Our Big Backyard Christies Beach - South Australia

The Christies adventure began by gathering a collaboration of educators, environmental educators, and community development workers. It began with an open call for anybody interested in finding out more about Our Big Backyard (OBBY) to attend a meeting in mid-2015.

We were all excited about the potential of having an Our Big Backyard Project in the Christies area. We all saw multiple benefits for a project like this such as:

• Increased pride, community identity, belonging, and ownership in the local Christies area
• Young people having quality time and experiences with their caregivers
• More frequent and positive experiences in our local natural environment
• Feeling confident and comfortable going to public spaces (which helps with natural surveillance and crime prevention)
• Families connecting with their own communities by getting people together
• Privileging the knowledge and experiences of local children and families throughout

Through working together, we all brought different perspectives that were to enhance the development of the initiative as well as further strengthening partnerships and increasing networking. The first few meetings were spent discussing shared values which became guiding principles in developing the project. They included:

• To genuinely consult, involve and engage with local families from the very beginning of the project and for this to inform the construction of the initiative.
• To value and privilege children’s voices in the development of the kit
• To ensure the activities were as accessible as possible e.g. empty hands, local free places, bus routes identified on maps
• To value parents/caregivers as the first educators by giving adults the confidence to play in nature
• Learning through play and nature being an organic teacher

Having a shared understanding of the benefits and values that guided the project was critical to the project team being so productive.

The first step was talking to the community and creating links. We sent out information on the project and started up a Facebook page. We gave out a questionnaire to adults and young people in the local area. Our aim was to consult with the local community and gather their knowledge, history and stories to help us identify and understand the assets of the area. The questions were also designed to collect baseline data about what is happening now and also to find out some great nature play ideas and places the community already visited. The voice of children was critical and we viewed children as our partners. We collected 260 surveys, 180 young people and 80 adults. From the survey and discussions with local families we realised that many young people were going outside of their local area to play. Very few families went to the creek or bush land area to play. When asked, “Are there things that stop you from playing outside?” the main theme was the adults in their lives not letting them due to safety concerns.

The project team then set out to explore the places people suggested and to find other cool places to play in the local area. We decided on six local places; the beach, your backyard, Christie Creek, Brodie Road Wetland, the boat ramp and the little forest.  We then came up with a list of 50 things that could be done at one or more of the locations. The ideas of things to do came from the survey, by the project team visiting the location and feedback from our initial come and try days.

We decided to create nature adventure sheets which gave more information about six of the activities that you could do at the local place. We wanted to do this to help alleviate adults concerns. Information included how to do the activity, any important safety information or ways to protect the local environment and also questions to ask the children. We hoped that once adults felt comfortable in the local place it would lead to children doing what they do best, creating their own play.

“At the come and try days it was great to see kids with adults significant to them having fun together and incredibly special to see them doing something new for the first time – like hearing a frog call, finding sheoak cones and a baby’s first visit to the beach.” Sophie Rogers, NRM Education Officer, Adelaide and Mount Lofty Ranges Natural Resources.

Once we were happy with the draft kit we worked with Heath Riggs from Mono Design. He drew pictures and simplified the design of the nature adventure sheets. Everyone was volunteering their time and resources until this point. This was the first time during the project where we needed funds to be able to move forward. Adelaide and Mount Lofty Ranges Natural Resources and City of Onkaparinga funded the graphic design work. This was also a very time consuming process, ensuring accuracy and consistency across the kit.

Once we had the completed kit we really wanted to celebrate and thank the local community for their involvement in the project. We planned a Family Fun Day at Rotary Park on Sunday 12 November 2017. Over 300 local families attended the family fun day. They were involved in nature play activities including making nature crowns, painting pet rocks, concocting nature perfumes and cubby house building. Many of the nature play activities were organised by local schools and early learning sites. The event was made possible through a Together in the South Collective Impact Grant. One thousand OBBY Christies Kits were distributed at the Family Fun Day and through local organisations, schools and early learning sites just before the end of term four to equip families for the summer school holidays.

Challenges we faced and opportunities that were created

Connecting and consulting with everyone…

• Finding the local stakeholders and how to capture local knowledge
• Finding locals people to connect with
• Changing perspectives
• Challenging notions of risk in nature
• Trying to convince parents to prioritise nature/outings in their lives
• Maintaining momentum within the project
• Securing funding (Council played an important role)
• Coordinating partners: 21 people were actively involved in the project team

What we noticed/community impacts

• Families discovering the opportunities that exist and are available to them at no cost
• Sense of pride and ownership of the local area – talking about what wonderful places we have available and how lucky we are to live where we do as opposed to negative talk
• Parents/grandparents sharing stories of play/outdoor in their childhood
• Calming effect – kids just playing, less complaining, more sustained play,
• They want to look after a place – kids collecting rubbish – keeping their place clean, team work.
• As expected children display curiosity, wonder, imagination, creativity, play
• Connectedness, togetherness – families and community sharing the local spaces together, talking with one another and spending time with their families
• Local champions – people talking positively of Christies and its special places and spaces and memories they have created
• Learning about just how much history exists in the area and learning about First Nations culture
• People realising that they have permission to explore their local area and it can be a natural playground – they don’t have to go to plastic fantastic places to have fun – they will not get in trouble –
• Physically active in children and adults