4 minute read
News from BGEN: a million reasons to visit – Rio Tinto Naturescape Kings Park celebrates its millionth visitor
Jill Murray, Senior Partnerships Officer, Botanic Gardens and Parks Authority
Are you one in a million? This year Rio Tinto Naturescape Kings Park clocked over its millionth visitor!
Whether you visited this much-loved nature play space to make mud pies in the recent school holidays or if you were one of the first visitors to paddle in the creek 12 years ago, you can count yourself as one of our million visitors.
Our urban wilderness was the first children’s play space of its kind when we launched back in 2011. At the time children’s playgrounds had become risk-averse spaces with rubberised soft-fall surfaces and very few natural materials. Sedentary pastimes were also on the rise with time spent on screens disconnecting children from the natural world.
When it opened to the public Rio Tinto Naturescape Kings Park was revolutionary. In contrast with the trends of the time, it encouraged active play in a natural space with activities like tree climbing, creek paddling, and balancing on log bridges. It challenged preconceptions of what made for ‘safe’ children’s outdoor play both with parents and the wider community.
Children engaging in active nature-based activities develop a skill set that includes risk assessment, problem-solving, and physical aptitudes. They learn about the natural world and have lots of fun on the journey.
Parents in 2023 consider outdoor play in a natural space to be a normal part of a healthy childhood. Maybe this is because our million visitors have spread the word?
On the first Saturday of the Everlasting Kings Park Festival, Rio Tinto Naturescape Kings Park celebrated its millionth visitor with a fun-filled Nature Play Day. More than 1,200 visitors joined in celebrations, with nature-based activities and the Adorable Florables Trail leading the charge. Children built cubbies, created botanical art, made a mess in the Mud Kitchen, and met native birds of prey that visited for the celebration.
Another special activity asked children to write pledges onto leaves promising how they will care for the natural environment. These leaf pledges decorated the Chrysalis of Change at the May Drive entrance to the play space.
Empowering children to play a role in caring for the natural environment is one of the key goals that Botanic Gardens and Parks Authority (BGPA) and sponsor Rio Tinto aim to progress in Rio Tinto Naturescape Kings Park. Kings Park Education starts as early as possible to foster this understanding through Zippy’s Bush Kindy Kings Park for 3–5-year-old children. This program teaches children about the natural environment, how to stay safe in the bush, and how Noongar people care for country. Rio Tinto sponsorship has supported the growth of Zippy’s Bush Kindy, which now welcomes almost 150 children and their carers per term to attend weekly sessions in our natural teaching environment.
This program teaches children about the natural environment, how to stay safe in the bush, and how Noongar people care for country.
Reflecting on the change in community attitudes to nature play, BGPA’s Education Coordinator, Charlotte Vaughan, said ‘“Naturescape” wasn’t even a word or a thing before it was done at Kings Park. It was just an idea. When we were exploring the concept, the schools said they wouldn’t come; it would be too dangerous…now schools have their own “naturescapes”. It’s taken years, but we’ve got everyone back into nature and what was once a risky idea has become “we can all do that”. It’s a massive change in behaviour.’
Some of the 12-year-olds who were the first visitors to paddle in the creek would now be bringing their own children 12 years later to introduce them to the delights of this natural family space. With the support of our long-term sponsor Rio Tinto, BGPA invites the next million visitors to connect their children to nature at Rio Tinto Naturescape Kings Park.
