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.