Textual narratives explaining key concepts and specific subjects. Cascading from general to specific, eventually they will include variously concept summaries, subject summaries and geographic summaries.
The attached document is the proceedings of a conference hosted by the Gold Coast Environment Centre on 13 February 1991. This copy has been scanned from the personal papers of eminent town planner the late Dr Phil Day and shows annotations in his handwriting. The file has been compressed to save disc space.The higher resolution original scan is available on request.
The Annual General Meetings for 2022-2023 and 2023-2024 were held In the Norfolk Island Knowledge and Learning Centre, 70 Taylors Road, Norfolk Island, on Friday 13 September, from 5:15 PM Norfolk Island time. (PaRC Inc. is incorporated and regulated under Norfolk Island law). Attendance was in person, by Teams and by Zoom. President Nick Arthur was in the chair. All but one member (in Canada) were in attendance.
Secretary’s Report
Highlights of the Annual Report:
The twin websites aim to bridge the gap between impermanent social media and traditional libraries; in other words, they are a response to the tendency of the current generation of practitioners to rely on the Internet for finding technical information.
During the period the Narratives website (established in April 2021) has been stable and fit for purpose, although the email address parc AT parcaustralia.com.au was hacked and was terminated to avoid further spamming. The email address secretary AT parcaustralia.com.au has not been affected by the hacking.
During the period, Parks and Leisure Australia (PLA) restructured the Document Library in WordPress, abandoning the previous proprietary software. This opened the prospect of closer integration of the two sites, at least by merging the search functions if not the entire sites. This is being negotiated with PLA.
In August 2023, senior practitioner Neal Ames established a LinkedIn account. At 30 June 2024, there were about 160 “followers” and many of the posts had received more than 60 “impressions”. This cohort of followers, active in sharing knowledge, could include the next generation of practitioners who will take PaRC forward. Further, the LinkedIn feed may be useful for identifying documents that could be extracted and given a more durable status by loading into the twin websites’ archives.
The results of a mail out to all local governments in Australia (>500) in February 2023 was remarkably disappointing, only 4 substantive responses, one a rebuff, two in New South Wales and one in Queensland. Clearly a different method is necessary to reach practitioners in public authorities.
The 50th anniversary of the foundation of the Trust Fund was 8 February 2024. This should justify some promotion, not least to prepare for the centenary of AIPR/PLA in 2026.
I believe that PaRC won’t achieve its potential without a remunerated executive officer, together with some younger people willing to volunteer. The foundations are firmly cemented in place, but we need a few builders to capitalise on this “knowledge infrastructure”.
Finance Report
Funds in hand at 30 June were about $450, with no liabilities. The meeting resolved to seek an exemption from the Registrar from auditing the Finance Report so long as the total income for the year remains at less than $5000. (This was subsequently granted).
The project has exhausted the funds accumulated by the former Trust over 50 years. A substantial injection of funds will be required to achieve the initiative’s potential. The AGM considered two prospective budgets, one minimalist requiring $10,000 over three years; and an aspirational budget of $300,000 over three years.
Election
The incoming Committee for 2024-2025 is Nick Arthur, President and Public Officer; Geoff Edwards as Secretary and Treasurer; and Gillian Shelley as Committee member. PaRC Inc. is not a membership organisation and does not intend to establish a membership roll with all the administrative overheads that that implies. In particular, it does not wish to compete with Parks and Leisure Australia (PLA) as the peak membership body representing the parks and leisure sectors. PaRC Inc. is a knowledge-sharing platform. Membership is by invitation.
Summary
PaRC needs some additional personnel willing to invest some time in advancing the knowledge capacities of their profession, but is in good health and serving a valuable purpose.
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 being only inadequately 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:
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.
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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 Royal Society of Queensland via their website or the secretary of PaRC via secretary AT SYMBOL parcaustralia.com.au.
The Queensland Ranger Association (QRA) is a professional organisation for people who work in wildlife and natural resource conservation across the state. Founded in 1996, it has an active website https://www.queenslandranger.org/ and active program of events. One of its objects is “Assist other States and countries (with a particular focus on Developing Nations) to develop their ranger networks and associations.” This is an objective firmly aligned with PaRC’s. In particular, QRA and PaRC share a focus on knowledge-sharing in the Pacific Islands.
QRA is affiliated with Thin Green Line, an international charity based in Victoria dedicated to supporting rangers and their families, notably families who have lost rangers in the line of duty: https://thingreenline.org.au/ ; and the Council of Oceania Ranger Associations.
In preserving some noteworthy materials in PaRC, we aim to support QRA in its knowledge outreach.
At the QRA meeting at Tuchekoi, near Gympie, Queensland, 2023.
In the middle is Ron Turner, former Cooloola District Ranger and author of a notable memoir published by PaRC.
Click here for a Summary of the Oceania Ranger Roundtable webinar of October 2023. The Summary includes links to presentations and position papers.
MidCoast Recreational Boating Infrastructure Plan 2024 – 2035
This boating infrastructure plan is part of the MidCoast Parks and Recreation Planning Portfolio.
It covers more than a hundred individual boating assets, which include boat ramps, pontoons and jetties, across our coastline, rivers and lakes, many of which are sensitive ecosystems. The Plan not only focuses on the assets but also on the activities that are conducted on the waterways, and which use the facilities. Environmental protection is the main focus of the Plan.
This booklet authored by Ray Sumner and published by the Victorian National Parks Service in 1982 interprets the Steiglitz Historic Park, proclaimed in 1979, and covering 655 hectares of land, including parts of the township of Steiglitz and much of the surrounding Steiglitz goldfield. Steiglitz is about 60km west of Melbourne and about half way between Geelong and Ballarat.
This leaflet dated 1985 is labelled “The City in the Country” – OPEN SPACE ASSESSMENT SUMMARY REPORT.
This rather charming memoir of a personal journey along the Kokoda Track is by Ron Turner, former Ranger in Charge and District Ranger in Victoria’s and Queensland’s national parks systems.
Ron is an accomplished writer: see his First Ranger: A Memoir and Cooloola and its Hinterland in our Document Library as well as his lighthouse series (also relevant to PaRC) indexed on the website of the Queensland Science Network.
Click here for the report of the Ministerial Task Force on the Ageing, July 1989, signed by the Queensland Council for the Ageing and prepared under the aegis of the Department of Family Services Queensland.
This report presents the proceedings of a seminar in November 1992 on the Design and Management of Aquatic and Recreation Facilities. It is credited to the Ministry of Sport and Recreation of the Western Australian Government and the City of Gosnells. (7.4 MB). The report is about 66 pages, with the final few pages appearing to have been mis-numbered.
