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 website Trail Hiking Australia.
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 website Trail Hiking Australia.
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.
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.
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.
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“.
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.
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
This mimeographed description of the native and introduced Freshwater Fish of the Yarra River has a pencil mark August 1984 on the front cover and is presumably the date it was compiled by the Department of Conservation Forests and Lands on Behalf of the MMBW.
PaRC is not a conservation archive, but this report qualifies for inclusion as fishing is a major recreational activity in greater Melbourne.
This ~68-page strategy, (55 MB) published in March 2002 and prepared inhouse by officers of Toowoomba City Council, aims to improve “the equity, accessibility, convenience and safety of cycling and pedestrian travel” for residents and visitors.
Principles articulated in the report:
The World Leisure Organization passed the updated Charter for Leisure in 2020. Its text reads:
Articles
1. Everyone, whether adult or child, has the right to adequate time for rest and for the pursuit of leisure activity.
2. For those engaged in remunerated work, Article 1 requires recognition of the right to reasonable limitation of working hours and periodic holidays with pay, as well as remuneration for public holidays. Securing these rights generally requires national/ provincial legislation.
3. Article 1 also applies to those engaged in unpaid labour, for example domestic care-givers.
4. Everyone has the right to freely participate in the cultural life of the community.
5. Leisure is also a medium through which other rights and related benefits set out in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and associated covenants can be exercised, including: the physical, mental, emotional and social development of the child through play; support for family life; personal expression and development; sustaining of cultural life of the community; and promotion of physical and mental health and well-being through sport, physical activity and cultural engagement. Conversely, denial of time for beneficial leisure activity can have serious consequences for the well-being of individuals and societies.
6. These rights should therefore be observed and supported by all of society’s institutions, including commercial organisations, education institutions, professional bodies and non-government organisations. Governments at national, regional/provincial and local levels have particular responsibilities reflecting commitments under United Nations treaties and, in some cases, provisions in national constitutions and legislation.
7. Recognising that governments at all levels are not the only providers of facilities and services for leisure and that they face many challenges and competing demands for resources, they nevertheless have particular responsibilities to:
[i] UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (2009). Guidelines on Treaty-specific Documents to be Submitted by States Parties Under Articles 16 and 17 of the ICESCR. Document E/C.12/2008/2. New York: UN, pp. 4-5.
Parks and Recreation Portfolio Planning
This is a presentation that I gave at the Parks and Leisure Australia (PLA) 2024 National Conference in Brisbane.
The presentation outlines the portfolio approach to planning for parks and recreation.