Presentations & Papers

Big Ideas for the Outdoors

Queenslanders increasingly love outdoor recreation. Research has shown that individual, non-organised physical activity is on the rise and that the majority of that activity is taking place on our parks, beaches and walking tracks. With busy lifestyles and time constrained opportunities, people are finding it easier to fit physical activity into the nooks and crevasses of their day, taking the chance to engage in unscheduled and flexible activity that can be done with little preparation, rather than be tied to the commitment of more organised activities. In addition there is a growing preference for ‘adventure, lifestyle, extreme and alternative’ activities such as rockclimbing, kite surfing, surfing and mountain biking. These activities are becoming more mainstream and more people are opting for adventure based and eco-tourism experiences in their holiday options.

Despite these social trends, there are conflicting considerations that impact the opportunities for outdoor recreation into the future. For outdoor activities to be part of our experiences we need to provide for, and manage the spaces where people outdoor recreate so these are close, sufficient, appropriate, diverse and sustainable … and there remain social messages of risk aversion that influence our outdoor participation decision making; the engagement of children in outdoor pursuits; and people’s desires and capacity to get active outdoors.