Building a healthier Australia through play
Bibra Lake Regional Playground.
Play Australia’s new five-year game plan sets out its aim to see a connected and healthy Australia where play is a part of everyone’s daily life. Kieran Brophy explains
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s we move toward life post-COVID19, Play Australia has set out its vision that it is committed to realising as the organisation launches a bold new five-year game plan to build play in Australia. In Australia, the health and wellbeing of our children and young people is at crisis point. When we consider that only one in three Australian children engage in free play outdoors daily and the overall health of Australians is at all time low levels, it is of great concern. Play is fundamental in building physical activity habits in
Play Australia acknowledges the contribution of its volunteer Board in supporting the development of this strategy and the ongoing support its receives from its voluntary State Branches and Members from across Australia.
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our children and young people, which in turn increases the likelihood of them being active throughout their adult lives. If we consider the ever-increasing federal government focus on building a more active nation, starting with our children and young people; unstructured play is the ultimate early intervention to build Australia’s declining physical literacy– particularly through outdoor play. Research shows that there is a clear correlation between the time children spend outside and their levels of physical activity demonstrating that the more time children have to engage in unstructured outdoor play, the more physically active they will be. We also recognise that children should experience twice as much unstructured time as structured play experiences to support their healthy development. Play supports children to explore their own physicality, their relationships to others and helps them learn about the world around them; providing an essential opportunity to explore risk in the outdoors … to climb trees, jump from heights, roll down grassy hills, and enjoy rough and tumble play, to name just a few activities.
“We want to see a connected and healthy Australia where play is a part of everyone’s daily life.” Play Australia
