up to be part of Active Citizens Worldwide.

ACTIVE CITIZENS WORLDWIDE Aktive is a founding city in a new global initiative called Active Citizens Worldwide, signing up in late 2017.

Active Citizens Worldwide was established to provide cities around the world with the data on and understanding of what drives physical activity in their cities, how much

value this generates for the city, and ultimately what they can do to increase physical activity. The ambition is to create a network of knowledge for cities by cities, to transform the lives of citizens around the world.

We’ve been working with London Sport and Sport Singapore — representatives of the other two founding cities of Active Citizens Worldwide — on this. Why? Because Auckland, like London and Singapore and many other cities around the world, is feeling the effects of rapid growth. These changes include growing populations, land scarcity, social inequalities and lifestyle illnesses, and they are placing a heavy burden on the social and physical infrastructure of modern cities. In addition, we are all facing the difficult challenge of increasing physical activity levels in

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large, diverse, multicultural urban environments. Furthermore, our visions are aligned. London, along with Auckland, aspires to be the world’s most active city, and Singapore is focused on bringing sport into the lives of all Singaporeans.

Working with other cities has allowed us to put our findings into context and learn from other cities what they are doing to address problems of low physical activity.

It has been interesting to see the similarities across these three different cities. The top five sports are almost identical in each city, with walking, running and swimming all in the top spots. Citizens in all three cities are more likely to be doing individual rather than team sports, and there is a latent demand to do more in each city, with “time” being cited as the biggest barrier.

Across the three participating Active Citizens Worldwide cities, we’re seeing that people with a lower socio-economic status are as much as 30 percent less active as those from higher socio-economic areas.

This skewed distribution suggests that without targeted intervention, physical activity and the benefits it brings could end up reinforcing inequality in society.

THE ANALYSIS HAS SHOWN THAT PHYSICAL ACTIVITY IN AUCKLAND MAKES A $1.9 BILLION CONTRIBUTION TO THE ECONOMY, WHICH IS AROUND 2 PERCENT OF AUCKLAND’S GDP.

YEAR 1: ANALYSIS The Active Citizens Worldwide initiative aims to understand what it is within the city demographics and infrastructure that are driving increasing levels of physical activity, or causing a decline in levels of physical activity.

To date, the analysis has looked at the influence of factors such as: spend in each area; influence of the workforce, like coaches and personal trainers; and infrastructure, to help explain differences in physical activity levels across the city. We are trying to understand which of these factors has the biggest impact on the physical activity levels of people living in a certain area.

As an example, some work from our partners at Sport London is showing, as deprivation increases, the availability of public facilities become increasingly important in getting more people active in local communities.

From a policy perspective, this reinforces the point of affordability and the right infrastructure being needed to bridge the gap for certain groups. In terms of funding and deciding where facilities are best placed for the biggest impact, it is clear to see how this type of information can start to be used.

THE VALUE OF SPORT AND PHYSICAL ACTIVITY As well as looking at drivers of physical activity, we are able to start looking at the value of sport and physical activity specifically for Auckland.

As we know, there is plenty of evidence linking sport and physical activity with improvements in wellbeing and health, as well as social and economic impacts. However,

historically, it has been difficult to quantify the value of sport at a city level, especially in terms of health and social cohesion, yet these are the areas where sport and physical activity offers a unique return on investment that is difficult to capture in other ways.

Active Citizens Worldwide looks at the value of physical activity to cities, across a range of metrics, including health, social and economic outcomes,

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The ACW Model DRIVERS

OUTCOMES

CITY PROFILE Age Gender Ethnicity Education Socio-economic

ECONOMIC Consumption Job Creation

Lifestyle Mindsets Environment

HEALTH

Disease Incidence Productivity Gain Improved Quality of Life Death Prevention

SPORT & ACTIVITY POLICY Facilities Infrastructure Workforce Events Programmes Campaigns

PHYSICAL ACTIVITY

Investment $

Collect, analyse and model the exact impact different socio-demographics and interventions have on physical activity – what works and what doesn’t

MONETARY IMPACT $

SOCIAL

Crime Reduction Social Integration Educational Attainment Subjective Wellbeing

Create a comprehensive and sophisticated physical activity profile for the city – which parts of the city are performing well and why

Model the value of physical activity to the city, across multiple dimensions based on the best global research, – the business case for change

Source: Portas analysis

giving us Auckland-specific information rather than talking in generic terms.

Starting with the economic returns, the analysis has shown that physical activity in Auckland makes a $1.9 billion contribution to the economy, which is around 2 percent of Auckland’s GDP. This is made up of participants’ consumption and workplace contributions through jobs and volunteering. Around 25,000 full-time and part-time jobs are generated in this area, as well as spend on items such as equipment, subscriptions and fees.

We can also look in detail at the health returns to Auckland. This is calculated by looking at those disease groups where physical activity is demonstrated as having a direct impact on the disease. These include coronary heart disease, stroke, Type 2 diabetes, breast cancer, colon cancer, mental health and osteoporosis. For each of these groups, we look at savings to the healthcare system, deaths prevented and disability adjusted life years.

In total, physical activity is bringing $118 million in savings to Auckland, made up of savings to the health system and increased productivity. It also prevents 310 deaths.

At this point, we can start to put a value on what more active Aucklanders would mean. In this case, getting 10,000 more Aucklanders active would lead to a growth in the economy of $27 million, healthcare savings of $1.6 million and social returns of $270,000.

1

HOW WE’RE USING THIS NEW INFORMATION It’s early days yet, but Aktive has already been using this information, particularly in our advocacy work. We used information from the drivers’ side of the analysis to demonstrate the inequality across the city in terms of physical activity levels and current spend levels. This helped us to understand the problem that the sector could be facing if funding was reduced during the Auckland Council 10-year budget.

We then used the information from the outcome’s side to show the value of sport and physical activity to the city, and used the scenarios to explain why more funding, and more active Aucklanders is positive for the city.

Aktive successfully managed the Sport Matters campaign (www.facebook. com/aklsportmatters/) and, with the support of the sector and their many submissions, we were successful in seeing an additional $120 million added to the sport and recreation budget.

The Active Citizens approach also fits very well with the conversation we’re currently having in New Zealand around the government’s Living Standards Framework (https://treasury.govt.nz/ information-and-services/nz-economy/ living-standards/our-living-standardsframework). We’ve been able to use the initial findings to have conversations with Government and funders about why physical activity is valuable, using Auckland-specific information.

22 AUSTRALASIAN PARKS AND LEISURE | Winter 2019

NEXT STEPS The question of how we increase physical activity is still a difficult challenge, especially in large, diverse, multicultural urban environments.

Different interventions will affect different social and demographic segments in different ways. A detailed understanding of this complex and dynamic picture will significantly improve the effectiveness of sport and physical activity policy.

Imagine how our decision making could change with the availability of data like this, and what a step change it would be for cities and planning; a move away from a trial and error approach to one focused on making the best use of every dollar and ensuring the impact is focused where we need it, on our changing population and on making our young people physically active for life.

We look forward to seeing what year two of the project will bring for us all.

WANT TO KNOW MORE? So where to next for this project? Aktive have just signed up for year two, alongside London, Singapore and Stockholm, and we are hoping to see more cities coming on board very soon.

While year one was very much a proof of concept, we will continue to refine and build as we move into year two.

We are looking to grow the network, and any cities interested in joining should visit activecitizens.world

AT THE HEART OF FACILITY MANAGEMENT UNDERTAKING FACILITY MANAGEMENT WITH A VIEW TO THE CORE NEEDS OF THE COMMUNITY WORDS TOM MANN, COMMUNITY LEISURE MANAGEMENT

A

s facility management operators we are tasked with the stewardship of venues that are the heartbeat of our communities. Recreation and leisure facilities are places where people come together to partake in their many forms of leisure. As operators we are charged with ensuring equal opportunities for all, while also ensuring the products and services offered make a positive difference in the lives of all users.

With over 20 years of facility management experience, Community Leisure Management (CLM) uses a number of strategies and techniques to serve the communities we are entrusted with and ensure we are following our mission to “put leisure in your life, and life in your leisure” (Ka awhina mai, ka awhina atu, nga mahi a te rehia).

With the goal of representing a community, in order to truly understand, it is imperative that one takes an “ask, not tell” approach. Working alongside and listening to the community allows an organistaion to take a deeper look at the challenges, opportunities and barriers that may exist. By actively listening, understanding and then

accurately representing a community, a new level of trust and respect can be achieved. With insights gathered through open days, community outreach, surveys, and simply asking the right questions, programmes and services can be developed and implemented that truly enrich the user-experience for all facility patrons.

Listening and understanding is simply not enough. Delivery is where the rubber meets the road and amazing experiences can be created. It is imperative that in any form of programming, quality is at the forefront of all decision making, no matter the scale of the programme, whether it be a group fitness class for 50 or a one-on-one learn-to-swim class.

The ethos around quality goes beyond just the programme itself, it starts before a potential user walks into the facility.

Communications, both traditional and digital need to be clear and reflective of the potential users and the community.

The customer service team need to be welcoming and informed, ensuing they demonstrate a deep knowledge of the services and products available.

Finally, the facility itself needs to be presentable, clean and easily

accessible for all users. Once all of these components come together, quality programming can be ensured, enriching the lives of the participants.

Working with a range of partners from across the country, CLM has had the opportunity to develop a range of innovative community programmes, which have been adapted and delivered to communities across New Zealand.

SPLASH TIME Splash Time is a tots and toddlers programme specifically designed to make water play fun. The weekly programme of music, songs, water play and bubbles is attended by a SwimMagic instructor who can answer any questions about lessons and water confidence.

With a low entry cost and free snacks provided after the class, splash time provides a fantastic pathway to educate parents and their children about water safety in a fun and safe environment.

BUILDING CHAMPIONS Building Champions is a fun and challenging conditioning programme designed specifically for children.

The aim is to improve fitness and

Winter 2019 | AUSTRALASIAN PARKS AND LEISURE 23

coordination with an overall desire to teach a lifelong love of movement through the development of new skills, good training ethics and fun.

ACTIVE YOUTH WELLNESS The Active Youth Wellness programme was created from a desire to increase the engagement and wellbeing of local Maori and Pacifica youth.

The 12-week programme, targeted at youth aged 14 to 18, utilises a variety of programming and seminars to provide support for participants, with an objective of increasing overall hauora (health and wellbeing).

LEGENDS The Legends programme was born out of the rapidly increasing number of New Zealand’s senior population.

To cater for this growing demographic our goal is to provide the NZ senior community with a greater range of fitness and recreation options, aimed to keep everyone fit and active in their preand post-retirement years.

Effective community programming can only come about if an operator has an unwavering commitment to the numerous stakeholders that use their facility, including the teams that work at them. This commitment needs to be authentic, transparent and front of mind in all key decision making, ensuring the facility truly represents its community and team members.

Organisational focus can be displayed and implemented through a number of techniques, including those highlighted below.

BE PROUD TO REPRESENT AND SAFEGUARD YOUR COMMUNITY

CONTINUOUS IMPROVEMENT AND INNOVATION IN A CHANGING WORLD

CLM has invested in new lifeguard shirts with a Maori design that draws strongly from symbols connected with water and nurturing the mana (spiritual power, authority, prestige) of the people.

Some of the prominent features in the design include: mangōpare/ hammerhead shark (symbolising strength, knowledge and selfdetermination); puhoro (often carved on the prow of a canoe, symbolising mana, speed and agility) unaunahi/fish scales (symbolising our connection to water and the environment), ngutukākā /kākā beak (symbolic of nurturing and protection).

The intent behind the design is to recognise the unique skills of the wearer and their important role in safeguarding people in and around the water, uplifting their mana and that of the people in their care.

Highlighted as two of CLM’s core values, continuous improvement and innovation are the pillars that drive the work that is done across the CLM network.

The only certainty in life is change, hence our need to be nimble and adapt to the environment around us. A culture of innovation and continuous improvement is fostered throughout all levels of the organistaion, with ideas and feedback reported on and celebrated monthly.

24 AUSTRALASIAN PARKS AND LEISURE | Winter 2019

OPPORTUNITIES OUTSIDE A FACILITIES WALL Facility operators need to look outwards as much as they look inwards, ensuring they are an active member of their local community.

The easiest way to represent your community is to simply be a part of it.

The establishment of CLM Community Sport highlights a venture

that showcases CLM’s commitment to walk alongside and work proactively with our local communities.

INVEST IN YOUR BIGGEST ASSET. We are proud of our team within CLM and proactively work to ensure we keep our stars in the same waka (canoe), paddling in the same direction.

Investment in our team is made at all levels, with annual business unit coordinator retreats, quarterly manager conferences, and bi-annual leadership training for promising future leaders. By empowering, motivating and keeping our stars onboard, we go a long way to creating amazing experiences for all members of our community by putting “leisure in their life, and life in their leisure”.

A facility that is part of its community will be valued and well used by its community. We are a business, but we are a business that is focussed on working with and alongside our communities to create spaces where memorable experiences are created and people feel safe and welcome. A simple ideology that leads to the sustainability of not only the community facility but our business, which has celebrated over two decades of success.

To find out more visit www.clmnz.co.nz

Proudly supporting

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Winter 2019 | AUSTRALASIAN PARKS AND LEISURE 25

TEACHING RESILIENCE AND COLLECTIVE RESPONSIBILITY WORKING TO IMPROVE WELLBEING AND LEADERSHIP SKILLS IN NEW ZEALAND’S YOUTH THROUGH A CONNECTION TO THE COUNTRY’S COASTS AND WATERWAYS WORDS TE TAITIMU TRUST

T

e Taitimu Trust, a Māori charitable organisation based in Hawke’s Bay, New Zealand, works to enhance young people’s connection to the country’s coasts and waterways, with the aim of improving mental wellbeing and building leadership skills.

It took a whole year of planning, but taking 70 rangatahi (young people) on a four-day kayak on the Whanganui River is not for the faint-hearted — or the under prepared! But it was well worth it to introduce the youngsters to the challenging environment of being on a major river, connect them to the great outdoors, and teach them teamwork as well as personal and collective responsibility. That’s what Te Taitimu Trust is all about, supporting and enhancing young people’s wellbeing and building them into future leaders.

“Everything we do is about growing resilience and respect for people, the environment and Māori tikanga (protocol), so they learn to care for themselves and for others,” claims Zack Makoare, Te Taitimu Trust CEO.

The principal way in which the Trust does that is by connecting the youngsters to water — via the nation’s coastlines, lakes and rivers. The Trust uses the Te Whare Tapa Whā model of health, which is based on the four cornerstones of health important to Māori: physical, spiritual, family and mental health.

“After our 15-year-old son died by suicide, my whanau (family) spent a lot of time at the beach. Māori have such a connection with water, to the sea god, Tangaroa. It was therapy. Once we recovered some from our son’s death, we set up the Trust to help other young people get that healing before becoming unwell,” says Makoare.

“When you’re experiencing mental distress, often it’s not the professionals who can best help you. Rather, it’s having a community around you. We wanted to put that help at the top of the cliff, not at the bottom.”

Makoare says they received so much support from the community around them — both Māori and Pākeha (nonMāori) — after their son died, he and his wife wanted to give back. So, dipping

26 AUSTRALASIAN PARKS AND LEISURE | Winter 2019

into their own pockets, they took their first group of young people out in 2007.

“This is about reciprocity, about turning the tide, which is what te tai timu means,” explains Makoare.

Since then, Te Taitimu Trust has taught more than 3000 young people from around Aotearoa to swim, dive, surf, fish, kayak and much more. Three-quarters of youths who attend are Māori, and about a quarter of those are vulnerable or high-risk children. It is Makoare’s hope that these children learn good behaviour patterns from children with more stable home lives.

Families generally pay what they can to send their children on Te Taitimu Trust’s trips, with sponsorship from various federal and local government and community funders supplying the rest.

“Also, parents come along if they can — this isn’t babysitting!” says Makoare.

It certainly isn’t. The group of 70 young people (60% girls) bussed from Flaxmere, a low socio-economic suburb of Hastings in Hawke’s Bay, to the start of the fourday rafting trip at Whakahoro, near the national park on the Whanganui River.

UNICEF REPORT A 2017 UNICEF report revealed New Zealand has by far the highest youth suicide rate in the developed world. To view the full report visit unicef-irc.org/publications/pdf/RC14_eng.pdf

The support group was made up of 20 river guides from Ki Tai River Tours and 40 adult volunteers, including a doctor and five policemen, who stayed in uniform when on the river. “That was important, so the kids remembered they were policemen and could see them as mentors, as people who serve their communities,” explains Makoare. “We all need to be of service, so we end up being better leaders.”

The police have always been very supportive of the Trust’s work, and provided one of the group’s vans and a loaded petrol card for the trip.

After setting up camp for the first night, the river guides took the group through a robust health and safety briefing. This is where the 12 months of planning proved valuable, with the rafting company doing an excellent job of making sure they had the right gear, all the risk assessment and management strategy (RAMS) forms completed, and all the boxes ticked so everything was ready for a safe and successful trip.

“Everybody was taught how to put a life jacket on, how to use it, and told to use it all the time,” says Makoare.

“We told them what they needed to do if they fell out of kayak — important in that was to try to hold onto the boat.

The rangatahi were warned never to be alone, that even if they were just going down to the water to wash, to always be with someone and make sure someone knew where they were.

“Being SunSmart was also important.

Everyone had to wear sunscreen, which the New Zealand Cancer Society donated — we went through seven big bottles of sunscreen – and wear the protective rash suits donated by WaterSafe New Zealand and wide-brimmed hats provided by Te Taitimu Trust.

“We also made sure they knew they were here to have fun. They’re on the river for eight hours and people can get

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tired and bored — especially without a cellphone! They needed to keep their spirits up even when it rained, as it did one lunchtime, or they fell in the water.

As well as creating a connection to the environment, this was all about building resilience and keeping their spirits up, even when they’re cold and wet, and their sandwich is soggy,” Makoare shares.

There were a few hairy moments, given 95 percent of the teens had never been down a river before, although most could swim. In fact, three girls did end up being helicoptered to hospital after emergency services found them through the emergency locator beacons the group carried. “The three girls went into the river in two separate incidents at the same time, but we had the right people there to deal with it, including a motorised safety boat,” says Makoare.

“The girls got cold really quickly and were quite shocked. So we had them picked up and taken to hospital to warm up. They all came back the next day and were out paddling on the river; that’s great resilience.”

As everyone was in Canadian kayaks, they all had to work as a team, paddling

as a double, a four or a six. As well as connecting with nature, the kids had to connect with each other, working out how to work with a team mate, even if that team mate is much older and they’d never met before.

They also had to have the confidence to make those connections. So much of this river trip was about building confidence; the confidence to get into cold water, to step on rocks, to drag their kayak up a hill, to ask for help to put a tent up, which most of our kids had never done. This was on the job training! You can only build confidence to do those things through having those experiences.

“It’s about a learning in a different way. Many of these kids might not be the academics of this world, but they have some really special attributes. Our teaching has to be creative to meet the needs of our people who aren’t bookworms,” Makoare says.

The group stayed in marae (community places for local Māori) along the river, some of them very isolated.

Many of the guides were from local tribes, forming another connection for the kids, who got to meet Māori from other areas.

28 AUSTRALASIAN PARKS AND LEISURE | Winter 2019

And, they all arrived back home in one piece, having built their confidence, resilience and skills on the water and in the outdoors, their ability to work as a team, as well as take responsibility for themselves.

“Our kaupapa (way of doing things) is to teach our children not to forget they are kaitiaki (guardians), that they’re there to show aroha (love) and manaakitanga (generosity, support) and whakapapa (knowledge of where they’ve come from),” says Makoare.

“We want to show them that if there’s a problem, we take collective responsibility and become part of the solution, rather than standing back and waiting for someone else to sort the situation.”

So many lessons can be learned by getting out on the water and enjoying New Zealand’s outdoor classroom.

WANT TO KNOW MORE? To find out more about TE TAITIMU TRUST visit their Facebook page at facebook.com/ tetaitimu/

ZENCARE AQUATIC WHEELCHAIR

Jessica Pokaia, Chrystal McLeod, Dan Barry, Milton Bloomfield

SPORT AND INNOVATION COME TOGETHER IN THE CREATION OF THE ZENCARE AQUATIC WHEELCHAIR, MAKING WATER ACTIVITIES ACCESSIBLE FOR EVERYONE WORDS AMANDA SHERWOOD, DYNAMIC COMPOSITES

F

orefront in the minds of Dynamic Composites, a Christchurchbased design, consultation and manufacturing firm that develop leading technology, products and equipment, has always been, “How can we make this better?”

This was certainly the case with the ZenCare Aquatic Wheelchair.

Dynamic Composites’ overlaying of their expertise in para sport and design has culminated in the development of a new unique and innovative wheelchair.

Already in use in Christchurch and Invercargill, the ZenCare is destined for a much wider market.

While public swimming pools are likely to be where demand is greatest, aged-care facilities are also on the horizon. The specialist wheelchair enables much easier transfer of users to pools and spas via ramps or lifts, and has features that maintain users’ dignity and protects their safety.

The origin of the ZenCare Aquatic Wheelchair project is the result of collaboration between Dynamic

Composites and the Christchurch City Council. The conversation was initiated

by Christchurch City Council, sparked by customer feedback they had received about existing aquatic wheelchairs, which included comments on the significant challenges they presented both for users and carers.

The new design improves user transfer, manoeuvrability, durability and has a higher weight threshold.

Linda Healion, Southern Centre Coordinator at Christchurch City Council, says the Council is really ecstatic with the outcome. “Dynamic Composites has been an awesome company to work with and most importantly our customers are happy with the new product.”

A wish list of features for the new wheelchair was compiled, informing the custom design created by Dynamic Composites Managing Director Milton Bloomfield and Technical Manager Dan Barry, which was then built by the production team to make the aquatic experience comfortable and accessible for everyone. “We started with a clean

slate and asked people what they needed,” explains Milton.

Dynamic Composites rates working on this project among its most satisfying.

“We’ve done a lot with wheelchair users, and it’s about helping them enjoy better accessibility,” notes the company.

Constructed from carbon fibre, the new ZenCare is lightweight yet strong — an advantage of composite materials.

Other carefully thought-through features include plastic wheels with solid rubber tyres, which remove the need to repeatedly pump up the tyres and improve braking performance. The chair also has marine-grade stainless steel axles and fasteners for longevity in chlorinated and saltwater environments.

With a pared down frame and unique low profile arm rests, the ZenCare is more functional and more durable.

Transferring in and out of the chair is more streamlined, and a four-point harness across the chest and hips gives the user stability and security. For some users, the new design means the difference between having two carers making the transfer or just one.

As the ZenCare travels down the access ramp into the water, the chair’s moulded tubular sides fill with water, keeping the chair stable when submerged, yet maintains its lightweight structure for easy handling out of the pool.

Aside from the hydrodynamic profile, the chair’s design details, including a rugged mesh back support, rounded

Winter 2019 | AUSTRALASIAN PARKS AND LEISURE 29

Chrystal McLeod, Jessica Pokaia

edges for protection from scratching, a footplate that rotates out of the way, and a maximised useable seat area that comfortably accommodates users weighing up to 200kgs, makes it much more fit-for-purpose. All body shapes and sizes are catered for. The chair also has an overall width of less than 700mm, enabling it to fit through almost all doorways, vital for accessibility in the congested areas around changing rooms and pool entrances.

Feedback has been very positive, both from users and from carers. “When we first delivered a chair, the pool staff were so excited, they got someone to try it right away,” claims Milton. “We got to see that!”

One lifeguard said the ZenCare makes it easier for pool users to relax in the warm water and enjoy the multisensory environment.

The journey to producing the innovative ZenCare Aquatic Wheelchair began with Milton, a self-described “curious kid”. Boats have been a part of his life from the age of three. He was racing at age eight, and he’s personally built nine boats to date and continues to sail.

Studying engineering was a natural progression, and Milton says he’s always found composites, their lightness and potential, interesting. “It’s not like steel or plastic, you’ve got strength in the directions needed,” he explains.

Milton’s abilities quickly came to

the attention of a number of athletes, including Coast to Coast multisport legend Steve Gurney and professional cyclist Hayden Roulston.

It’s typical of Milton’s drive to find better solutions. When he was on crutches, after a bike accident, he spent his time designing an improved carbon fibre version, which Dynamic Composites built. “It was quite enlightening,” Milton claims. He also built his own kayak and bike in order to take on the Coast to Coast, winning an innovation award for the latter.

Milton’s passion for design and innovation may have begun early, but it continues undiminished today. “It still fascinates me,” he says.

Like Milton, Dan Barry, Technical Manager at Dynamic Composites, got into engineering through his interest in cycling and multisport. “I liked the equipment and wanted to build my own,” Dan admits.

He had heard about Dynamic Composites and applied for a summer placement. He’s still with the company today, enjoying on a daily basis the variety of the jobs he works on: “One day it’s medical, one day it’s multisport.”

According to Dan, the starting point for the ZenCare Aquatic Wheelchair was to find out what people wanted and “what people wanted to change”.

“We started brainstorming and looked at different shapes and different

30 AUSTRALASIAN PARKS AND LEISURE | Winter 2019

construction methods and eliminated the ones that wouldn’t work,” he explains.

Designs were created using CAD technology, with the lifelike renders allowing one design to be selected and subsequently built. Following structural testing, the chair was trialled at the Christchurch City Council Recreation and Sports Centre.

Being relatively close to the pool complex where the first chairs were in use meant it was easy for Dan and Milton to make any tweaks to the design. Feedback from Christchurch City Council staff and customers, as well as regular inspections, highlighted areas where improvements to the design could be made and aided the development of the chair. In a short space of time the design of the chair evolved to where it is today.

“If it works here, it can work anywhere,” says Dan of their design.

It’s hard to avoid the layering comparisons that are so much a part of the strength of composites, whether it’s referring to building Dynamic Composites’ multitalented team, or to their complementary abilities in multisports.

The team worked hard on the ZenCare Aquatic Wheelchair and Milton is quick to attribute the success of the chair to their knowledge and abilities. As with everything at Dynamic Composites, strands overlap and everyone adds to

the process.

Established over 20 years ago, the company has an ingrained “nothing’s too hard� philosophy that has given it a very varied portfolio, ranging from specialist medical equipment to high performance sports gear. Where the company really excels is in applying composite technology to develop solutions that meet the needs of their customers. “We’ve got the freedom and creativity to do all sorts of things,�

Milton says.

Among its many achievements, Dynamic Composites created the steering wheels for Emirates Team New Zealand’s successful 2017 America’s Cup yacht; designed and manufactured hightech bikes for New Zealand Olympic cycling champion Sarah Ulmer; worked with Glenn Martin, aviation entrepreneur of the Martin Jetpack; and Paralympian alpine skiers Corey Peters and Adam Hall, who all have nothing but praise for the company.

Adam, a New Zealand Paralympic athlete for 15 years in the extremely competitive world of para skiing, says it has been his pleasure and privilege to have Dynamic Composites be a part of his journey and help keep him on top of his game for the past nine years. “After a successful Paralympic

Dan Barry, Milton BloomďŹ eld, Chrystal McLeod, Jessica Pokaia

campaign in 2010, we reached out to Dynamic Composites to help with worldclass design and best-in-the-business input to further my competitive edge with world-leading equipment, on and off the snow. As a para athlete, I have required specialised, adaptive equipment throughout my entire life. “Dynamic Composites have helped

me modernise and be a lot more efficient with my equipment, helping me deal with some of the most extreme conditions and competitive events in the world,� states Adam.

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Winter 2019 | AUSTRALASIAN PARKS AND LEISURE 31

MY JOURNEY THROUGH SPORTS THE LIFE AND WORK OF A CAREER SPORTS BROADCASTER WORDS BRETT PHILLIPS, SPORTS BROADCASTER SEN

I

count myself fortunate in the career path that I have chosen, as I love what I do and I have variety — “the spice of life”, as they say. Over the last 5 years I have genuinely enjoyed my role as PLA National Conference MC and working behind the scenes coordinating the Awards of Excellence gala dinner held at the MCG in 2018.

What a great industry you all work in, enriching people’s lives through the environment, sport and leisure. Hand on heart, out of all the different roles I do each year, the PLA Conference has been a real highlight.

I am actually writing this from Miami, Florida, where I am about to wrap up a month of work covering the world of tennis. March in tennis is the Indian Wells Masters in Southern

California and the Miami Open in Florida in back-to-back men’s and women’s tournaments combined, which are the biggest outside the four Grand Slam tournaments.

Tennis became a niche that I grabbed as a long-time sports broadcaster; a truly global sport in which some of the world’s most famous athletes compete. Each week on SEN (Sports Entertainment Network) — available on 1116am Melbourne, 1629am Adelaide, SEN. com.au, or via the SEN iPhone/ Android App (Australia’s first 24/7 Sports Radio Station) — I host the only dedicated tennis program on Australian commercial radio called The First Serve, as well as serving as lead tennis commentator. Within

32 AUSTRALASIAN PARKS AND LEISURE | Winter 2019

tennis, I have also had a role for quite some time with Tennis Australia as Australian Open TV Host and on-court announcer for the summer of tennis.

When I return to Australia I will be swinging back into calling AFL Football on SEN/Crocmedia network, my other passion, which I have done for the past 10 years.

The sports media industry has been my core work and I have worked in many roles around that. As a kid I loved sport. I was a mad, passionate Fitzroy supporter in the VFL/AFL, and as I was going through my teen years the passion to be involved in the industry grew.

When I was in Year 12, 27 years ago, I did a day of work experience with a guy called Eddie McGuire — you might have heard of him. This was before

he became big, when he was a sports reporter with Channel 10. I shadowed him for the day and walked away thinking, “If I can’t play sport at the highest level, this is the next best seat in the house”.

During the next two years, in 1993 and 1994, it was radio not TV that grabbed me. Radio was raw, live, unpredictable, and you could really have a great connection with the sports loving public. I went to radio school and landed my first job at 3UZ in Melbourne, which at the time was the only sports station around, although the content was predominantly horse racing. I never could have predicted that 25 years on I would still be in the same industry.

Within the radio industry, I have worked in every role from Program Host to Commentator, Newsreader and Reporter, and funnily enough, as the years have rolled on, I have taken up TV hosting and commentary roles with Tennis Australia and Fox Footy.

Television is such a different beast to radio. Being so radio trained, it took some time to adjust, but to this day I still prefer radio because it’s a raw conversation. I love the challenge of painting the picture of what is happening when I’m commentating, so that the listener can really feel like they are there.

When I started off in the industry, I never envisaged I would become a talkback radio host, or commentate AFL Football, the sport I grew up loving.

I was the kid who used to ring up talkback radio on the way home from a game, and all these years on, I’m the one sitting in that chair talking to

I STILL PREFER RADIO BECAUSE IT’S A RAW CONVERSTATION. I LOVE THE CHALLENGE OF PAINTING THE PICTURE OF WHAT IS HAPPENING WHEN I’M COMMENTATING, SO THAT THE LISTENER CAN REALLY FEEL LIKE THEY ARE THERE. the public. I used to listen to Rex Hunt at his radio peak, calling AFL Football and sending chills down my spine, and years on here I am commentating the most exhilarating moments of live sporting contests in the sports I specialise in, AFL and Tennis.

A lot of what I have done is a bit of a blur — I should have kept a log — but interviewing Aussie tennis player Peter Luczak moments after winning his first ever Davis Cup match for Australia, away from Switzerland, highlighted the power of radio. It was 1.50am in the morning in Australia, he was in the tunnel just after he had won; it was raw emotion just after it happened.

These are the best interviews, when the person hasn’t had time to digest what has happened.

In tennis I have interviewed many great players, but it was in January of this year that I had the pleasure of spending 30 minutes in the company of Rafael Nadal at the Brisbane International. I interviewed him in front of all the volunteers, as a special surprise for them. Nadal is a global sports star who everyone wants a piece of all the time. He handles himself superbly, and when you meet him he makes you feel like you are the most important person.

Commentating AFL Football is also a pure thrill. I have had a few

goals after the siren calls, or very close finishes, where you’re trying to make sure you describe the moment accurately, where you are just a fan out of your seat caught up in the emotion of the occasion and looking like a crazy person.

One of my biggest thrills (because I love the underdog) was being at Subiaco Oval in 2016. The Western Bulldogs were playing the West Coast Eagles in an elimination final. West Coast were the hot favourites, being at home, and right in front of our box that night sat about 200 travelling Western Bulldog fans.

The Bulldogs produced one of their greatest games on the road that night. We had the windows open, and every time they scored a goal supporters were turning around and banging on our box — raw emotion at its highest. I actually felt like a supporter and forgot I was commentating, leaning out the window for high-fives all round.

Three weeks later they achieved a fairytale premiership victory at the mighty MCG.

FOR MORE INFORMATION Contact Brett Phillips at email brett@bapcom.com.au

Winter 2019 | AUSTRALASIAN PARKS AND LEISURE 33

COMMUNITY-LED CONNECTIVITY A RISING TIDE LIFTS ALL BOATS WORDS ANNA MARKWICK, SPORT NORTHLAND

T

his case study looks at Sport Northland’s commitment to a transformative change process, where local participants, sport providers and resource-holders are being encouraged to engage in a communityled approach to providing improved sport and recreation opportunities.

THE NATURE OF THE SPORT & RECREATION COMMUNITY The phrase “only connect” was popularised in E.M. Forster’s novel Howards End, ostensibly referring to “the moral importance of connection between individuals, across the barriers of race, class, and nation”. But in relation to the sport and recreation landscape in New Zealand, the same two words stand as the fundamental truth about how best to operate in a sector where “no one entity owns the business”.

At a local level, the sport and recreation community is a mosaic made up of small autonomous organisations that often work in isolation. Local groups may know each other — it’s hard not to if they are your neighbours — but

they often work separately and alone.

As a result, these groups operate on a modest scale and make an impact on a relatively small number of participants.

That said, the bulk of resources available to sport and recreation (funding, facilities, volunteer time, sport delivery expertise) reside most commonly at regional and local levels and are often deployed by individuals and small organisations who seldom, if ever, engage directly with national policy makers.

The challenge for Sport Northland was how to connect the resources, skills and the energy available within a community to improve the participant experience, without compromising the unique aspirations of each of the many stakeholders.

At its heart, this influencing approach to system building recognises that any participation gains will be more sustainable if they are owned and operated by local people.

A NEW BEGINNING It seems only reasonable that before you ask someone else to change how

34 AUSTRALASIAN PARKS AND LEISURE | Winter 2019

they work, you need first to show yourself willing to change the way you work. That is what Sport Northland has done.

In 2014 Sport Northland began a comprehensive rethink of its own business approach, and in doing so we recognised: • Local sport and recreation providers operated in isolation, which meant they worked on a small scale • Sport Northland itself was organised in silos, focused primarily on programme delivery, meaning it also worked with relatively small numbers of people This unconnectedness meant that volunteers in the community, like the professionals at Sport Northland, were limiting what they could achieve.

In contemplating a new way of working, through better connecting the various parts of the system, Sport Northland stood on the cusp of significant change.

Part of that change was recognising that not all potential partners were sport and recreation organisations, that some of the interested stakeholders were agencies of local and central government, regional funders, tertiary and health agencies, iwi organisations and media outlets. Equally, not all service providers were strictly sport and recreation organisations. For example,

early childhood centres, schools, private providers, churches, Maori organisations and other charitable groups were often very active at the community level.

Like Sport Northland, these resourceholders wanted to achieve social improvement for people in Northland, and might be persuaded to join a well-planned collaboration where sport and recreation was a medium for community development more widely.

Or, alternatively, that Sport Northland might have to set aside its sport and recreation aims, at least initially, to help other agencies succeed. Either way, the proverb “a rising tide lifts all boats” holds.

NEW THINKING In rethinking its approach, Sport Northland was encouraged by rising international interest in the principles of community development, especially the community-led development being advocated by Jim Diers, a Seattlebased speaker, facilitator, author and activator who was popularising this work in Canada, and Denise Bijoux from Inspiring Communities, an organisation that catalyses locally-led change in New Zealand.

It’s important to note that this convergence of thinking was not unique to sport and recreation; central and

local government had long been familiar with the principles and practices of community development.

At about the same time, Sport NZ was contemplating a new Community Sport Strategy that, among other things, placed greater emphasis on the participant experience and system building as the key to achieving sustainable change and improvement.

This gradual consolidation of thinking was critical as Sport Northland embraced a new way of working.

NEW INSIGHTS Before taking any action, Sport Northland kaimahi (community connectors) launched listening and data collection exercises. They carefully mapped each of the key communities to properly understand the potential participation gains, including details of: • Deprivation levels • Population projections (now and future) • Percentage of Maori (current and projected) • Percentage of young people The result of this insights approach was that within each of the four district areas Sport Northland chose to focus on nine targeted communities.

In extending the intelligence

gathering, Sport Northland used an Appreciative Inquiry approach to uncover the areas of strength within each targeted community.

COMMUNITY READINESS MODEL In conducting the research, Sport Northland was looking not only to develop a stakeholder wish list but also to identify existing pockets of energy in each community that could own and drive the commitment to make good things happen. Importantly, Sport Northland was able to gauge how ready local groups were for a jointventure approach.

The gradual process of identifying people and organisations who were ready to embrace a community-led philosophy, enabled Sport Northland to make important decisions about where it would apply its own resources.

NEW SKILLS Strategic planning is one thing and implementation is quite another.

It’s generally accepted that many strategies fail not because they are bad strategies but because they don’t devote sufficient attention to implementation.

For this reason, Sport Northland took a very deliberate approach to building

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its own capability, as a necessary first step in implementing change. Notably it involved all its staff in a two-day community-led workshop, and accepted that any real improvement in the behaviour of providers and participants would take time — there would be no quick fix.

We also recognised that community groups had to be ready and willing to participate in a more collaborative approach, and that careful investigation was necessary to identify “the right people, right places and right projects”.

Key questions asked to help uncover this readiness included: • What do you care about?

• What are you prepared to do about it?

NEW CHALLENGES As Sport Northland began to advocate for a community-led approach, which at its core responded to local aspirations, it also needed to persuade major resource holders to follow suit.

Was there an appetite to join forces?

A REGIONAL DIMENSION While highly supportive of communityled development, Sport Northland recognised that local delivery is not the same thing as regional delivery. Again, using an Appreciative Inquiry approach, Sport Northland carried out a scan of the regional stakeholders.

More than had been the case in

the past, Sport Northland’s agenda is now being shaped by the careful examination of what Northland stakeholders want, and by assessing, and lifting if necessary, the ability of local groups to work with other stakeholders so that any improvements are sustainable.

Sport Northland cannot make assumptions.

THE LAST WORD One of the key learnings for Sport Northland has been that communityled development is not a quick fix.

36 AUSTRALASIAN PARKS AND LEISURE | Winter 2019

It requires Sport Northland whanau (extended family/community) to be patient, to develop a profound understanding of the people, their aspirations and their capabilities, before selecting projects in which local people take responsibility for achieving positive outcomes.

It has also become clear that a surprisingly large number of individuals, connecting in all sorts of different ways, are involved in making transformative change at the community level. The need to communicate never ends.

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OUTSTANDING PARK AN INCLUSIVE WINNER AWARDED THE 2018 OUTSTANDING PARK AWARD BY NZRA, ANDERSON PARK PLAYGROUND STANDS AS A TESTAMENT TO A “FUN IS FOR EVERYONE” ETHOS

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ommissioned by Napier City Council and located in the city of Napier on the east coast of New Zealand’s north island, the new Anderson Park Playground is the creation of landscape architects Sarah Collins and Aynsley Cisaria of Boffa Miskell.

Part of a long term revitalisation plan for the city, Anderson Park, one of the city’s premier parks, was chosen for the site of the new playspace due to its central location and the high proportion of youth in the area. Upgrading the existing outdated and non-inclusive playground, the new playground was developed to help connect the city’s suburban communities.

With a special interest in children’s play, guided by the International Play Association’s 2015 Statement on the Play Rights of Disabled Children, the talented

Boffa Miskell team designed what was to become the first all-abilities playground in Napier — which has a population of 57,240 people, 27 percent of whom have a disability.

Working with local advocacy groups, stakeholders and the community to ensure the project provided “fun for everyone” and the opportunity to “play together”, while also meeting Council’s expectation for a playscape that would reflect a vibrant and sustainable city for all, Anderson Park Playground has become a destination site for all ages and abilities. The space offers accessible and imaginative play structures for climbing and sliding, plus flying foxes, swings, waterplay equipment, functional artwork with cultural motifs, and interactive features that reflect the country’s heritage.

The award-winning playspace sits among mature trees that encourage a

38 AUSTRALASIAN PARKS AND LEISURE | Winter 2019

connection to the natural landscape, while the waterplay area reflects the coastal environment and nearby waterways. Upcycled trees from other Council properties in the region were used to create stepping logs and balance beams within the new park, and significant planting of site-specific plant species was undertaken to create a desirable environment for all park users and ensure longevity for the greenery.

The final result is a landscape seamlessly integrated through a diverse range of play environments that embolden little adventurers with a mixture of traditional and bespoke play elements.

Among its many all-abilities features, Anderson Park includes: visual and tactile stimuli for the hearing and sight impaired, including artwork with messages in Braille, a large xylophone, musical bridge and drums; a first-ofits-kind swing set with a variety of seat types that allow all to swing together; a wheelchair-acessible mini tower with a double width slide so caregivers can accompany their charges down the slide; and structured and non-structured play experiences.

In addition, new accessible toilet/ change facilities onsite feature a lifting swing to aid wheelchair users and their carers — another first for Napier.

“Play ability is graded to allow all abilities to play alongside each other, with a logical progression of related and repeated experiences that grow ever more challenging … visually and physically linking users on an experiential journey that allows them to truly play together in the space,” explains Boffa Miskell.

Encircling the playground, a yellow concrete pathway forms a “visual boundary and wayfinding tool” that defines the outer edge of the play area for children and gives them a reference that safely steers them back to familiar territory.

The $3.6 million project budget ensured a diverse range of play

equipment as well as accessible park infrastructure, which now supplies vital amenities for an intergenerational recreation experience and safely serves the entire community, regardless of age or ability.

Preserving an innovative playground also calls for innovative methods of upkeep and management. Anderson Park Playground boasts dedicated onsite staff and an online management system, iAuditor, to ensure the park is well taken care of, now and for future generations.

Opened at the beginning of 2019, anecdotal and empirical evidence already shows Anderson Park Playground is a big hit with the community and has met project objectives for providing a safe and accessible recreation space that promotes good health and wellbeing for everyone in the region.

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Winter 2019 | AUSTRALASIAN PARKS AND LEISURE 39

30/04/2019 5:00:07 PM

NO GIRLS ALLOWED? PLAY IS AN ESSENTIAL ELEMENT OF CHILDHOOD, BUT DO BOYS AND GIRLS HAVE EQUAL RIGHTS TO PLAY? WORDS JACQUELYN COLLINS

R

esearch into children’s freedom to roam suggests that boys are far more likely to be allowed out unsupervised, increasing their opportunities to play. And differing expectations about children’s play habits influence how they play. Many parents and educators believe that boys have an innate need to be active and engage in rough and tumble play, although numerous studies have debunked this by demonstrating that, from babyhood onwards, we tend to interact with boys and girls differently. We play with young boys in a more robust way and encourage them to be risk-takers, but with little girls we are gentler players, and we often support learned helplessness by assisting them with physical tasks. This kind of socialisation reinforces ideas that boys are rowdy and girls are gentle.

The examples we set for our children continue to tell them that women are chatty and sociable and men are physical and active. This all contributes to the play choices our children make.

However, if we give little girls the opportunity to run around like little boys, they’re just as eager to be noisy and active. I’ve been testing this theory for six years as a parent of boy and girl twins. I’m convinced that there’s no difference in their activity levels, ability to follow instructions, capacity to be gentle or lively, or need for play.

Other parents who’ve determinedly challenged childhood gender stereotypes report similar results!

The impact of gender-based socialisation in play is noticeable in school playgrounds, with boys frequently playing wide-ranging games of soccer

40 AUSTRALASIAN PARKS AND LEISURE | Winter 2019

and other ball sports. Boys often end up occupying a lot of outside space at school, to the detriment of girls who must fit their play in around the edges.

Although all boys are usually welcome to join in the soccer game, research shows that girls must demonstrate very high skill levels before boys will include them as peers (and even then, it’s often done begrudgingly). This makes it difficult for girls to take part in sport-based play, possibly contributing to their dwindling participation rates as they become teenagers. However, primary schools do get it right by offering plentiful opportunities to use play equipment, which is enjoyed by boys and girls alike.

I’ve recently started my urban planning career after 20 years in the workforce and a BA (Hons) in Urban Planning through the University of Auckland. For my Honours dissertation — No girls allowed? A study of access to public play space in Auckland, New Zealand — I explored whether boys and girls enjoy equal access to public play and leisure spaces (typically when accompanied by adult caregivers). I also looked at risk in play and pro- and anti-social play — but those are topics for another time.

I conducted timed observations of play equipment on Auckland’s North Shore to record who was playing and where. I visited four playgrounds and three skate parks, observing over 900 individual play encounters during a four-week period. Here’s what I learned.

BOYS DO OUTNUMBER GIRLS Boys outnumbered girls in my study. In Auckland 51 percent of people aged 19 and under are male, but 58 percent of the children I observed playing were boys.

Takapuna Beach Playground was the only site to reflect the demographic gender balance (51 percent boys and 49 percent girls observed). Other playgrounds showed a more marked dominance of boys: 58 percent boys and 42 percent girls at Browns Bay Playground; 72 percent boys and 28 percent girls at Long Bay Playground. I think this overrepresentation of boys at playgrounds demonstrates parental beliefs that boys need to run around more than girls. It would be fascinating to contact parents about their children’s play, given that they’re the ones who control when their kids go to playgrounds.

The gender imbalance was also pronounced at Onepoto Domain Playground, which is dominated by a scooter and bike track for younger children: 69 percent of the visitors were boys. And skate park observations confirmed suspicions that these are not girl-friendly spaces, with only 12 percent of users being girls — and this figure is distorted because one skate park visit involved several girls using the space. In all other skate park observations it was unusual to see any girls at all.

THE PROBLEM WITH SKATE PARKS Skate parks are often the default youth leisure facility installed in urban areas, but these are highly gendered spaces. Some councils have started to acknowledge this — Wellington City Council, for example, noted in its 2017 play policy that girls do not use skate parks at all — and many researchers recognise the issue. However, councils and academics have not yet talked about the broader implications of this gender imbalance.

Issues regarding equal access to public space are widely discussed in the adult realm, and there is growing awareness that, until relatively recently, many public spaces were designed by and for able-bodied white men. What message does it send to our girls when we consistently provide facilities that we know they’re almost never going to

use? I think we’re encouraging patterns of male spatial dominance from an early age by making girls feel that outside activities are not for them.

Of course, girls could choose to use skate parks — but relatively few girls are encouraged to develop skate skills. And boys’ presence in skate parks is a barrier in itself: my field work showed that teenage boys use them as hang-out spaces, and typically one or two boys would skate while the others watched.

Considering the research showing how girls must be highly skilled sportspeople for boys to take them seriously, how confident would a girl need to be on her skateboard to display her abilities in front of a crowd of (often older) boys?

WHAT’S THE ALTERNATIVE? How can we provide play and leisure spaces that girls will use and enjoy?

We could start by asking girls what they’d like to do outside for fun.

Recently councils have started installing 3x3 basketball courts at parks, but my research concluded that these are primarily used by men in their 20s and 30s.

Could we work with sporting bodies to develop a culture of informal netball-based play, for example? It’s a female dominated sport with very high participation rates.

What about providing some outdoor gymnastics equipment, given that a lot of girls enjoy that sport?

Girls should be able to see play and sports equipment installed in parks with their needs in mind, to encourage them to remain active and playful. And while doing this, we should also think further about how to challenge boys’ dominance of existing spaces — girls-only activation events might be a good place to start, so skater girls can develop their skills without a disparaging male audience.

PLAYGROUNDS FOR EVERYONE Many girls (and many boys) will never want to skate (or ride a BMX around a pump track), so good playgrounds are essential. In Auckland we have amazing playgrounds for younger children, but as they get older the opportunities for play are diminished. Takapuna Beach Playground is easily the most popular site from my study and is designed for all-ages use, but my six-year-olds have already conquered it. Where will they play when they’re nine or ten? If we want to encourage children to stay playful and not grow up too fast, we need to give them playful spaces.

My field work showed that older children use insufficiently challenging

play equipment in unintended ways, often putting themselves or others at risk. Play should contain risk, but parents like me want to see that provided through well-designed spaces, not through children (mis)using equipment in ways guaranteed to shorten our lives through the stress of watching them.

Older kids want to climb high and go fast. Research shows that boys AND girls enjoy play equipment, so let’s prioritise ways to incorporate more height and speed into play. And when we design playgrounds for older kids — which a lot of councils are keen to do — it would be wonderful to avoid dumbing down the space in a bid to also appeal to young children.

We have playgrounds exclusively for toddlers, so why not for big kids?

Adding this kind of play facility would have the potential to greatly improve the gender balance of playground use.

WHERE TO NEXT? I’m now working as a planner, helping to ensure we have enough space for parks and playgrounds in the future, but in 2020 I’ll also start more post-graduate study, continuing my focus on gender and play. I hope councils will begin to acknowledge that when it comes to play, girls don’t get a fair go!

Winter 2019 | AUSTRALASIAN PARKS AND LEISURE 41

BATHING BONANZA

LAKE MACQUARIE CITY COUNCIL IS BATHING IN THE SUCEESS OF THEIR LATEST LAKE ATTRACTION — BELMONT BATHS WORDS NEIL KEENE, COMMUNICATIONS AND ENGAGEMENT OFFICER, LAKE MAQUARIE CITY COUNCIL

P

icturesque public baths on the shores of Lake Macquarie were difficult to imagine after a superstorm tore through the region in April 2015. That extreme weather event tore boats from their moorings, caused millions of dollars’ worth of damage to foreshore properties and public land, and destroyed almost every remnant of the public jetty and open baths that had been a feature of the township of Belmont for decades. “It was pretty much annihilated,” Lake Macquarie City Council Community Assets Section Manager Stephen Prince said.

“In the space of 24 hours, the entire structure was destroyed, and the foreshore was a ruin.”

It wasn’t as simple as cleaning up the mess and repairing the jetty.

Construction would have to start from scratch, and the job would compete with dozens of others that arose as a result of the superstorm.

“We knew this was a very important asset to the community and there was a significant amount of passion out there to get the baths back,” said Mr Prince.

“It was clear from early on that this wouldn’t just be a case of replacing like for like. We wanted to provide a better, safer facility that would stand up to the elements and be accessible to everyone in the community.”

Expectations were high, prompting

five potential blueprints, from simply establishing a vessel exclusion zone with marker buoys or ropes to the option eventually settled upon; a 70m jetty with rigid net around all four sides.

“We were told loud and clear by the community that one of the key requirements was for safe and accessible public baths. The jetty and nets weren’t the cheapest option, but they ticked the boxes in terms of end use and longevity,” explained Mr Prince.

Settling on a design marked only the start of the journey. Construction contractors Clements Marine then had to tackle the challenge of working in an exposed, ever-changing and fragile marine environment that included meadows of endangered seagrass, Posidonia australis, which provides a nursery for fish and other aquatic life throughout Belmont Bay, along with another highly sensitive species known as Zostera capricornia. In addition, turtles have historically been sighted in the area, along with protected seahorse and pipefish species.

“The footprint was challenging, because the desire was always to put the baths back where they were,” Mr Prince advised. “If we were building from scratch, we probably would have looked at other locations, but that’s where the community wanted it, and that’s where the amenities already were.”

42 AUSTRALASIAN PARKS AND LEISURE | Winter 2019

Beginning in mid-2018, the six-month construction project finished on schedule, allowing for an opening just before the peak 2018 Christmas holiday period.

The baths have proven an outstanding success since their reopening, attracting all ages and abilities. The venue has significantly activated the Belmont foreshore by drawing visitors from well beyond the suburb to swim and play.

Mr Prince claimed, “One of the best ways to gauge success is usage. We’ve had very consistent use throughout summer, quite above our initial expectations.”

A community survey gauging public opinion and usage of the new facility reflects this positive result. Almost 90 percent of respondents said the new baths had either a “high” or “very high” positive impact for the people of Belmont and surrounding suburbs.

More than 80 percent said they had visited Belmont foreshore more often since the baths opened, and almost 20 percent were travelling more than 10km to get there.

Stage Two of the $1.3 million project, on track for completion in May 2019, involves landscaping the section of foreshore adjoining the baths and construction of a new, fully accessible amenities building. It will feature a wheelchair-accessible changeroom and permanent storage space for an aquatic wheelchair, to make full use of the ramp leading into the baths. The wheelchair will be available to anyone with an MLAK key — available free to people with a disability.

“We have really set the benchmark with Belmont Baths. In some ways, we’ve had to because it’s such a challenging environment. But I think it shows how we are committed to providing quality facilities to our community, and we will continue to look at innovative ways we can do this,” stated Mr Prince.

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DRINKING FOUNTAINS IN PUBLIC SPACES WITH THE GROWTH OF DESIRED AMENITY IN PUBLIC SPACES, FEATURING DRINKING FOUNTAINS THAT PROVIDE CLEAN, FRESH WATER IS MORE NECESSARY THAN EVER WORDS KERITH MCKENZIE, FILTERS & FOUNTAINS

I

n the 25 years that Grant McCarthy, Director of Filters & Fountains, has been in the water business, he says there has been a dramatic shift in the needs of consumers. With denser population forcing property development to supply smaller section sizes, our suburban lifestyles are forcing us outdoors into more community focused spaces. “More and more public spaces are needed and there is a high demand for great design-focused drinking fountains,” says Grant.

Gone are the old days where a drinking fountain was just a tap, with questionable purity, against a fence. Fortunately, New Zealand schools and parks are largely free of some of the risks that affect such institutions in many other countries.

We have adequate rainfall and stringent government health standards.

“Our tagline for Filters & Fountains is liquid for life. It’s not meant to be a quirky gimmick, it’s something the whole team avidly believes in. We tend to think of it more as a motto,” explains Grant.

But risks do remain. Infected water might affect large numbers before the problem can be corrected, and the consequences can be severe.

The problem does not always lurk in

the water supply itself. It might be in outdated plumbing or even the facility or playground fountains. Modern equipment will not only be more appealing to students and the public but quite possibly safer to drink from as well.

“Planning drinking stations in areas for play is not only the best-looking option, it’s also the safest,” says Grant, citing a recent install of a filtered drinking fountain in the King Country.

“If the kids see something that looks good and it tastes good too, there is nothing stopping them from going back for more.”

“Dehydration reduces concentration and a child’s memory as well as making them lethargic and drowsy — even more so after lunch when they’ve been active on the fields and playgrounds.

Often, children look at schoolyard drinking fountains as old and prehistoric, with the taste and colour of some water being undesirable to drink.

I don’t blame them for not wanting to drink this water,” adds Grant.

There are some fantastic cases, particularly in Auckland and in suburban areas around New Zealand, where drinking fountains or water stations have become a welcome feature within well-designed public spaces. The

44 AUSTRALASIAN PARKS AND LEISURE | Winter 2019

integration of such utilities complement playgrounds, turning the area into a family-friendly convenience while appealing to the whole community.

The same can be said for community and open space planning.

“We find that the best urban design integrates the benefits of pure, clean drinking water into the concept stage of planning, rather than as an afterthought,” claims Grant.

When planned into a design, this enables effective and efficient plumbing to be run in appropriate areas, alleviating post design stresses with inadequate water entry points.

Animals are family too! As Grant points out, drinking fountains are not just for humans. Filters & Fountains’ most popular model is a multi-height unit with tilt draining dog bowl. This unit, along with the wheelchair accessible fountain, “provides planning and councils with the best potential design options,” states Grant, adding that with the movement towards outdoor living, biking, walking and general activities and events, inevitably incorporating drinking fountains that also meet the needs of our four-legged friends future-proofs the needs of our community going forward.

In order to deal with a wide variety of

water problems, communities concerned about the issue of safe drinking water will find no shortage of solutions. Filters & Fountains has a range of domestic and commercial water purifiers available, including UV-sterilisation units, coolers and drinking fountains.

Freestanding drinking fountains are not the only product Filters & Fountains is known for. They are also well regarded for cost-effective wall-mounted fountains that provide a healthy solution for established builds, such as halls and recreation centres.

When asked about the level of difficulty for installing such a product, Grant says that they are “as simple as installing a sink” and people would be surprised at how easily something like the wallmounted units can be suitable for a wide variety of locations.

Grant is working on trying to get schools in particular to realise that even simple solutions about water can be very helpful to students. He says many schools have not spent any money on ensuring their drinking fountains are robust, user-friendly, or nice to taste.

The same can be said for community spaces and playgrounds.

Sadly, a lot of older community spaces have outdated drinking fountains, which affects whether or not they will be used. Grant calls them “the forgotten convenience”, stating that maintenance is key in the benefits such of products.

“It is such a shame when a group goes to the expense of installing a state-of-the-art water filtration unit and then maintenance goes by the

wayside because people forget to replace filters and maintain the unit;” says Grant.

“We ensure that this does not happen with any product that we sell, safeguarding parks, schools and homes by placing them on a database so we can make sure healthy, great tasting water continues to flow for that client for as long as possible.”

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Winter 2019 | AUSTRALASIAN PARKS AND LEISURE 45

INSIGHTS INTO ACTION WHY RECREATION AOTEAORA INSIGHTS? WORDS ROBYN COCKBURN AND LUCY ATKINSON, LUMIN

K

eeping current with emerging issues and new thinking is a challenge for busy parks and recreation professionals.

Recreation Aoteaora publishes easyto-access, simple-to-understand, twopage Insights Reports that include links to further reading, podcasts, research and case studies.

With support from Sport NZ, Insights Reports contribute to:  The quality management and delivery of sport and recreation  A skilled and connected workforce  Enhanced consideration in policy and decision making and advocacy credibility As part of this process we work with Think Tanks that reflect the expertise available in the sector, using people with significant sector experience and those early career professionals who bring fresh perspectives.

WHAT ARE INSIGHTS REPORTS? At its best, recreation delivery is a moveable feast; committed to underpinning values and principles as well as being responsive to the new — such as changing demographics and environments, evolving participant needs and ways of participating. One way professionals in the sector can stay up to date is through research and information summarised into an easily accessible form. For many, it is not possible to attend conferences

and workshops in other locations, and ideas and information from key thought leaders on contemporary themes can be shared using the Insights Reports.

WHAT ARE THE INSIGHTS TOPICS? The Insights Reports cover topics across outdoor recreation, aquatics, parks and community recreation. The following topics have been covered:  Outdoor recreation in a Superdiverse New Zealand (see the article in the Autumn issue of the AP&L Journal)  Active New Zealand  The Living Standards Framework  Fight, flight or freeze in the aquatics Red Zone  Low Carbon Parks | Recreation Aoteaora Award Winner  Wellbeing in Design

economic status has a major impact on people’s active recreation and sport participation — people in deprived areas have lower levels of participation across all activities.

The Active New Zealand Insights Report analyses how different groups participate and includes easy to apply tactics to increase participation.

Providers of recreation and sport opportunities, places and spaces should:  Provide flexible, affordable familyoriented activities  Focus resources on locations where people currently recreate  Speak with potential participants — don’t make assumptions  Recognise differing motivations in design, promotion and delivery of programmes and services

THE LIVING STANDARDS FRAMEWORK Wellbeing contributes to people’s quality of life, and includes good health, increased longevity, resilience to trauma, creativity and job satisfaction.

The Government’s Wellbeing Framework, adapted from the OECD’s Better Life Index, measures wellbeing.

The government will be measuring progress against a set of indicators that include cultural identity and activity.

The Wellbeing Framework is highly relevant to providers of recreation opportunities. Participation in recreation and leisure can increase a population’s capacity and capability and increase the wellbeing of a population. Recreation can “add value” to the measures used in the Framework in all of the five areas covered by the Wellbeing Indicators.

INSIGHTS: ACTIVE NZ Sport NZ’s Active NZ (2017) survey includes both young people and adults, and provides important insights into the changing landscape of participation in active recreation and sport in New Zealand.

People participate in a huge range of activities in varied places and spaces.

Gender, age, impairments (visible or invisible), socio-economic status and ethnicity all effect what activities people choose, how often they participate, and where they recreate.

Motivations and barriers vary depending on all or some of these factors. Socio-

46 AUSTRALASIAN PARKS AND LEISURE | Winter 2019

FIGHT, FLIGHT OR FREEZE IN THE RED ZONE How do our brains react in emergencies? Our fight, flight or freeze tendency has a significant impact on cognitive processing, and therefore on

WELLBEING INDICATORS

HOW RECREATION CAN ADD VALUE 

Cultural identity

Ensure that ways of enhancing belonging are a component of recreation activities



Promote and support cultural activity



Commit to meeting our obligations to the Treaty of Waitangi



Promote the value of participation in active recreation as a way to maintain or regain good health (mental and physical)

Health

Environment



Find out about people’s perceived wellbeing



Promote the value of outdoor play and recreation



Promote the benefits to populations of parks, open space, waterways, bush and beaches



Develop recreation opportunities as a vehicle for social connectedness, targeting vulnerable populations

Social connections



Promote the value of participation in active recreation as a way to maintain or regain good health (mental and physical)

Leisure and recreation



Find out about people’s perceived wellbeing



Provide participation opportunities across the 24/hr period



Promote the value of leisure and play at an individual, community and national level

WELLBEING IN DESIGN

FIVE CLIMATE-POSITIVE ACTIONS FOR SPORTS PARK DESIGN CONSIDERATIONS

OPTIONS FOR ACTION

Consider alternatives to

Hybrid turf has lowered embodied emissions without

artificial turf

significant reduction of playing time

Consider infill type and use/

Cork infill and reuse of shock pads reduces embodied

reuse of shock pad

emissions by 50 percent to SBR infill

Avoid disposal of artificial

Look at re-purposing options to reduce the whole-of-

turf in landfill

life emissions

Reduce operational

Sourcing energy efficient lighting, electric vehicles

emmissions

and machinery and waste reduction

Select high sequestration shrub

Suggested species: Pohutukawa, Karo, Ngaio

and tree species and maximise

and Lemonwood

planting opportunities

first responders in the Aquatics sector.

Gary Johnson trains aquatics staff to identify their “reaction mode” and develop strategies to manage it, so as to move swiftly from reaction to action in emergency situations. Understanding the impact of fight or flight in the red zone provides a good foundation to improved responsiveness when it matters.

Train your staff to understand their fear and stress responses so they can prepare to manage them under pressure.  Relax | Take a moment to be calm  Role clarity | What’s your job right now?  Review | How is the situation changing?  Respond | What do I need to do now?

LOW CARBON PARKS | RECREATION AOTEAORA AWARD WINNER Carbon inventories are a way of measuring New Zealand Greenhouse Gas Emissions (GHG) — as the number one contributor to climate change.

The Low Carbon Auckland Action Plan

model an inventory as they are often infrastructure heavy and can be high in embodied carbon emmissions.

Onsite vegetation cover in a typical sports park cannot offset the embodied emmissions. The area with the highest contribution to carbon emmissions was the built infrastructure, in particular the artificial turf.

This research contributes to decision making that delivers sustainable, evidence-based, carbon-positive sports park design, procurement and maintenance. It provides evidence so that alternative low carbon solutions can be sought, and raises the awareness of environmental impact through the decision-making and design process.

aims to reduce GHG by 40 percent by 2040. Auckland City Council’s Parks Unit’s carbon inventory of Seddon Park in Auckland won an award at the 2018 Recreation Aoteaora conference.

As part of this commitment, the Auckland City Parks unit set out to understand how its network of parks and open spaces impact on climate change, asking the question: Are parks carbon positive or negative?

In order to understand the whole parks network’s impact, the research was broken down into stages based on different park typologies. This stage looked at a sports park, Seddon Fields, and informed the methodologies for the next stages. The resulting research on Seddon Fields enabled extrapolation of data across all sports parks to form a picture of the carbon footprint at a network level, and provided useful findings for future parks design.

A sports park was selected to

Using insights from professionals working in facility planning and design, including Alex Head from Warren and Mahoney Architects and Jamie Delich, Facilities Consultant at Sport NZ, it is clear that concepts of wellbeing are integral to the planning, design and construction of facilities. Healthy facilities are those that not only function effectively and are cost efficient but also contribute to the health and wellbeing of the people using them, because of thoughtful design.

A follow-up paper includes an overview of the Wanaka Aquatic Centre. This robust and efficient community space was completed in 2018. This paper includes an overview of the technical aspects of efficient thermal design and sustainability.

Read each of these Insights Papers at: nzrecreation.org.nz/Site/about/ insights.aspx MEET THE AUTHORS Insights Papers are written by Robyn Cockburn and Lucy Atkinson of Lumin and published monthly through Recreation Aoteaora.

Robyn has been involved in research and insights underpinning and informing the recreation, sport and outdoor sector for more than 30 years. She has a long track record of applying insights in effective and innovative ways, as evidenced by successful projects throughout New Zealand.

Lucy has more than two decades of work in the recreation sector and is a keen outdoor recreation enthusiast. Lucy is a skilled researcher and writer, able to review and summarise key themes from existing literature, synthesise information from workshops and write in a range of different forms. Recent assignments include the research and development of the Respect and Responsibility Review for New Zealand Rugby and the Disability Sport and Recreation Strategy for Sport New Zealand.

Winter 2019 | AUSTRALASIAN PARKS AND LEISURE 47

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INTERNATIONAL NEWS

T

he international news section of the Winter edition of the Journal includes the announcement of the appointment of Inger Andersen to the position of Executive Director of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), marking imminent changes at the top for UNEP and IUCN. The outcome of research studies into the value of greenspaces for the elderly community provide some interesting insights, while observations on “green gentrification” offer food for thought in how we approach the greening of our cities.

Taking a trip into the US, an article on the intended expansion and access improvement plans for the parks and open space systems in Kings County, Seattle, outlines the strength of their belief in a “generational investment” for public space in the region.

Finally, Scott Martin, who spoke at last year’s PLA Congress in Melbourne, shares his insights into his

visit to Australia and the parallels and differences he sees between the parks and recreations sectors in Australia and New Zealand compared to the USA. According to Scott, we are “flat out killing it” in the land down under!

Some exciting international

offerings to look forward to in this edition. We hope you enjoy reading about what parks and leisure professionals are doing abroad.

John Senior Editorial Coordinator

UNEP EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR APPOINTED

I

nger Andersen, Director General of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) has been appointed to the post of Executive Director of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) by the United Nations General Assembly.

“IUCN is proud that its current Director General, Inger Andersen, has been appointed to head the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP),” stated Zhang Xinsheng, IUCN President. “[Inger] is a very qualified candidate whose leadership and talent have made a valuable contribution to IUCN during her tenure here. This nomination is demonstrative of Inger’s dedication to natural conservation of the world, and also of IUCN’s importance as the world’s most influential conservation Union — and it is excellent news for UNEP. I send her my most sincere congratulations.”

The 15th Director General of the International Union for Conservation of Nature, Ms Andersen, has headed the

Secretariat since January 2015.

During her tenure as Director General, IUCN has become an increasingly modernised organisation that has accentuated the contribution

of nature to achieving the Sustainable Development Goals, boosted its work with Indigenous Peoples Organisations and grown its GEF portfolio significantly.

Winter 2019 | AUSTRALASIAN PARKS AND LEISURE 49

The High Line is credited with increasing the value of nearby property by over 100% from 2003-2011

GREEN GENTRIFICATION AND HOW TO AVOID IT THE DETRIMENT OF GREENING CITIES WITH A FOCUS ON “URBAN BRANDING” AND ECONOMIC GAIN NOT COMMUNITY VALUE WORDS SIGRID EHRMAN, FREELANCE LANDSCAPE ARCHITECT, ENVIRONMENTAL PLANNER AND WRITER (BARCELONA)

P

arks improve our neighbourhoods, boost our health, strengthen our communities and combat the effects of climate change. In short, greening our cities make them more liveable. But who really benefits?

Much of the push for greener and more sustainable cities originates in grassroot environmental activism.

Recent years have, however, seen a shift in momentum as large global cities have appropriated the green-city movement as a marketing strategy, particularly in relation to large-scale developments driven by investors and elected officials.

Hand-in-hand with many of these developments is a process of privatising greenspaces, and the emergence of high-profile feature landscape architecture that results in greenspaces with high aesthetics but little community value. Some of the most noticeable examples are the New York High Line or the new Les Halles park in Paris.

This is problematic, not only because of the lack of response to local

community needs, but also because these type of large-scale green projects are usually associated with the urban regeneration of surrounding neighbourhoods. The result is often the physical and/or cultural displacement of vulnerable parts of the local community in the area.

PUBLIC SPACE AS URBAN BRANDING The Olympic Games in Barcelona marked a shift in the city’s urban design strategy. The appropriation of planning processes through a public/ private partnership, prior to and after the games, led to large parts of the city’s industrial heritage being erased to build the Olympic Village. Public spaces and parks were designed for visitors, city branding and to attract investment, rather than for residents.

This became known as the Barcelona Model. The Parc del Diagonal Mar by Enric Miralles and Benedetta Tagliabue (with Robert AM Stern Architects and EDAW), and the Parc del Centre de

50 AUSTRALASIAN PARKS AND LEISURE | Winter 2019

Poble Nou by Jean Nouvel are examples of the high profile greenspaces that formed part of the city’s urban renewal strategy post-Olympics.

The Barcelona Lab for Urban Environmental Justice and Sustainability (BCNUEJ) has been researching this process of gentrification and calculates that signs of gentrification, such as the displacement of vulnerable communities, were present in around 60 percent of neighbourhoods with greenspaces built between 1990 and 2008. Those places associated with large-scale developments on the waterfront were especially affected.

WHAT PRICE GREEN INFRASTRUCTURE? According to Benjamin Cooke, lecturer in Sustainability and Urban Planning at RMIT University, there is little research on the possible gentrifying effect of greening strategies in Australian cities.

There are, however, quantitative studies about the impact of green urban spaces on property values.

A recent study reveals that within the urban area of Melbourne the presence of a playground within 300 metres adds about $30,000 to the average house price. Another survey of canopy coverage and house price data undertaken by engineering company AECOM in the three Sydney suburbs of Blacktown, Willoughby and Annandale indicates that a 10 percent higher tree coverage increases property values by an average of $50,000 compared to less leafy streets in the same suburb.

Urban greening is increasingly associated with many Australian capital city planning policies, which in turn become part of those cities’ marketing strategies. In 2008, Sydney released the Sustainable Sydney 2030 development plan including its Green/ Global/Connected vision. Writers Kenneth A Gould and Tammy L Lewis criticised it in their recent book Green Gentrification: Urban Sustainability and the Struggle for Environmental Justice, for its growth and investment focus, and the potential risk of such strategies leading to green gentrification.

Meanwhile in Victoria, Melbourne’s 202020 Vision actively promotes urban green as a “positive influence” to increase property value.

This points towards the hijacking

of the green agenda for the benefit of property developers, giving us reason for concern for Australian cities. As Benjamin Cooke points out in Just and Equitable Urban Greening?, these trends highlight the urgency of green gentrification studies and a consideration of the phenomena within policy making.

URBAN GREENING AND SOCIAL EQUITY BCNUEJ’s research into 99 cities in North America and Europe with urban renewal strategies based on a green branding discourse has shown that while these cities have experienced economic growth, they also tend towards being less affordable. While green gentrification does not necessarily affect all cities, only those cities that coupled social equity policies with their urban greening programs were successful in avoiding community displacement due to property speculation. In other cases, lowincome residents, or even the middle class, were driven out.

So what can we learn from these research findings, to avoid green gentrification?

Four things we can do to design greenspace for all citizens comprise:

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Winter 2019 | AUSTRALASIAN PARKS AND LEISURE 51

programming.” — Friends of the High Line Co-Founder Robert Hammond.

3. Community engagement and co-creation Engaging methodologies and democratic processes are needed to involve the community and cocreate greenspaces. This can include tactical urbanism, social media strategies, workshops and community activities.

It is critical to have an ongoing conversation, not only with residents, but also other stakeholders and municipal actors from different sectors, for the development of environmentally and socially sustainable greenspaces.

We need to create dynamic spaces that residents can make their own and that are adaptable to the changing needs of the community.

The City of Melbourne’s Urban Forest Strategy is an example for the use of communication and citizen engagement tools, and a holistic and multi-disciplinary approach that allows people to build a relationship with nature in the city.

The High Line plays a key role in New York’s urban branding

1. Build more greenspaces Establish a network of green and blue spaces throughout the city so each citizen has access to high-quality public greenspaces.

The French city of Nantes has successfully achieved a nonhierarchical mix of various types of smaller and larger parks and public spaces. The city went through a trajectory of deindustrialisation at the end of the 1980s, with the conversion of the former shipyards at the centre of the urban reconstruction and economic recovery. Unused land was transformed into new civic infrastructure with an enormous quantity of small and large-scale green projects, a green living and working space with a strong focus on the creative industries. Overall the city doubled the amount of greenspaces.

Barcelona is currently implementing a similar strategy to provide a network of greenspaces with its Superblocks, with the ultimate goal to free up to 60 percent of the traffic area for public space. BCNUEJ cooperates with the city council to raise awareness of social inequity and gentrification with residents and stakeholders, and to take steps to improve community inclusion in the decision-making process and maintain

accessible housing in the areas affected.

2. Less flagships, more diverse and locally-drawn character Design for those who will use a park, not just for those who will be paying the bills.

When designers consider developers and city authorities as their clients, rather than the actual user, we often see “flagship” parks as a result. Many parks are designed in a contemporary, designer-specific style that fails to emphasise the local character of the neighbourhood. To foster a connection between the community and greenspaces and landscapes, designers have to understand the residents’ needs and base greenspaces and infrastructure on their various needs, preferences, and identities. Green infrastructure is not simply a technical and quantitative exercise. It needs to consider emotive and experiential qualities.

As seen with New York’s High Line, if a park is not designed according to the community’s requirements, they will not use it — but others will. “When we opened, we realised the local community wasn’t coming to the park, and the three main reasons were: they felt it wasn’t built for them, they didn’t see people like them there, and they didn’t like the

52 AUSTRALASIAN PARKS AND LEISURE | Winter 2019

4. Look at the bigger picture Urban greening strategies need to be linked to government policies, housing regulations and zoning laws.

In Nantes, development was driven by the city, not the developers, through the application of land-use control and inclusionary zoning regulations. A public-private partnership was set up to direct the development and regulate uses, including the provision of social and mixed housing. Financing schemes for rent and mortgages were set up for low and middle class residents.

In Barcelona, the proportion of public and social housing compared to the overall housing stock is much lower than in Nantes. But the city is pushing for a social housing quota of 30 percent for every new development.

Stronger public policies and green and social governance will be required in countries such as Australia, France and Spain, to respond to the risk of social inequity when making our cities more liveable and sustainable.

Landscape architects and urban designers have the capacity to promote the inclusions of these types of mechanisms through their project work, with clients and stakeholders, local governments and advocacy through professional associations.

Green infrastructure and public space is never apolitical. Designers are in the middle of it and should not shy away from taking a position.

THE LEADING EDGE OF URBAN LIVEABILITY LESSONS FROM THE URBAN EDGE: SHAPING CITIES OF TOMORROW TODAY WORDS SCOTT MARTIN, RIVER HERITAGE CONSERVANCY, USA

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aving spent twenty years working on public parks and conservation efforts on the suburban frontier across the United States, it was a treat for me to visit Australia last October and participate as a guest at the 2018 International Parks & Leisure Congress in Melbourne. I was fortunate to then spend three weeks in South Australia, Victoria and New South Wales visiting many parks and public gardens.

I left Australia blown away by the energy, passion and enthusiasm exemplified by the Australian parks and recreation community. The future of liveable urban communities is in Australia and New Zealand because your teams are making it happen. You are flat out killing it.

The global-park performance bar is being set in your hometowns, and your energy is palpable. I wish it could be exported!

On the flight back to the States, I found myself reflecting on the challenges and opportunities we face there (particularly in our western and Sun Belt communities)

and what you’re up against. Like Australia, we are dealing with urban population growth/expansion, the impact of climate change, an ever-sprawling suburban frontier churning up pastoral and agricultural acreage, changing sports/ outdoor recreation interest patterns, more diverse demands from visitors, invasive plant and animal pressure, and the challenge of maintaining aging infrastructure in our urban cores.

Australia’s park professionals taught me on this visit that we should collaborate more across the Pacific. We have so much to learn from you, and I like to think vice versa. This free flow of ideas matters because — and let me be Great Barrier Reef crystal clear — the group of professionals and advocates with the skill, vision, knowledge and passion needed to shape liveable cities of the future will come from the parks, conservation, and recreation community. A successful urban future will depend on this community of professionals because I just don’t think we can count on the real estate speculators,

developers, accountants, engineers and traffic planners to build beautiful places where people want to live, work and play.

The innovators, creators, and designers of our globe’s next great cities should be park leaders.

It logically follows that some of our profession’s most impactful work should be happening at the growing edge of our urban frontiers — the space where our cities are growing and moving.

With an aim of perhaps starting an exchange of lessons learned, I offer the five following realities that seem to be unifying factors for US communities that are successfully engaged in shaping a positive urban- edge trajectory: 1. They acknowledge density is coming to the edge While there has been an exciting renaissance of our large urban center cores on both continents, population growth continues to happen on the suburban edges. As writer Ed Glaeser says so well, “If cities can’t grow up, they will

Winter 2019 | AUSTRALASIAN PARKS AND LEISURE 53

Fig 1.

Murtaza Haider and Stephen Moranis | Image The Financial Post

grow out.” Data from Brookings Institute for United States (Fig 1.) and The Financial Times for Canada demonstrate this fact as played out in North America.

Communities that acknowledge this seem to advance liveability agendas more intentionally than those that either want to stop development, or communities that just take what growth does with little consideration of long-term impact.

We shouldn’t assume that suburban environments achieve peak density when they have one house per half-acre. If past is prologue, the suburban edge will continue to attract new residents and today’s five-acre lots become one-acre lots, then become half-acre, then multifamily. This accelerates if mass transit options are nearby. Leading to ...

2. They get all the land Pretty straight forward. Small farm? Get it. McMansion with acreage available?

Get it. A mall being condemned and ready for repurposing? Get it. Of course, have a plan first, but securing land for future generations’ use as public space is rarely an action that people regret. As mentioned above, these opportunities do go away over time. Seize the moments you get to do this, especially on the urban edge.

The world’s greatest urban parks and park systems went in ahead of the development that surrounds them. The best, and sometimes only, opportunity to set aside land for a truly significant urban park like The Domain, Central Park (NYC), Hyde Park (London), Stanley Park (Vancouver), is to set it aside before its need becomes evident. This is tough because many times the thinking (and resources) needed to make these land purchases are hard to come by in sparsely populated young suburbs and exurbs.

Progressive communities often set aside land for open space conservation (agriculture or conservation programming). While we lead and affirm wise investments in conservation, we must be careful to always remind

leaders that open space conservation is not the same thing as public park provision. We should transparently educate, and consistently affirm that conservation and park systems, while similar, serve our urban future quite differently. Leading communities don’t settle for just the hillsides, environmentally sensitive areas and floodplains when it comes to public land services. While those are important and should be protected for their own merit, parks (and the people that use them) will also need prime real estate with frontage and access to major thoroughfares. Edge communities shouldn’t limit themselves to prioritising setting aside land for passive purposes — their work should fight for the best lands with an eye towards intentional urban park service systems, because ...

3. Suburban parks become urban parks The next challenge is that park master plans need to prepare for a changing audience over time. This is a big leap for many suburban and smaller city leaders to grasp. In the States, the initial impulse behind suburban parks is to meet an immediate interest group’s need, frequently youth team sports and athletics. The initial guiding impulse behind many suburban edge parks is the need to host sporting events and large gatherings. This makes sense as people have their own yards and spaces to get away individually, so parks are places that primarily exist to support people coming together. But, once a region becomes dense, parks become places for people to get AWAY for the purpose of an unprogrammed activity as much as a place for people to gather FOR a programmed activity. So, thinking about how a park can transition into a comprehensive urban park is necessary.

Prospect Park (Brooklyn, NY, USA) offers a wonderful case study. Olmsted’s original park plan (Fig 2) and an aerial image of the city indicate there can be little doubt that Prospect Park’s creation

54 AUSTRALASIAN PARKS AND LEISURE | Winter 2019

was only possible before the city grew.

And from the outset, the circulation plan, planting efforts and landscape programming aimed to serve densely populated future neighbourhoods.

Olmsted shaped a park that successfully served an evolving community over the past 100+ years. This is tough in a political environment where elected officials are seeking immediate response to immediate citizen needs, thus new partners are needed to come on board to help keep everyone’s eyes focused past the next election cycle, and this means you need allies. And a strong and emerging ally can be ...

4. Philanthropic/donor community engagement Slightly different than Australia, the US has a long tradition of engagement between the philanthropic community and public park agencies for the development of major park sites. While this relationship started in our Federal National Park System (the Rockefeller family-sustained gifts of Grand Teton and Acadia National Parks), vigorous and sustained investment in local and regional parks followed quickly behind. In this era of decreasing public support and increasing commercial demand, the philanthropic community can provide an entrepreneurial third way to approach major park system planning, thinking and execution without selling a park’s soul for advertisements or corporate sponsorships.

These relationships are fraught with managing expectations and deliverables that require public transparency and protection of donor intent and interests.

Fig 2. New York parks | Image NY City Parks

New York aerial view | Image New York Post

And managing these requires a deft touch and absolute clarity from all partners at the outset. This is a shift in culture for many public park agencies in the States. As someone that has made the transition from the public sector to the partnership sector here, I can tell you this is potentially challenging shift for reasons such as community/social equity. But, with strong philosophical guiding principals at the outset, communities that have engaged the philanthropic community have been able to make significant, long-range, truly region-shaping park projects possible. And special, region-shaping parks happen best when ...

5. Communities know the specialness of their place Perhaps a little bit more on the tactical side, one park development process deployed successfully here in the States comes from the Project for Public Spaces and Tom Wessels’ Reading the Forested Landscape. This approach is based on the principle that the best resource planning starts with first knowing the landscape and what is happening on it. Not every park site has a dramatic natural feature or rich cultural connection/story, but we’ve learned that the most successful neighbourhood and community parks each reveal something unique and special.

This can be as simple as a wildflower meadow, an old fencerow, a recent burn site, or a 100-year-old oak. Planners learn these places by walking sites with the eye of a naturalist and then teasing out the stories of the land. By knowing the property at this level, planners will be able to guide and shape the park in a way that adds character and uniqueness to it and ensure a copycat park isn’t experienced by future visitors.

This sometimes guides us to make less interventions on the land — and thus elevate the park’s natural values, counter to the instinct of many in the urban design community. The commitment to “place-knowing” as a core planning value has effectively turned some vanilla US suburban landscapes into very special parks.

In summary, your country is a remarkably special place.

Your parks elevate the entire visitor experience. The work you are doing today is cutting edge and setting the global mark for excellence. I hope the lessons I’ve shared from successful urban-edge park planning and implementation in North America spark some ideas and creativity on your side of the very large pond.

The future of excellent urban parks will come from your communities. Thank you for inspiring this Yank on great park design and programming, and I look forward to humbly stealing your ideas and innovations for deployment back here in the States. I’m looking forward to the journey with you.

SCOTT MARTIN Scott Martin holds a BA and MPA from Boise State University (Idaho, USA) and has served as member of park teams in Idaho, Virginia, Kentucky, and Indiana.

He is presently Executive Director of River Heritage Conservancy, Inc., North American Chair for World Urban Parks (WUP), and a massive Midnight Oil fan.

Scott can be reached at smartin@riverheritageconservancy. org and www.linkedin.com/in/scott-martin-945930b7/

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GREENSPACES AND MATURE WELLBEING A STUDY HAS SHOWN THAT A CONNECTION WITH GREENSPACE IS ASSOCIATED WITH LESS FRAILTY IN OLDER ADULTS WORDS LOIS A BOWERS, EDITOR, MCKNIGHT’S SENIOR LIVING

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reenspaces are good for the frailty status of older adults, according to a study published in the latest issue of JAMDA: The Journal of Post-Acute and LongTerm Care Medicine. The authors hope the study will encourage the use of greenspaces to promote health and prevent frailty in such populations.

Researchers in Hong Kong measured the frailty status of 4000 study participants aged 65 or more years, as well as the amount of greenspace/ vegetation around their residences, then followed up with participants two years later: complete follow-up data was available for 3240 participants.

The frailty status of older adults living in neighbourhoods with more than 34 percent greenspace at baseline was more likely to have improved over the time period, researchers found.

“Greenspace is now viewed as an

important part of neighbourhoods that support healthy and active lifestyles; it is therefore plausible that individuals living in areas with more greenspace have a lower risk of frailty,” they wrote.

Other factors are likely in play as well, the investigators claim. Previous research has shown that greenspace can promote cognitive functions, for instance, and that greenspace is associated with reduced air pollution. The authors note that more research is needed to understand which characteristics of greenspace have the strongest influence on frailty.

Researchers also found a stronger association between greenspace and frailty risk among men than among women.

“Possible explanations for the gender differences in the greenspace and health relationship are gender differences in the usage of greenspace. Although we did not collect any information regarding the usage of greenspace, our supplementary

56 AUSTRALASIAN PARKS AND LEISURE | Winter 2019

analysis revealed that men had a higher level of physical activity and were more likely than women to have spent their leisure time outdoors (walking and gardening) … and therefore benefit more from greenspace than women do.”

McKnight’s Senior Living (pre-eminent national media brand in USA) previously reported on a 2017 study by researchers from the University of Warwick, UK, who found that access to outdoor areas could improve the symptoms of depression among assisted living and nursing home residents. However, locked doors, uneven footpaths, steep steps and needing permission or assistance to go outside often prevented access.

The authors of a separate 2016 literature review said that spending time outdoors can improve one’s mind, body and spirit, reducing mobility issues, isolation, activities of daily living and physical therapy needs, depression and cognitive impairment.

(See mcknightsseniorliving.com/home/ news/older-adults-need-outdoor-spacesresearch/ and naturesacred.org/wpcontent/uploads/2018/05/Elder-Brief_ Final_Print_5-4-16.compressed.pdf) “Nearby nature benefits all ages, but the positive health effects often are greater for older adults,” claims Kathleen

Wolf PhD, a research social scientist at the University of Washington in Seattle, and Elizabeth Housley, founder, social scientist and senior project manager with the Seattle-based consulting firm Our Future Environment.

“New retirees can benefit from activities such as gardening and strolls, but adults aged more than 85 years may be limited to their immediate neighbourhoods due to mobility or other health issues, so having nature nearby is even more important for them.”

In their report, The Benefits of Nearby Nature in Cities for Older Adults, Wolf & Housley provides a literature review of the health and wellness benefits of parks, gardens and trees when they are easily accessible and close to someone’s residence. The authors note, this information can be used by those planning assisted living and memory care communities as well as healthcare facilities, and for aging-in-place design within communities and private residences.

The authors noted one study that found that, overall, almost 40 percent of adults aged 60 to 64 years believed that their communities were not doing enough to plan for the growing population of older adults. Low-income older adults were even less convinced.

“This brief is a wake-up call for senior

living specialists, city planners and health officials looking to address the needs of an aging population,” said Mary Wyatt, executive director of the non-profit TKF Foundation, which funded the research as part of a series. “The evidence shows how important high-quality, welldesigned nearby nature is for people of all ages.”

Researchers behind a study by nonprofit research organisation RAND Corp, suggested that walking loops and classes geared toward adults could attract more older users to neighbourhood parks across the United States, which primarily offer activities that are geared toward younger people.

“It’s really sad that so few seniors are using our public parks,” said Deborah Cohen MD. MPH., the study’s lead author and a senior natural scientist at RAND.

“We need to make changes to attract older people to parks to exercise and stay active, especially with the increasing rates of chronic disease among older people, and as our nation’s population grows older.”

Although they found much variation among the locations studied, results consistently showed that neighbourhood park use was especially low among senior citizens, other adults and younger females.

Adults aged 60 or more years make up 20 percent of the general population and yet were found to represent only 4 percent of observed park visitors.

TO READ THE FULL REPORT VISIT: www.jamda.com/article/S15258610(17)30700-4/fulltext

#ThisGirlCanVIC

Vic Health.indd 1

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Winter 2019 | AUSTRALASIAN PARKS AND LEISURE 57

PARKS: A GENERATIONAL INVESTMENT A NEW LEVY INITIATIVE WILL SEE KING COUNTY PARKS IN SEATTLE EXPAND TO IMPROVE ACCESS TO RECREATION OPPORTUNITIES IN THE REGION WORDS KINGS COUNTY PRESS OFFICE

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n February 2019, King County Executive Dow Constantine announced his proposal to renew the current King County Parks Levy, scheduled to expire at the end of the year. His proposal for the August ballot would generate an estimated $738 million over the next six years to expand and connect regional trails, improve access to greenspace and recreation, and keep the county’s parks and trails clean, safe and open.

The current King County Parks levy expired on 31 December 2018. In February 2019, Executive Constantine sent to the King County Council a proposal that will expand and improve access to the county’s 200 parks, 175 miles of regional trails, and 28,000 acres of open space. “This proposal isn’t just about access to parks and recreation — although that is plenty. It is about a generational investment in our environment,” said Executive Constantine.

Highlights of the plan include: • Building and designing regional trails • Improving trailheads • Repairing trails for hiking, mountain biking and horseback riding • Replacing 11 ballfields • Rehabilitating play area equipment in six parks • Maintaining park infrastructure: roofs, pathways, electrical and fencing The levy would cost 16.82 cents per $1000 of assessed property value, costing the owner of a home valued at $500,000 about $7 per month, which is around $2 more than they currently pay. About 80 percent of King County Parks’ operational budget is funded by levy.

Under Executive Constantine’s proposal, about $60 million would be allocated to King County cities to support local parks and recreation; an additional $35 million would go for grants to cities to protect and acquire open space. It would provide Woodland Park Zoo with $36 million for conservation and environmental education programs for under-served

Dow Constantine’s proposal will improve access to the county’s 200 parks

youth. It would also provide $8 million to the Seattle Aquarium for construction of their new Ocean Pavilion.

Executive Constantine’s proposal would also provide continued funding for the Community Partnerships and Grants Program, which, over its 15-year existence, has created dozens of public amenities across King County with partners that contribute the necessary additional capital, in-kind resources, and volunteer time to develop new or enhanced facilities.

About $1 million per year would go toward equity-focused grants to increase access to and use of recreation facilities in communities that are currently underserved or face other barriers.

Some of the regional trails investments in the proposed levy include: • Opening 12 miles of the 16-mile-long Eastside Rail Corridor, making accessible the Wilburton Trestle and connecting the cities of Renton, Bellevue, Kirkland, Redmond and Woodinville • Completing the Lake to Sound Trail, a 16-mile-long connection that extends from Lake Washington to Puget Sound • Paving the East Lake Sammamish Trail to complete the 11-mile-long corridor and connect the cities of Redmond, Sammamish and Issaquah King County voters approved the first parks levy in 2003. They renewed it in 2007 and again in 2013. The new levy

58 AUSTRALASIAN PARKS AND LEISURE | Winter 2019

ordinance will once again establish a Parks Levy Oversight Board, which reviews levy expenditures and confirms progress on Parks’ levy commitments. Appointed by the King County Council and consisting of one representative from each County Council district, the board meets annually to conduct its work.

In its most recent report, the existing Parks Levy Oversight Board determined that King County Parks consistently meets or exceeds its levy commitments.

“The levy is entirely consistent with my priorities to restore and protect our rivers, forests, and farms, while also doing our part to tackle climate pollution.

Voters have approved the Parks Levy three times since 2003. No matter how much things grow and change around here, our values stay the same, guiding us to support investments that make stronger, healthier and happier communities,” said Executive Constantine.

Joe McDermott, King County Council member commented: “This proposal is an investment in the health of our families, our communities and our environment for decades to come.” Council member Jeanne Kohl-Welles added: “King County’s parks, trails, and open space belong to us all. Whether we live just down the street or miles away, these unique and irreplaceable public spaces are ours to enjoy and preserve.”

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RESEARCH CONNECTIONS AUSTRALIA AND NEW ZEALAND

SPORT PARTICIPATION IN VICTORIA: RESEARCH SUMMARY (2016) Authors Rochelle Eime, Dr Jack Harvey and Melanie Charity Abstract This summary outlines the key findings and insights from the second year of VicHealth and Sport and Recreation Victoria’s joint research into organised community sport participation in Victoria across 12 sports. It illustrates participation across age, gender and location in 2016, and compares this data with the findings from research completed in 2015. The key findings for 2016 were the same as those for 2015: • Sport participation is highest among young children (aged 5–14 years) • Sport participation rates drop significantly during adolescence • Sport participation rates among females are half of those among males • Sport participation rates are higher in regional victoria compared to metropolitan Melbourne The 2015 and 2016 data provide a robust measure, reiterating key trends in sport participation, and will continue to be monitored in future years’ data.

Published VicHealth 2018 Download http://www.vichealth.vic. gov.au/-/media/ResourceCentre/ PublicationsandResources/Physicalactivity/2016-Sport-ParticipationResearch-Summary.pdf?la=en&hash=3C 296264BC2676DD9E9FA5D551E6F7FE5 37237BA Cost FREE

THE VALUE OF ALPINE SKIING TO THE AUSTRIAN POPULATION: A CVM STUDY OF THE 2017 WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS (2017) Authors Bernd Frick and Pamela Wicker Abstract This study estimates the monetary value of alpine skiing to the Austrian resident population using the contingent valuation method (CVM).

Survey respondents across Austria were asked to state their willingness-to-pay (WTP) for broadcasting the 2017 World Championships and for an athlete support programme over a five-year period (n = 862). Approximately 29 percent and 20 percent of respondents reported a positive WTP for broadcasting and monthly support of alpine athletes over a five-year period, respectively.

Average WTP was €25 (broadcasting) and €8 (athlete support). Individuals with high medal expectations were more likely to state a positive WTP for broadcasting, while the amount of WTP was positively affected by consumption capital and the importance of symbolic capital (public goods), such as happiness from sporting success. Aggregate WTP exceeded public funding received by the Austrian Skiing Association by a margin, indicating that intangible benefits of alpine skiing are higher than its costs.

Published Managing Sport and Leisure, 22:6, 414-427 Download DOI: 10.1080/23750472.2018.1510742 Cost $43 (USD)

PLAYING THE CLIMATE GAME: CLIMATE CHANGE IMPACTS, RESILIENCE AND ADAPTATION IN THE CLIMATE-DEPENDENT SPORT SECTOR (2018) Authors Greg William Dingle and Bob Stewart Abstract The aims of this study were to understand issues that climate change poses for major Australian sport stadia and the organisations that manage them, and any organisational responses to such issues. Like climatedependent agriculture and tourism, the sport sector is potentially vulnerable to climate change impacts, yet has largely been overlooked in empirical research. The results reveal four primary climate change issues: organisational uncertainty; greater management complexity and cost risks associated with water and energy resources, and waste outputs. No revenue opportunities were evident.

The results demonstrate that while most physical impacts are manageable, the primacy of commercial and operational imperatives determine organisational responses ahead of government climate policy, and any direct climate “signal” to adapt. Ten factors shape three organisational responses that we have typed using Berkhout’s adaptation framework (2012, Adaptation to climate change by organisations.

Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews: Climate Change, 3(1), 91–106).

The results challenge the assumption that climate change impacts and responses are limited to non-sport and leisure industries.

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Published Managing Sport and Leisure.

Published Online: 30 Sep 2018 Download DOI: 10.1080/23750472.2018.1527715 Cost $43 (USD)

THE COMMUNITY NETWORK: AN ABORIGINAL COMMUNITY FOOTBALL CLUB BRINGING PEOPLE TOGETHER (2014) Authors Alister Thorpe, Wendy Anders and Kevin Rowley Abstract There are few empirical studies about the role of Aboriginal sporting organisations in promoting wellbeing. The aim of the present study was to understand the impact of an Aboriginal community sporting team and its environment on the social, emotional and physical wellbeing of young Aboriginal men, and to identify barriers and motivators for participation. A literature review of the impact of sport on the health and wellbeing of Aboriginal participants was conducted. This informed a qualitative study design with a grounded theory approach. Four semi-structured interviews and three focus groups were completed with nine current players and five past players of the Fitzroy Stars Football Club to collect data about the social, emotional and physical wellbeing impact of an Aboriginal football team on its Aboriginal players. Results of the interviews were consistent with the literature, with common concepts emerging around community connection, cultural values and identity, health, values, racism and discrimination. However, the interviews provided further detail around the significance of cultural values and community connection for Aboriginal people. The complex nature of social connections and the strength of Aboriginal community networks in sports settings were also evident. Social reasons were just as important as individual health reasons for participation. Social and community connection is an important mechanism for maintaining and strengthening cultural values and identity. Barriers and motivators for participation in Aboriginal sports teams can be complex and interrelated. Aboriginal sports teams have the potential to have a profound impact on the health of Aboriginal people, especially

its players, by fostering a safe and culturally strengthening environment and encompassing a significant positive social hub for the Aboriginal community.

Published Australian Journal of Primary Health 20(4) pp 356-364. 8 August 2014.

Download https://doi.org/10.1071/ PY14051 Cost $25

ADVENTURE RECREATION AND SUBJECTIVE WELL-BEING: A CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK (2019) Authors Susan Houge Mackenzie and Ken Hodge Abstract Despite the documented positive outcomes of adventure experiences, subjective wellbeing (SWB) frameworks have been largely absent from discourse and analyses in adventure studies. This conceptual paper proposes a framework for understanding how adventure recreation experiences promote eudaemonic SWB. In our framework, we propose that adventure recreation fosters eudaemonic aspects of SWB by supporting the satisfaction of basic psychological needs for autonomy, competence, relatedness and beneficence. The framework also integrates “contact with nature” as an important mechanism through which adventure recreation fosters eudaemonic SWB. Analysis of research and practice across diverse aspects of adventure recreation (leisure, tourism, and education contexts) is used to support the proposed framework and to critically evaluate how psychological models, such as self-determination theory (SDT) and SWB, can advance theory and practice in adventure recreation. We conclude by offering a number of suggestions for future research directions and practical implications.

Published Leisure Studies. Published online: 11 February 2019 Download https://doi.org/10.1080/0261 4367.2019.1577478 Cost $43 (USD)

INTERVENTIONS TO IMPROVE PHYSICAL ACTIVITY AMONG SOCIOECONOMICALLY DISADVANTAGED GROUPS: AN UMBRELLA REVIEW (2018) Authors Melinda Craike, Glen H Wiesner, Toni A Hilland and Enrique G Garcia Bengoechea Abstract People from socioeconomically disadvantaged population groups are less likely to be physically active and more

likely to experience adverse health outcomes than those who are less disadvantaged. In this umbrella review we examined across all age groups, (1) the effectiveness of interventions to improve physical activity among socioeconomically disadvantaged groups, (2) the characteristics of effective interventions, and (3) directions for future research.

Interventions can be successful at improving physical activity among children from socioeconomically disadvantaged groups, with evidence for other age groups weak or inconclusive. More high-quality studies in this population group are needed, which adopt strategies to increase recruitment rates and reduce attrition, report longer term outcomes, and provide adequate intervention details, to allow determination of the characteristics of effective interventions. We recommend that the benefits of physical activity be recognised more broadly than obesity prevention in future studies, as this may have implications for the design and appeal of interventions.

Published International Journal of Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity, 2018 15:43 Download https://ijbnpa.biomedcentral. com/articles/10.1186/s12966-018-0676-2 Cost FREE

THE INFLUENCE OF A HEALTHY WELCOMING ENVIRONMENT ON PARTICIPATION IN CLUB SPORT BY ADOLESCENT GIRLS: A LONGITUDINAL STUDY (2017) Authors MM Casey, RM Eime, JT Harvey, NA Sawyer, MJ Craike, CM Symons and WR Payne Abstract This study investigated the perceived influence of a Healthy Welcoming Environment (HWE) on participation in sports clubs among adolescent girls, and how these perceptions changed longitudinally.

HWE was defined in terms of a set of health promotion policies advocated by a health promotion foundation as the basis of sport club health promotion practice to promote structural reform in state sporting organisations and their affiliated associations and clubs.

These included sports injury prevention, smoke-free, responsible serving of alcohol, sun protection, healthy eating, and welcoming and inclusive environments. Welcoming factors were the most positive influences on decisions to participate in sports clubs.

These factors may be important in reducing barriers to sport participation.

Strategies supporting the social environment within sports clubs should be prioritised.

Published BMC Sports Science, Medicine and Rehabilitation, 2017, 9:12 Download https:// bmcsportsscimedrehabil.biomedcentral. com/articles/10.1186/s13102-017-0076-y Cost FREE

INTERNATIONAL

ACTIVE LIVES CHILDREN AND YOUNG PEOPLE SURVEY: ATTITUDES TOWARDS SPORT AND PHYSICAL ACTIVITY ACADEMIC YEAR 2017/18 (2019) Author Sport England Abstract Enjoyment is the single biggest factor in motivating children to be active, new analysis from our Active Lives Children and Young People Survey has revealed. More than 130,000 children and young people were surveyed in the academic year 2017/18, with participation figures published in December. This new analysis has identified five key findings that give us further insight into the attitudes of children and young people towards sport and physical activity.

The five key findings are: 1. Physically literate children do twice as much activity. The more of the five elements of physical literacy enjoyment, confidence, competence, understanding and knowledge children have, the more active they are.

2. Enjoyment is the biggest driver of activity levels. Despite the majority of children (68%) understanding that sport and activity is good for them, understanding had the least impact on activity levels.

3. Children who have all five elements of physically literacy report higher levels of happiness, are more trusting of other children, and report higher levels of resilience (continuing to try if you find something difficult).

4. Physical literacy decreases with age. As children grow older, they report lower levels of enjoyment, confidence, competence, and understanding. Previous research from Sport England shows that activity levels drop when children reach their teenage years.

5. The results also reveal important inequalities among certain groups of children which must be tackled:  Girls are less likely to say they enjoy or feel confident about doing sport and physical activity.

(58% of boys enjoy it, compared

Winter 2019 | AUSTRALASIAN PARKS AND LEISURE 61

to 43% of girls. 47% of boys feel confident, compared to 31% of girls.) Among children aged 5-7, boys are more likely to love playing sport, while girls are more likely to love being active.  Children from the least affluent families are less likely to enjoy activity than those from the most affluent families, and previous research shows they are also far less likely to be active.  Black children are more physically literate than other ethnic groups (driven by boys, but they are less active than the population as a whole).

Published Sport England (March 2019) Download https://www.sportengland. org/media/13851/active-lives-childrensurvey-2017-18-attitudes-report.pdf Cost FREE

STRATEGIES FOR TEACHING CHILDREN WITH AUTISM SPECTRUM DISORDER IN RECREATIONAL AQUATICS PROGRAMS (2019) Authors Erin Kraft, Raymond Leblanc and Diane M Culver Abstract With the increase in the identification of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) in children, there is a need for teachers and coaches to have a tool box of effective strategies to facilitate physical activities for their students with ASD. Physical activity has been shown to provide numerous benefits, such as improved resilience and enhanced positive development.

Swimming, specifically, is an optimal form of physical activity for children with ASD and an important life skill, considering that drowning is a leading cause of death among children with ASD. Training programs and educational opportunities for accessing appropriate strategies to teach children with ASD are seemingly scarce. This article aims to minimise this lack of resources by suggesting hands-on teaching strategies for aquatic programs for children with ASD to enhance the swimmers’ opportunities to participate in recreational aquatic activities.

Published Journal of Physical Education, Recreation & Dance. Vol 90 Iss 1 pp 24-29 Download https://doi.org/10.1080/0730 3084.2018.1535338 Cost $43 (USD)

MAKING THE CASE FOR RECREATIONAL THERAPY SERVICES WITH INDIVIDUALS EXPERIENCING HOMELESSNESS (2018)

Authors Dawn De Vries and Andrew Feenstra Abstract There is a significant need for individuals who are homeless to have recreation opportunities, which has been shown to increase quality of life and coping skills [Harrington, M, and Dawson, D (1997). Recreation as empowerment for homeless people living in shelters. Journal of Leisurability, 24, pp 17–29; Krinsky, 1992. Therapeutic recreation and the homeless: A clinical case history.

Therapeutic Recreation Journal, 26(3), pp 53–57; Kunstler, R (1993). Serving the homeless through recreation programs. Parks & Recreation, 28(8), pp 16–22, 73]; however, there is limited research on the topic of recreation and, specifically, recreational therapy interventions with individuals who are homeless. This paper will explore the potential of recreational therapy interventions to meet the needs of individuals who are experiencing homelessness. Through interviews with homeless shelters and organizations providing services for individuals who are homeless and a review of existing literature, a case can be made for the use of recreational therapy to facilitate leisure and recreation experiences, as well as facilitate the development of community and social skills, empowerment, coping and leisure skills.

Published World Leisure Journal.

Published online: 9 December 2018 Download https://doi.org/10.1080/1607 8055.2018.1550436 Cost $43 (USD)

SUPPORTING INDIGENOUS YOUTH ACTIVITY PROGRAMMES: A COMMUNITY-BASED PARTICIPATORY RESEARCH APPROACH (2019) Authors Angela M Coppola, Nicholas L Holt and Tara-Leigh F McHugh Abstract The purpose of this threeyear, multi-phase communitybased participatory research (CBPR) programme was to explore how to support Indigenous youth activity programmes and programme planners in Alberta, Canada. This CBPR programme was comprised of five phases: (1) Identifying mutual interests and learning how to partner, (2) Building culturally-relevant activity programmes with and for youth, (3) Defining CBPR programme goals and understanding our roles, (4) Exploring how to support Indigenous youth activity programmes, and (5) Applying and informing practices for supporting Indigenous youth activity programmes.

62 AUSTRALASIAN PARKS AND LEISURE | Winter 2019

Phases Four and Five of this CBPR are the focus of this paper. Phase Four was an exploration of programme planners’ experiences of, and recommendations for, building partnerships and programmes to identify how to support Indigenous youth activity programmes and programme planners.

Fifteen programme planners from four urban areas in Alberta participated in one-on-one interviews. Findings are represented by three themes: (1) Building capacity for collaboration and programme planning, (2) Connecting partners and existing programmes, and (3) Aligning and integrating goals and resources with existing programmes.

Phase Five, the application phase of this CBPR, involved the codevelopment of a gathering event to apply areas of support (ie. themes) from Phase Four of this CBPR, as well as to reflect on the strengths and challenges of applying such supports.

Partners can use implications from the research programme processes and outcomes to explore their role in and practices for supporting these programmes.

Published Qualitative Research in Sport, Exercise and Health. Published online: 12 February 2019 Download https://doi.org/10.1080/2159 676X.2019.1574880 Cost $43 (USD)

CALL FOR ARTICLE ABSTRACTS Abstracts of research projects of interest to PLA members are always welcomed for forthcoming themes, in particular research relating to: • Spring | Parks, Gardens and Conservation: Abstracts required by 15/06/2019. Sub-themes include: Parks and gardens; Arboriculture; Horticulture; Climate change and the effect on our parks; Sustainable environments; State and national parks; Water efficiency usage systems; Cemetery open space management.

• Summer | Events, Tourism and the Arts: Abstracts required by 15/09/2019. Subthemes include: Linking recreation and tourism; Economic and social impact of events; Community engagement; Art installations; Cultural events; Dance events; Major events Please forward material or enquiries to John Wood at jwcs@bigpond.net.au

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PLA ADVISORY NEWS WORDS ANDY SMITH, PLA ADVISORY CHAIR

I

n the Autumn PLA Advisory News I wrote about a number of papers and position statements Advisory have finalised or are near completion. This work goes on with two new papers to come online soon.

These papers include Developers Guidelines, which provides high-level statements that can be used when negotiating with a developer. We have also been working on the Urban Forests position statement, which is near completion.

PLA Advisory also supports the work undertaken by the PLA Research Working Group, who are in the early stages of developing a national survey for the industry. With support of the University of South Australia and the rest of the Research Working Group, the plan is to survey our industry at the end of 2020. There will be adequate time for those who are interested

in following the development of the survey tool, and I am sure we will have a very good understanding of what we are and where we are as an industry as the results of the survey role in.

As previously reported, Advisory has also been working with trustees of the PLA Education Fund in the development of an industry specific library. Under the excellent stewardship of Geoff Edwards, this project is moving forward and is close to beta testing. It has the potential to provide our industry with a one-stop-shop for articles and documents related to the specific fields common to the parks and leisure arena.

Stay tuned for more information.

In researching this article, I came across an interesting US-based web page that highlighted the top trends in parks and recreation in 2018 (nrpa.org/blog/top-trends-

in-parks-and-recreation-for-2018/).

Some of the more intriguing trends were: • Designated and supervised opioid injection sites to be established in several parks • New underground parks to be created • Drones will become a go-to management and maintenance tool within the parks industry (this is already happening in Australia) • A park or recreation agency will partner with a healthcare system as part of a community integrated health model • Anaerobic digesters will be provided in some dog parks to turn dog poop into energy. I love this one!

If you are interested in the work that PLA Advisory undertakes, contact us at pla.advisory@parksandleisure.com.au

UPCOMING COURSES & EVENTS AUSTRALIA AQUATIC AND RECREATION INSTITUTE 55TH ANNUAL CONFERENCE & TRADE SHOW 16-18 June 2019 Peppers Craigieburn Southern Highlands NSW arinsw.com.au/conference

WA CROWD SAFETY COURSE 26-28 June 2019 Floreat WA parksleisure.com.au

LEISURE INDUSTRY COMMUNICATION & MARKETING SUMMIT & AWARDS 17 July 2019 Melbourne Convention Centre leisuresummit.com.au

ACTIVATING COMMUNITY CYCLING 24 July 2019 (NSW) parksleisure.com.au

VIC/TAS LEADERSHIP PROGRAM: PARKS & HORTICULTURE (MODULE 1) 24 July 2019 Hume Global Learning Centre

Craigieburn VIC parksleisure.com.au

VIC/TAS BIODIVERSITY IN PUBLIC PLACES SEMINAR

AUSZEN THERAPEUTIC GARDEN

25 September 2019 Parkville VIC parksleisure.com.au

31 July 2019 (NSW) parksleisure.com.au

LEISURE INSTITUTE OF WA AQUATICS 50TH ANNUAL CONFERENCE 12-13 August 2019 Esplanade Hotel Fremantle WA liwaaquatics.net.au

RISK AND COMPLIANCE: CHILD PROTECTION 21 August 2019 (NSW) parksleisure.com.au

GREEN INFRASTRUCTURE: GETTING READY FOR SPRING

VIC/TAS LEADERSHIP PROGRAM: PARKS & HORTICULTURE (MODULE 2) 7 August 2019 Central Reserve North Pavilion Glen Waverley VIC parksleisure.com.au

WA EVENT RISK MANAGEMENT WORKSHOP 21 August 2019 The Boulevard Centre, Floreat WA parksleisure.com.au

VIC/TAS LEADERSHIP PROGRAM: PARKS & HORTICULTURE (MODULE 3)

4 September 2019 (NSW) parksleisure.com.au

4 September 2019 Elwood Park Pavilion, Elwood VIC parksleisure.com.au

AUSTRALASIAN BOTANIC GUIDES CONFERENCE

PLA NATIONAL CONFERENCE & AWARDS OF EXCELLENCE

16-20 September 2019 Kings Park, Perth WA kingsparkguides.org.au

27–30 October 2019 Crown Perth, WA pla2019.parksleisure.com.au

64 AUSTRALASIAN PARKS AND LEISURE | Winter 2019

NEW ZEALAND WAVES 2019 3-5 September 2019 Queenstown NZ nzrecreation.org.nz/ events

NZ RECREATION CONFERENCE 27 November 2019 Hamilton NZ nzrecreation.org.nz/ events

INTERNATIONAL GREATER & GREENER 19–23 July 2019 Denver, Colorado USA greatergreener.org/Denver

2019 NRPA ANNUAL CONFERENCE 24 September 2019 Baltimore, Maryland USA nrpa.org/events

2019 NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF STATE PARK DIRECTORS CONFERENCE 2–6 September 2019 Arkansas USA arkansasstateparks.com/ naspd2019

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