Australian Sport, Recreation and Play Innovation Awards Winners announced at NSC 2024

The winners of the 2024 Australian Sport, Recreation and Play Innovation Awards have been announced in Melbourne, presented during the National Sports and Physical Activity Convention with IAKS 2024.

Recognising individuals, government, not-for-profits, the commercial sector, play sector, recreation and sports of their innovations to get more people active in the community, each category winner received their trophy and recognition in front of 1,000 of their peers at the NSC Oration on yesterday afternoon.

Category winners the Australian Institute of Play with Joomunjie Land and architects Warren and Mahoney for their work at the Northcote Aquatic and Recreation Centre were announced as the overall award winners.

Award winners in each category:

1. Programs and Activities: Collective Leisure - Liverpool Seniors Well-being and Social Group
Innovative programs, activities and events that have been developed to encourage the community to be more active and increase participation.

2. Inclusion Program/Initiative of the Year: Sport4All - integrated inclusion program
Recognises outstanding efforts by individuals or organisations in delivering programs/initiatives that champion inclusion and active participation across diverse communities. This could include initiatives that have advocated for gender equality, involved LGBTQIA+ communities, supported people with disabilities, empowered indigenous populations, reached out to culturally diverse and multicultural communities and encouraged participation among other underrepresented communities.

3. Technology in partnership with CODE Sports: Playground123 - Integrated playground software
Innovations in technology that support Business to Business (B2B) improvements for the industry or Business to Consumer (B2C) experiences.

4. Places and Space Design in partnership with Theca Rubner: Warren and Mahoney - Northcote Aquatic and Recreation Centre
Innovative design, solutions and management that creates an environment where more people are active (indoor and outdoor environments, with natural, synthetic and built forms), whilst embracing the principles of sustainability.

5. Sport and Climate Change: K20 Architecture - Knox Regional Netball Centre
Innovations that organisations have embraced to recognise the impact that sport can have on climate change and how they have focused on reducing their carbon footprint.

6. Playground Design: Australian Institute of Play - Joomunjie Land
Designs and developments that allow and encourage more children to play, have fun and be active.

OVERALL WINNERS
The Overall Australian Sport, Recreation, and Play Industry Award for Innovation was chosen from the individual winners and was awarded this year to two exceptional submissions:

The Australian Institute of Play with Joomunjie Land
Joomunjie Land is a space at Eagleby South State School, full of Loose Parts Play. This unique space is Queensland first Adventure Playground and Community Backyard. An adventure playground means that children can come to this space and try anything they want, so long as there are no hazards. The children also call this space a Community Backyard, based on it being a place where any neighbour child can come and play.

Two years ago, the student leaders at the school designed Joomunjie for their fellow students and any local child would want to come play. Since then, the response from the children attending has been so great, that funding was increased to open Joomunjie Land an extra day a week (originally only open twice a week, now three times). This meant that supporting organisation hired new playworkers to help facilitate play and supervise this space.

The positions advertised encouraged Aboriginal peoples to apply, to protect the culture in this space as Eagleby has a high population of Aboriginal peoples.

Children who rarely had the opportunity to engage with their own culture, now have the opportunity to do so three times a week.

Warren and Mahoney with the Northcote Aquatic and Recreation Centre
The City of Darebin sought a flagship project to reinforce its strong stance on climate action and raise the bar for other public projects. Its much-loved 1960s swim centre was due for an upgrade, and Warren & Mahoney were commissioned to design a replacement with a 6-Star Green Star sustainability rating - an ambitious and demanding target.

To achieve this, we put together a expert team that included an ESD (environmentally sustainable design) consultant was brought together to map out running costs, life cycle cost analysis and zero waste targets. Thereafter materials and systems were selected to minimise the carbon footprint, both during construction and over long-term operations and the design life of the facility. Water and air heating and circulation systems are fully electric, with much of the energy supplied by a 475kw solar panel roof array, the remainder of the energy demand is supported by renewable power purchasing agreements, negotiated by the Darebin City Council.

The upgrade retains the previous landscaped character, with green picnic spaces inviting family, school, and community group use. A welcoming cafe, public meeting rooms, and picnic areas create opportunities for people of every age to explore and participate, the Centre offers multiple new pathways to physical literacy in the community.

Images: Australian Sport, Recreation and Play Innovation Awards (top), the opening of the Knox Regional Netball Centre (middle) and the Northcote Aquatic and Recreation Centre (below).