camping and caravanning; motoring; bushwalking; recreational cycling; horse riding; fishing; boating; adventure recreation; indoor recreation
This page is a placeholder for an account of trails and corridors and recreational use of them, coming soon.
In the meantime, check the excellent websites Trail Hiking Australia and Rail Trails Australia. Rail Trails Australia lists 191 trails, such as The Red Gum Track, Hamilton to Coleraine, Victoria.
Long-term recreation professional Peter Nicholls of Adelaide has generously agreed to provide the substance of materials on his website Australia’s People Gardener for re-presenting and curating on PaRC. Peter’s professional qualifications in the fields of leisure and recreation planning and development include:
A profile of Peter is also preserved on PaRC under the category “Inspirational People“.
NOTE: AS AT 4 SEPTEMBER 2025 THERE HAS BEEN A TEMPORARY SOFTWARE GLITCH WITH THIS PAGE. APOLOGIES TO PETER NICHOLLS AND READERS WHILE PaRC REPAIRS THE PAGE.
THE BENEFITS OF CREATIVE LEISURE INTERESTS
LIST OF LEISURE/RECREATION IDEAS. Although this document includes 2005 in its heading, that is the date it was commenced. Activities have been added continuously since then.
BEING WHO YOU REALLY ARE IS A RISK WORTH TAKING
BEWARE OF THE RETIRED HUSBAND SYNDROME
DARE TO HAVE FAITH IN YOUR DREAMS
DON’T THROW YOUR ABILITIES AWAY. RECYCLE THEM
EMPLOYERS OF CHOICE WHY THEY ATTRACT STAFF LOYALTY
FEAR AND COURAGE THE ODD COUPLE
HOW MUCH WOULD YOU TRUST YOUR TRUE SELF
I WISH I WAS THE ME I ONCE WANTED TO BE
IT’S TIME TO TEAR DOWN THE WALL THAT SEPARATES WORK AND LEISURE
LIFE AFTER WORK WILL BE LIKE NOTHING YOU HAVE EVER KNOWN BEFORE
MY APPROACH TO EXPONENTIAL PERSONAL GROWTH AND DEVELOPMENT
SPACE THE SEPARATION THAT KEEPS US TOGETHER
THE CHANGING ROLE OF BUSINESS IN MAKING SENSE OF WHY WE ARE HERE
THE ENQUENCHABLE YEARNING TO FOLLOW YOUR HEART
THE GLORIOUS ENIGMA OF UNCERTAINTY
WE NO LONGER ACCEPT LIFE IS OVER WHEN IT
WHY IT’S TIME FOR A PARADIGM SHIFT TO CONTINUOUS DEVELOPMENT
The above 23 files AGGREGATED
To be continued.
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.
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:
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.
Tread Lightly! (Australia) was a community organisation established to promote responsible use of outdoor recreation sites by users. Queensland public servant Neil Ames has assembled this narrative, based upon recollections of the late John Wood, who was president for 10 years.
The model came from the United States where Tread Lightly (US) is still very alive and functional: see https://www.treadlightly.org/. Its mission has been “Promoting responsible recreation through stewardship, education and communication. Plus, we get out there and live it.” Tread Lightly (US) originated from the US Forest Service which wanted to partner with recreational users of forests to minimise recreation-related impacts resulting from all types of outdoor activities including off-road vehicles (mountain biking, bushwalking, camping, fishing, hunting etc).
Jan and Ivan Scudamore introduced the program into Australia in the early 1990s. Jan was Executive Officer of Tread Lightly (Australia) from its inception and the driving force. Tread Lightly (Australia) had a board and three chairmen over the ~10 years of operation, namely Brian Woodward, Rob Seymore and John Wood. Jan was also a board member of Tread Lightly (USA) and acquired a quantity of educational, training, promotional, research, management and operational material from the US Forest Service and the Off Highway Vehicle Association of USA.
Eventually it was decided to close Tread Lightly (Australia) down due to lack of financial support.
After an interregnum in the offices of Sport and Recreation Queensland based in Toowoomba, the collection of physical resources was secured by PaRC and many items scanned. The materials are not saved in a single digital location in the library, as the library is based on a keyword search engine, but the items that are not copyright are now accessible to all.
The Tread Lightly Education Kit (67 MB) that came into PaRC’s possession consists of a folder containing a copy of the leaflet, the Teachers Guide and Data Sheets.
A leaflet sponsored by the Victorian Department of Conservation and Natural Resources and dated 1993.
John Grieg authored a 17-page paper to the 10th Annual Conference entitled Appropriate Use of the National Parks System – An Off-Road Vehicle Users Perspective, dated 1987.
This paper is an extract from the Proceedings of the New Zealand Recreation Association Conference, Mt Cook, New Zealand 1995, pp 61-71. “Mountain Biking Impacts and Rider Preferences” by Gordon Cessford, Science and Research Division, Department of Conservation, Wellington, New Zealand.
A review of impacts from mountain biking concludes: that the physical impacts of mountain biking are not a good basis for decisions about allowing access, that the actual environmental impact and safety hazards associated with mountain biking may be less than perceived by other track users, and that the focus needs to be on recreation conflict issues. A survey of riders found that they displayed a diversity of setting and experience preferences, and many of these changed in importance with riding experience. Natural settings, challenging riding, variety, and
opportunities for excitement and speed were important components for most riders. From these results, recommendations for management of mountain biking and associated research are made.
People may ask why PaRC publishes documents written a couple of decades ago dredged up from various private and public collections. Partly this is because some of these old reports and old programs will be useful source material for historians and researchers; partly because they can be cut and pasted into modern documents.
We believe that many modern practitioners are let loose in their local government or departmental office without sufficient mentoring, given the turmoil and turnover in the state and national public services. But we ask PaRC readers to send us modern editions where old documents have been superseded.
SportsFun is a guide to making sports activities appealing.
The rear cover includes credits and copyright statement.
The State Mountain Bike Plan – Mt Lofty Ranges Region 2001-2005 (24.5 MB) was published by the Office for Recreation, Sport and Racing in October 2001.
See also Adelaide Hills Bicycle Plan 2006.
MidCoast Public Toilets in Parks Strategy
Land managers, primarily councils, put a lot of assets into parks and reserves. Sports infrastucture, amenity buildings, playspaces. One of the most significant assets that we provide in our parks are public toilets. Public toilets are built in our parks because it is the only land that councils own, but more importantly, parks are major attractors for visitors, and it is people that are away from their homes, spending long periods of time, that are the main users of public toilets.
MidCoast Council has just adopted its new MidCoast Public Toilets in Parks Strategy. We have 108 public toilets in total, and 106 of them are in our parks and reserves. This represents a major investiment, with a single public toilet costing a minimum of $250,000, but often are closer to a million dollars. When you have a hundred of them that is a massive CAPEX investment. But public toilets are also our most expensive OPEX asset as well. They have to be cleaned once or twice a day. And they are also the target of vandalism, with cisterns being broken on a regular basis.
A public toilet strategy is a critical planning mechanism, as part of a larger parks planning portfolio.
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
