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Parks and Recreation Collection – Narratives

Flinders Chase – Cape Borda – History of settlement of Kangaroo Island

Updated on date by author


Geoffrey Chapman, born on Kangaroo Island and a Ranger in the South Australian National Parks and Wildlife Service from 1969 until his retirement in 2001, has penned the attached 96-page history and bibliography of the early settlement of Kangaroo Island.

As the author makes clear in his introduction, photographs and maps to illustrate this remarkably well researched compilation have been downloaded from the Internet. We acknowledge that the photos of the bee farm were from Napier Mitchell whose father was in charge in the late 1950s; and other photos were from the late Neville Cordes and the Kangaroo Island Pioneer Association of which the author was a member. Any infringement of copyright is inadvertent. The author has generously placed the manuscript under open access conditions. Any person who believes that their copyright has been infringed should contact PaRC.

 

Geoffrey Chapman has supplied some other manuscripts:

Early post offices on Kangaroo Island

A history of eucalyptus distilling

Review Status: Pending
Posted in Cultural heritage and awareness, Narratives | Leave a reply

MidCoast Playspace design and maintenance guidelines

Updated on date by author

Playspace design and maintenance guidelines

 

These guidelines have been developed by play planners and designers, as well as council operational staff who are experienced with play design and maintenance.

Review Status:
Posted in Health, fitness and well-being, Infrastructure, facilities and urban environments, Natural resources and environment, Open space and recreation areas, Planning, policy and legislation | Tagged , , | Leave a reply

Use of Public Open Space by Commercial Fitness Trainers Policy

Posted on date by author

MCC Policy – Use of Public Open Space by Commercial Fitness Trainers Policy

MCC Procedure – Use of Public Open Space by Commercial Fitness Trainers Policy

 

These two documents, the Policy, and the Procedure, set out Council’s position on the management of commercial fitness trainers in their use of public open space in MidCoast Council area.

Review Status:
Posted in Health, fitness and well-being, Human resource management, Leisure activities, Natural resources and environment, Open space and recreation areas | Tagged , , | Leave a reply

Queensland Government Statewide Outdoor Recreation Framework

Updated on date by author

In 2014 the Queensland Government issued a policy statement endorsed by 17 public authorities, the Local Government Association  and the peak body for outdoor recreation, the Queensland Outdoor Recreation Federation. Titled the Queensland Government Statewide Outdoor Recreation Framework: A Collaborative and Coordinated Approach to Outdoor Recreation in Queensland, to achieve endorsement from such a large number of authorities was no mean feat. The statement was intended to replace an earlier one Queensland Outdoor Recreation Strategic Framework 2009—2014 which had run its course.

The Framework was designed to protect and improve access to outdoor recreation places and spaces; promote outdoor recreation opportunities and participation; and enhance the sustainability and capacity of the outdoor recreation sector.

Yet despite the fact that there is nothing political in the statement, after the government was replaced by one of the opposite partisan denomination the following year, the Framework disappeared from the Department’s public website and public servants were instructed by the incoming government to work on something different.

It is not difficult to be quite angry at the waste of human capital when the work of representatives of 19 different entities is discarded in this manner. Anyone who has worked in an interdepartmental role will understand how time-consuming it is to gain endorsement of their agency to a multilateral policy position.

It gets worse. By law, all Queensland publishers, including government departments, commercial organisations, clubs, churches, societies and private individuals, are required by law to deposit one copy of their publications with State Library of Queensland (SLQ). The document appears in the SLQ catalogue, but clicking on the hotlink within the catalogue record yields the following message:

Oops, page does not exist!

Fortunately, the Queensland Outdoor Recreation Federation (now Outdoors Queensland) salvaged a copy and PaRC is pleased to re-present it here.

Researchers in this field should also search the PaRC Document Library which includes a number of reports on the subject, including the Outdoor Recreation Demand Studies of 1998 and 2007.

Review Status: Pending
Posted in Leisure activities, Narratives, Planning, policy and legislation | Leave a reply

Natural Turf Sporting Fields – Sydney’s North Shore

Updated on date by author

This 2025 report by AgEnviro Solutions and Turf NSW examines opportunities on Sydney’s North Shore to expand the carrying capacity of existing sporting fields. It examines existing infrastructure including turf cultivars, drainage, soils and lighting. Some of the most striking findings are:

  • only 20% of fields have a wear tolerant turf cultivar;
  • 25% of fields do not have lights (severely limiting use);.
  • if all existing fields were upgraded to Best Practice (and had lights) then the carrying capacity could be increased by over 290%, providing ample capacity for existing users plus room for significant growth in population and/or participation.

 

Review Status: Pending
Posted in Infrastructure, facilities and urban environments, Narratives, Organised sport | Leave a reply

Sports Field Best Practice Guidelines – NSW

Updated on date by author

The 2025 best-practice guidelines for NSW sporting fields provide help with:

  • understanding the science and evidence to improve the planning, design, construction, and management of community sporting fields, and common limitations;
  • flexible, outcomes-focused principles to develop solutions tailored to local conditions while achieving best practice;
  • understanding sporting field performance benchmarks, including water use, playability, and carrying capacity;
  • optimising the performance, resilience, and sustainability of sporting fields to meet our social, recreational, environmental, and economic outcomes;
  • making more effective use of financial resources;
  • comparing different sports field construction types, such as perched water table, best practice, and hybrids.

The guidelines are based on data from detailed assessments of fields across NSW, including:

  • irrigation systems from about 100 sporting fields;
  • soil, playing surface condition, micro-climate, and sport wear levels from about 2,000 sporting fields.
Review Status: Pending
Posted in Infrastructure, facilities and urban environments, Narratives, Organised sport | Leave a reply

Land tenure and outdoor recreation

Updated on date by author

In 2014 the Queensland Government published a Discussion Paper envisaging freeholding some of the public land estate. The Queensland Outdoor Recreation Federation (now Outdoors Queensland) commissioned a report titled Underpinning the Foundations of the Four Pillars, a submission critiquing the proposals. A copy of the State’s Discussion Paper Strengthening our economic future has been annotated with detailed comments by QORF’s consultant.

 

Review Status: Pending
Posted in Narratives | Leave a reply

Open Space Planning in SEQ – 1994-2021

Updated on date by author

More than 25 years after the creation of a regional open space network was recommended in the SEQ 2001 Regional Plan, South East Queensland does not have a regional park system or any coordinated network of recreational open space worth the name. The narrative of what-might-have-been is a story of opportunities lost, at least three times over.

 

Purlingbrook Falls adjacent to the rainforest purchased under ROSS in 1994 – G. Edwards

Continue Reading

Review Status: Pending
Posted in Narratives, Open space and recreation areas, Planning, policy and legislation | Leave a reply

Land value taxation – Henry George’s legacy – by Phil Day

Updated on date by author

Dr Phil Day was a powerful and long-standing advocate for land value taxation, a modest form of which is retained in municipal rating of the unimproved value of land.

Land value taxation, if extended beyond the minimalist scale currently adopted, would have large implications for the setting aside of open space in developing localities.

This compilation includes:

Taxing Land Instead of Taxing Incomes, journal article in Progress, June 1987.

Relief for the Needy, Not a Gift to Their Heirs with Doug Tucker, 14 November 1988.

Submission to Industry Commission on Draft Taxation and Financial Policy Impacts Report, 17 December 1992.

Profiting from Land, Ockham’s Razor, ABC, 22 June 1993.

Land, Luddites and Lemmings – Address to Georgist Council of Australia Conference, 1 October 1993.

Correspondence with the Centre for Incentive Taxation, England, 24 January 1994.

Tax Reform: The “Great Adventure” or GST merry-go-round. Letter to Editor, 3 March 1998.

Correspondence to the Sydney Morning Herald, 4 March 1998.

Widen the Tax Reform Agenda, Ockham’s Razor, ABC, 26 June 1997.

Tax Reform, the Environment and the Reconciliation Process, 15 April 1998

The Political Economy of Land: Putting Henry George in His Place, 21 September 2004.

Resignation from the Henry George Foundation, 7 December 1999.

 

Phil Day wrote an informative summary of betterment taxes for the Department of Natural Resources in Queensland in 2002.

 

 

to be continued.

Review Status: Pending
Posted in Economic issues, Narratives | Leave a reply

Regionalisation and regional development – Phil Day

Updated on date by author

Dr Phil Day was a tier 1 advocate of regional development, as explained in a separate post. His personal papers contained a selection of press releases, letters to editors and speeches to conferences on the subject of regional or balanced development. This compilation includes:

  • “Regionalisation”, 13 August 1974
  • “Dynamics of Regional Development” and “Regionalism Resurgent?, papers  to a National Conference on Regional Development, 30 August 1974
  • press releases on the North Queensland New State Party, 12 July 1977 and 28 July 1977
  • North Queensland New State Party Conference, 1 September 1977
  • correspondence, 30 July 1980
  • “Towns in Search of a City” (Canberra”), 22 August 1984
  • letters to the editor of two newspapers, 25 May 1997 and 2 February 2002.

The papers are in chronological order. Scanning of the first of these papers is rather suboptimal but the other papers in the compilation are quite legible and provide a valuable insight into Dr Day’s deep insights into the issues.

Review Status: Pending
Posted in Narratives, Planning, policy and legislation | Leave a reply