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Explanation of PaRC Categories

 

Prompted by an enquiry from the Leisure Management Special Interest Group of the World Leisure Organization, I have burrowed into the PaRC dungeons and have found the document dated 2020 that explains the 14 categories that PaRC adopted to structure its material. The document explains the categories by example rather than by definition. The categories arose from a roundtable session with the then Librarian Ann Huthwaite and Coordinator John Rush. After more than four years’ experience of assigning categories to posts/articles, it’s worth reviewing the categorisation which might well be adopted by practitioners for other policy and research purposes. I’ll make five observations.

1. Any attempt to classify material faces three broad options: to erect a predetermined structure and fit materials into those categories; or to avoid assigning categories and to rely upon keywords to find material; or to lodge items in chronological order (date) to find material. PaRC adopts both predetermined categories and keywords but not date. (Date is a separate descriptor). A disadvantage of a system based upon predetermined categories is that once established, they are difficult to amend. If a new category is added, for example, then all previous entries need to be searched to see if they belong in the new category rather than the previously assigned one.

2. Number of categories is a significant determinant of the system. PaRC has adopted only 14 categories – PaRC avoided having dozens of detailed categories, as that would have made the assignment of categories more difficult. However, as the number of items lodged rises, the value of broad categories fades somewhat because there are now hundreds of documents in some of the categories. PaRC contributors should minimise the number of categories that they tick. In practice, keywords has become the main method of finding material, in both the Document Library and Narratives websites. Still, the categorisation will be useful for some purposes and in my view is sufficiently robust to commend it.

3. An issue with categorisation is that if several different contributors are applying the categorisation independently, they can interpret some a little differently and therefore their categorisations can drift apart. Some terms such as “planning” are ambiguous anyway. Probably the best remedy for that is for the contributors to go back from time to time and read the description to recalibrate their understanding.

Reading the examples in the attached document indicates that a document entitled “Swamp Gully Park Management Plan” needs to be assigned to only one category, which is ” Open space and recreation areas”. The category of “Management” is really about the principles of management practice, and the category of “Planning” for the procedural meanings of the term and materials about the planning regime for that locality.

4. Many documents will lie in several categories. There is no easy solution to that; it’s inherent in any filing system, and modern search engines should be able to cope so long as adequate keywords are applied to the metadata.

5. From an internationalist perspective, the geographical focus for PaRC is quite circumscribed, being Australia, New Zealand and the Western Pacific Islands. PaRC policy is to include very little material from international sources, perhaps a benchmark document here and there. But place is important and so there is a separate categorisation for geographic location – Australia as a whole, the Australian states individually, New Zealand and the Western Pacific Islands. This is a second classification system assigned in parallel to (or superimposed upon) the main subject categories.

Now here is an exercise for readers who have followed this far: Has this post been assigned to the most appropriate category? Feedback via the LinkedIn account!

 

Geoff Edwards

5 February 2025

Review Status: Pending

Mammals of the Victorian Mallee and Biological Survey of the Big Desert

Published by the National Museum of Victoria, two roneoed reports:

 

Report on the Mammals of the Victorian Mallee from the Collections and Archives of the National Museum of Victoria – by A.M. Gilmore and J.M. McVicar for  the  Land Conservation Council of Victoria. March 1973. 27 pp. plus front material and maps.

 

Report on the Victorian Mallee – Big Desert Survey,  1973 – by AM Gilmore and JM McCart McVicar for the Land Conservation Council of Victoria. September 1973. 22 pp. incl. cover and maps.

Combined report. 5.2 MB, searchable.

The advent of the Land Conservation Council in 1970 with its focus on objective, scientific consideration of the most appropriate land use of each parcel of public land, necessitated extensive collection of data across the state.

 


Review Status: Pending

The Preconditions of Well-being

Human well-being is central to the worldview of parks and leisure people, it’s a, and perhaps THE primary purpose of parks and leisure activities and facilities. So there is likely to be wide interest in a series of thought pieces being published in The Mandarin, a national online newsletter of public administration, under the aegis of the Royal Societies of Australia.

The series has its origin in a conviction by the scientist members of The Royal Society of Queensland that the knowledge held by scientists and medicos about human health and well-being is not being adequately reflected in national public policy and there is a need for public advocacy of scientific insights to better inform policy settings in health, education, and a range of other portfolios.

Some of the columns published to date don’t overlap much with the interests of parks and leisure people (speaking generally), but some will resonate strongly with readers of this website:

  • under-resourcing of public goods
  • under-resourcing and politicisation of the public sector departments responsible for public infrastructure and services
  • timidity in tackling alcohol, drug, gambling and other industries that are threats to well-being
  • absence or weakness of forums for crossing the disciplinary and sectoral silos to bring evidence and insights from all quarters into the senior policy apparatus.

Articles 3-7 will be of particular interest to operational managers who struggle to implement good ideas: they explain that there are five major ingredients to a successful program or project, and the absence of any of the one can be fatal to success.

The Mandarin is tagging the articles and the full series can be accessed by clicking on this link. The parent website, a page under the Royal Societies of Australia banner, is being developed as a knowledge hub on the subject.

«««««»»»»»

Most of the articles published to date have been written by one author, but the project envisages contributions from a range of people with expertise. Any parks or leisure practitioner who would like to write a column of about 1000 words on a well-being subject of their choice is warmly invited to contact the Coordinator via health AT SYMBOL royalsocietyqld.org.au or the secretary of PaRC via secretary AT SYMBOL parcaustralia.com.au.

 

Many parks people will be highly sensitive to the need  to protect green space within and around areas of urban settlement. This has long been understood by town planners and by the parks and recreation officers of local governments. However, in the contemporary push for densification of urban development, this deeply held principle is being set aside as lot sizes shrink and vacant government land is being re-described as “under-performing” and targeted for blocks of flats. Parks and recreation people who have some anecdotes to share can write for PaRC. Those with more policy-orientated advocacy to share can write for The Mandarin. Those with a social media aptitude are warmly invited to join the LinkedIn account.

 

Please see the Call for Authors for details of style and format.

 


Review Status: Pending

Bush Regeneration Contractors – “Save the Bush” 1990+

In 1990 the National Trust  (Victoria) established an initiative called “Save the Bush” with the objective of bush regeneration by trained operatives. PaRC has secured the documents describing the establishment of the project, the training sessions and the initial contracts.

The material has been split into two files, one with pages 1-26 (13.3 MB) and the other with pages 27-64 (28.5 MB), to aid uploading.

The contract documentation may be useful to any parks supervisor contemplating training their own staff.

PaRC invites anyone associated with the National Trust program to send a review or a narrative on their experience.

 


 

 


Review Status: Pending

Landscape Heritage and Scenic Amenity, incl. bibliographies

This “Discussion Paper“, probably authored by Robert Preston, of uncertain date unpicks the concepts of landscape and scenery along with some other relevant attributes. It includes a substantial list of government documents and also an annotated bibliography.

The paper was prepared for Steve MacDonald, Manager of the Queensland Regional Landscape Strategy office from 1995-2012 and is likely to have been written in 2008 or 2009.


 

Review Status: Pending

Mt Elgin Management Plan, Wimmera Region

 

Mt. Elgin Swamp is a significant remnant, nearly 300 hectares in area, near the township of Nhill in north-west Victoria. The property was acquired by the Trust for Nature in 1998 to protect the intact vegetation, which is habitat to a range of waterfowl, including the rare Freckled Duck.

Two copies – 1999 and 2015 – have been provided to PaRC by eminent local naturalist Clive Crouch OAM, recipient of the Australian Conservation Foundation’s Peter Rawlinson Award in 2006 “for grassroots environmentalism, promoting biodiversity in the Wimmera region of Victoria for more than 30 years.” He was awarded the Medal in the Order of Australia in 2009 “For service to conservation and the environment, particularly as a supporter of projects to protect the fauna and native vegetation of the Wimmera and Mallee regions of western Victoria.” Clive served as Secretary of the reserve’s Committee of Management for 25 years.
Download the 1999 report.
Download the 2015 report.

Review Status: Pending

Definitions of sport, open space, recreation and NRM

From its first establishment, PaRC has focused on parks, open space and ‘passive’ recreation, without aspiring to cover active sports, because of the existence of the Australian Clearinghouse for Sport. Over the years, the Clearinghouse has increased the range of valuable knowledge materials that are freely available on its Internet page and PaRC’s current policy is not to duplicate those materials. (By way of exception, we have been re-publishing some legacy documents on sport that have otherwise disappeared from public view).

The December 2024 Newsletter of Parks and Leisure Australia has drawn to attention a series of definitions of sport and related concepts published on the website of the Clearinghouse and has prompted us to make another exception, given their likely value to the entire sports and recreation sector. We have extracted those definitions and place them here in durable PDF format as a benchmark document What is Sport?, one that may reach a different audience and does not depend on an external hotlink.

This set of definitions nicely complements several other documents in PaRC:

Dictionary of key terms

Definitions for natural resource planning and management

Definitions of outdoor recreation

Definitions of open space

Definitions of scenic amenity.

Review Status: Pending

Sport and Recreation Officer – Noosa as a model

These two papers from 1980 (one file) outline the justification for a Sport and Recreation Officer in Noosa Shire and sketch the outline of a position description/role statement.

 

(Disregard the “not found” sticker on the cover. PaRC”s Librarian was noting that she could not find another copy online)..

 

We have attempted a conversion of the document to Word so that users could extract text for their own work, but the conversion has been imperfect.

 

Review Status:

Recreation Management Workshop – Brisbane Forest Park, October 1985

This compilation (29 MB) has far more useful information about the resources of the Brisbane Forest Park region than the title suggests. There are valuable accounts of the region’s natural resources, for just one example.

Management Perpectives
Regional and Community Perspectives – Dr. David Pitts 1.
Management of Brisbane Forest Park – Mr. Bill Carter 5
Management of National Parks – Mr. Mark Gough 11
Water Catchment Management – Mr. Bill Huxley 17
Mt. Coot-tha Management – Mr. Ross McKinnon 45
Forestry Management – Mr. Geoff Swartz 51

Park Resources
Research and Management of Geo-resources – Mr. Errol Stock 61
Soils – Mr. David Aust 73
Vegetation – Mr. Peter Young 83
Aquatic Resources – Mr. Hamar Midgley 99
Animal Resources – Dr. Kristene Plowman 105
Archaeological Record & Implication Introduction – Mr. Bob McQueen 109
Historical Record – Mr. Peter Marquis-Kyle 115
Counting the Users – Dr. Lex Brown and Ms. Leanne Wilks 121
Educational Uses by Brisbane C.A.E. – Mr. B. Cooke & Mr. I. Marsh 129

The Data Base
Rainforests – Mr. Bill McDonald 1.53
Open Forests and Woodlands – Professor Trevor Clifford 165
Climbing Plants – Ms. Elwyn Hegarty 169
Lichens – Dr. Rob Roberts 181
Themeda/Imperata Grass under story of Open Eucalypt Forest – Mr. Hendrik Dierich 187
Ecology of. Ferns and Fern Allies – Mr. Peter Bostok 189
Life Expectancy of Leaves of Wilkea macrophylla at Mt. Glorious – Dr. Rob Rogers 195
Vertebrate Fauna – Dr. Kristine Plowman 199
Management Studies – Mr. Peter Ogilvie 223
Utilisation of Lantana camara by Birds and Small Mammals – Dr. Peter Driscoll and Mr. Greg Quinlan 239
Habitat Utilisation by Rattus fuscipes and R. tunneyi – Mr. Neil White 247
A Suggested Timing for Controlled Forest Burning Based on Observations of Fledgling Vulnerability in Moggill State Forest – Mr. Peter’ Slater

Management Influences
Community Influences – Mr. Ken Stevenson 263
User Impacts in Rose Gum Flats. Picnic Ground – Mr. David Bluhdorn 269

Futures for and around Brisbane Forest Park
Recreation Planning For The Future – Ms. Dale Anderson 279
A possible future for Brisbane Forest Park – Mr. Bill Carter 285
A Viewpoint from the Department of Forestry – Mr. Peter Cranny 289
National Parks – Mr. Noel Dawson 295

Workshop Reports
Floristic Data Base Implications, Deficiencies and Recommendations – Dr. Bob Johnson.. ………….. 303
The Animal Data Base Dr. Greg Gordon & Dr. K. Plowman 307
Notes on Seminar-Management Influences – Dr. John Waite. …… 315
Notes on Seminar-Management Influences – Dr. David Lamb…… 319

Review Status: Pending