Queensland & Northern NSW trip

Hello, it has been a hectic couple of days but very worthwhile. I have really enjoyed the opportunity to visit some members and prospective members. I have seen some great camps in brilliant locations and have also had the chance to get some feedback from a number of obviously passionate camp operators.

Got into Brisbane airport where our erstwhile President John Woods picked me up and we headed off to Camp Goodenough in Bilambil, NSW where Wayne and his partners showed us around their camp.

Then we headed off to Inter-Action Experiential Learning at Uki, NSW where Greg Smith gave us the run down on his camp and shared his ideas for issues the ACA should be pursuing.

Then it was on to Midginbil Hill Outdoor Education Centre in Midginbil, NSW where we were met by Tony Snellgrove and given a grand tour of his camp including wallabies, bush turkeys and his flock of chickens.

We talked about the need for the ACA to encourage consistency in the Adventure Activity Standards now being developed and implemented in a number of states.

Operators were also passionate about eco sustainability and are looking for the ACA to talk to government to provide advice and assistance to camps towards a zero carbon footprint. This would need financial assistance to implement things like water recycling and the installation of solar panels to generate power.

Camps would then be in a very strong position to demonstrate to school children practical sustainable practices.

A consistent approach to curriculum links to camp programs across the country was also an issue seen as important.

We were also urged to continue to facilitate the sharing of information between camps using things like the prices and occupancy survey (stay tuned it will be out soon for 2008).

Then John and I made the long drive up to Apex Camp Mudjimba in Mudjimba, Qld arriving about 10pm, to spend the night with Vince Boeske.

Early start Tuesday to have a look around Camp Mudjimba, Qld and then off to see Dave Lee at Luther Heights, Qld and then Noosa North Shore Resort, Qld to meet Kate Brown and finally a visit to Dave Rowlands (there are a lot of Dave's in our sector aren't there!) from Wildeco, Qld. We talked about the benefits of becoming a member of the ACA and I hope they will be joining us soon - at least in time for the new Guide to Camps coming out in February 2009.

There was enthusiasm for advocating for sustainable camps and also for promoting the benefits of the camp and outdoor experience.

We then headed home (for John) to Edmund Park in Thornton, Qld for a home cooked meal (thanks John) and some shut-eye.

This morning we headed of to Emu Gully Adventure Education Group in Toowoomba, Qld and a tour around their Anzac themed camp - including a couple of working WWII aircraft and a range of tanks. Thanks to Barry and Gwenyth Rodgers and Mark from their Board for showing us around.

Donna Little (brand new CEO of QORF) and I had a positive and encouraging meeting with Tim Condon and Rob Ashton from Sport & Recreation Qld. I am confident that we can all work together to promote and develop the camps and outdoor sector in Qld. Donna and I will write to them to follow up the meeting and to put some more concrete proposals forward. I am also hopeful that their remaining 7 camps might join the ACA and in a very real sense work with all of us to further our sector.

Visits to a couple more camps tomorrow and then onwards to the National Outdoor Summit on Friday and Saturday - for now it is time to hit the sack for me.

Last Child in the Woods

Following advice from Andrew McGuckian I started reading Richard Louv's Last Child in the Woods on the flight from Melbourne to Brisbane this morning. I have to say it is an enthralling read so far.

I have very fond memories of my childhood in Warrnambool riding my bike around with my mates, climbing trees and time spent waist deep in water at the swamp catching frogs and tadpoles. These are things I have sadly discouraged my children from doing to my eternal shame. Maybe my efforts to protect my children from harm will have long term consequences that I haven' t factored in until now?

Perhaps we are focusing too much on the immediate threats to our children's well being - bumps, bruises & bad men - and not enough on the long term impacts of "bubble wrapping" our children - obesity, mental illness and a lack of resilience to deal with the undoubtedly turbulent times ahead.

"A kid today can likely tell you about the Amazon rain forest - but not about the last time he or she explored the woods in solitude, or lay in a field listening to the wind and watching the clouds move". (Richard Louv, Last Child in the Woods 2005 pp1-2)

Louv also talks about the "criminalisation of natural play" whereby we move to protect the natural environment by restricting access, when the best way to do this might instead be to encourage interaction - if our children's only experience of the natural environment is via the Discovery Channel, then how can we expect them to value and protect it?

"Countless communities have virtually outlawed unstructured outdoor nature play, often because of the threat of lawsuits, but also because of a growing obsession with order". (Louv p28)

"The cumulative impact of overdevelopment, multiplying park rules, well meaning (and usually necessary) environmental regulations, building regulations, community covenants, and fear of litigation sends a chilling message to our children that their free-range play is unwelcome, that organized sports on manicured playing fields is the only officially sanctioned form of outdoor recreation". (Louv p31)

I have a clear memory of a careers counsellor addressing my Year 11 or 12 class in 1977-8 and advising us that we should all consider a career in the leisure and recreation industry because, with modern technology, we would all be working 3 or 4 day weeks by the turn of the century (2000). Therefore people would have 3 or 4 day weekends - the possibilities for leisure would be endless! Well it hasn't quite panned out that way has it.

And finally "Based on previous studies, we can definitely say that the best predictor of preschool children's physical activity is simply being outdoors...and that an indoor, sedentary childhood is linked to mental-health problems" (James Sallis, Active Living Research Program in Louv p32).

I will keep you up to date as I work my way through this book - so far I am finding it thought provoking.

Adventure and Nature Based Tourism Forum

Last week I went to the Victorian Adventure and Nature Based Tourism Forum. It was held at Latrobe at Beechworth, who are ACA members. Great venue. It used to be the May Day Hills Psychiatric Institution and has a long and tragic history. Thankfully most of these institutions are now closed.

Latrobe at Beechworth is now providing accommodation and a conference venue. More about the conference in a later blog (I left my notes at the office!).

The images above are of the front entrance of the venue and (a little blurrier) the old hospital at night. The night image is at the start of the ghost tour that started up 4 months ago. It was a very entertaining tour for about 90 minutes and although I didn't see any ghosts we heard a lot about the history of the place and the way the patients were treated (mostly badly).

The other amazing bit of information we learned was that since the tours began 4 months ago they have had about 4,000 people join the tour.

Many of those coming for the tour are also staying and dining at Latrobe at Beechworth and so this has been a great success for both the tour operator and the venue. It is great to hear what can be achieved by following your passion. Congratulations to all involved.

People Outdoors and abseiling for the first time

A couple of weeks ago (sorry for delay in posting this) I had the privilege of attending a People Outdoors Camp to Stringybark Lodge Camp.

The photo is of part of our group at the hut building activity. I am standing on the left in the very flattering beanie behind the camper I was looking after that week - Matthew.

Matthew is a great guy and had a fantastic time and pushed himself out of his comfort zone to have ago at activities like the flying fox and low ropes and climbing wall.

I also had an experience of pushing myself out of my comfort zone when I experienced my first abseil. I need to confess here that I am a bit uncomfortable with heights. Often when I am looking down from a high place I feel like I am being drawn over the edge - I don't know if this is just me or whether this is a common experience with heights - it would be great to hear about your experiences with heights - but I know it feels a bit freaky from where I sit.

Many of you will have had a lot of experience with abseiling and so I don't know if you will remember your first time - but that experience of leaning out backwards over the drop for the first time is something that will stay with me for a very long time. Forcing myself (with encouragement from my instructor) to lean out backwards over that, admittedly short, drop was a very rewarding and exciting thing to do. (Isn't it funny how these things always look higher when you are at the top looking down than when you are looking up from the bottom?)

After that first big step the descent was exhilarating and I would highly recommend it to everyone. I am also more committed than ever to work to make sure as many people as possible get opportunities for experiences like this as I want everyone to that same sense of achievement and feeling of self worth that I got. It is one of the benefits that we can offer through camp and outdoor programs that we should be shouting from the treetops.

I have some video of my first abseil and as soon as I can work out how to upload it to You Tube (I have had one failed attempt) I will link it to this blog.

A good walk spoiled?

The photo you see to the right is from the walking track around the Barwon River at Geelong in Victoria. It is the walk my wife and I use on a regular basis. It is a great walk because it is close to home and there are a number of circuit options from the car park which range from about 50 minutes up to 4-5 hours (we haven't done the long walk yet). My wife was born and grew up near this river using this track and she tells me the walking/bike track you can see has been there as long as she can remember (I'm too smart to put a number of years here!).

Then this sign appeared sometime during the past 12 months. At first I just ignored it but the more we walked past it the more annoyed I became. What does it mean? Nothing has changed on the track so why now? I have come to the conclusion that this is what happens when you let lawyers get involved in matters that belong in the realm of common sense.

I would have loved to have been a fly on the wall at the meeting to discuss the erection of this sign! How do you think it went? I can't imagine the bizarre justifications that were used at that meeting but I believe it boils down to one thing - a ridiculous and totally over the top aversion to risk and an abrogation of personal responsibilty. The gradient referred to in the sign is not a particularly steep one and if we take this sign to its logical conclusion does that mean that there will need to be a sign notifying us of every change in gradient on the track? If so then there will be an awful lot of signs. It is really just visual pollution and shows us that it is not just our children who are being wrapped in cotton wool but that our whole society which is heading this way - unless we start to do something about it and reclaim the place of risk and personal responsibility as desirable concepts.

Resilience - are we helping?

I went to one of the Alfred Deakin Lectures at Ballarat University last week. The title was 'The Geography of Hope' and it covered a range of issues under the banner of environmental challenges. One of the speakers was Dr Brian Walker, Research Fellow with CSIRO Sustainable Ecosystems. But it was his role as Program Director and Chair of the Board of the Resilience Alliance that caught my attention. Brian pointed out that given the very significant changes that are going to be forced on us all because of climate change we will need to build resilience in our communities and individuals to cope with these changes.

When Preston B. Cline was here in Australia last year he also said that in these times of rapid technological change we need to build resilience in our children if they are to cope with the rapid pace of change.

Increasingly we are hearing from commentators and academics that we are 'cotton woolling' our children in our attempts to protect them from risk. Our society is becoming increasingly risk averse - and yet it is our contention in the camps and outdoors sector that by supporting and encouraging children to engage with risk in a thoughtful and planned way that we can in fact build their resilience.

We continue to hear about the 'obesity epidemic', increasing rates of suicide amongst teenagers and increasing incidences of mental illness and depression. Surely we can't solve these problems by withdrawing further into our protective cocoons? That might be a natural reaction but it must be detrimental in the long term because it suggests that it is safer at home on the couch than it is to be out riding your bike, safer in a tightly controlled environment than it is exploring and playing. Well it might be safer in the immediate short term - but what about the longer term impacts on our health and wellbeing? To believe that we can, or need to, somehow protect our children from the disappointments that inevitably are a part of growing up and working out how they fit in the world is, while understandable, not helpful in the long run.

So is trying to manage risk out of existence, in an effort to protect our children and ourselves from harm, actually counterproductive? I suggest the answer is yes.

Camp Coorong

I had the opportunity to visit Ana at Camp Coorong recently. Camp Coorong is a beautiful camp on the Gippsland Lakes near Bairnsdale in Victoria. I was there with Rob Gunston, who is a professional photographer working with us to capture some photos we can use to promote the camp experience.

The reason we were there on the day was to meet with Wanda Braybrook and Kelly Faldo, who had organised a camp for women on behalf of the Aboriginal Family Violence Prevention & Legal Service. We were there for day one and were taken into the pink room they had set up - and I mean pink. Day one was pamper day and so there were massages, hair care, manicures and other female stuff that I don't quite understand - but they were certainly enjoying it. (The photo is of Wanda, me, Ana and Kelly)

For day two they had planned a self defence class and some adventure activities like the high ropes course and the flying fox.

Thank you to all the women on the camp for allowing us to visit and to take photos - they made us feel very welcome. We will post some more photos on the ACA website soon.

I might also add that I had possibly the best scone I have ever had for morning tea cooked by Ana's wonderful cook Jean - thanks Jean