Outdoors SA 2019 Annual Highlights.
Outdoors SA 2019 Annual Highlights.
Outdoors SA has engaged in a range of advocacy, consultation and research throughout the past 12 months. This has been a significant year with the launch of the first ever national Australian Adventure Activity Standards and Good Practice Guides. This has been a culmination of dedication over the past four years and Outdoors SA has been there as part of the Steering Committee and implementation team since the very beginning.
Download the report here Outdoors SA 2019 Report
Improving industry standards
Australian Adventure Activity Standards Project is Live!
The Australian Adventure Activity Standard (AAAS) and Good Practice Guides (GPG) have officially been released after being endorsed by Federal and state ministers for sport and recreation.
The AAAS and GPG are the result of a four-year project to harmonise existing state/territory adventure Activity Standards into the first national voluntary framework for good practice, risk and safety management for led outdoor adventure activities in Australia.
Until now, each jurisdiction has maintained its own set of guidelines for outdoor activities. This new national approach will make it easier for South Australian activity providers to operate in multiple jurisdictions, improve professional portability of activity leaders, and improve safety for participants.
This framework will help operators review their practices and continue to offer safe and responsible activities to the community and visitors, which is a vital part in supporting our tourism sector and helping people get outdoors more.
The reduction of red-tape imposed under a state-by-state approach is a great result for nature-based tourism, outdoor education, and outdoor recreation groups and businesses.
“thanks to the support of the State and Territory Sport and Recreation Ministers of Australia, the outdoors sector experts have formed the first-ever national Adventure Activity Standard and Good Practice Guides across 18 activities.” AAAS Committee Chair, Andrew Knight
“Standards shouldn’t change just because you cross the border. This approach ensures everyone has clear guidance on how to achieve the highest safety standards and deliver the best possible experience for participants.” Andrew McGuckian, President of the Outdoor Council of Australia
Australian AAS Workshops
Outdoors SA has been active in briefing the sector on the Australian AAS over the past 18 months. This has included a series of online and face to face community sessions in conjunction with the Australian Camps Association and the Outdoor Council of Australia on how to transition to the Australian AAAS.
These sessions focused on providing community clubs, Scouts, Girl Guides, Adventure Therapy Groups, campsites owners /manager, outdoor activity providers, school teachers and the like with an overview of the system. The sessions outlined the history of the State AAS from its development through to the implementation of the AAAS and GPG in 2019. During the session providers were able to reflect on their practices and begin developing a pathway to future compliance.
Additional tourism specific workshops were coordinated. Outdoors SA presenter Andrew Govan and Luke Duncan discussed the history of the State AAS from development to implementation of the Australian Standards in 2019. The tourism industry attendees learnt how to develop a map of current accreditation and compliance needs as a tourism business in our brilliant state. Thanks to our partners in the Tourism Industry Council of South Australia for collaborating in making this event possible.
A big acknowledgement and thanks to all of the state and national partners that made this possible. All details can be viewed at https://australianaas.org.au/
Sector Representation & Consultation
Outdoor Recreation Draft 2 Validation Consultation
Outdoors SA has continually advocated for an update to, and state based consultation, on outdoor leadership training. This was achieved with the comprehensive update of the Outdoor Recreation Qualifications and associated Units of Competency in the SIS10 Sport, Fitness and Recreation Training Package under the direction of SkillsIQ and the Sport and Recreation Industry Reference Committee.
Draft 2 SIS Outdoor Recreation training package products were provided for industry validation and feedback. A month long validation period was provided to ensure that changes to the initial draft and feedback from outdoor providers were incorporated before submission for endorsement.
The project has been running for two years in which consultation has taken place to allow for board stakeholder engagement in South Australia and other states.
See https://www.skillsiq.com.au/CurrentProjectsandCaseStudies/SportandRecreationTPD
National Obesity Strategy – Outdoors SA supported a national submission via the Outdoor Council of Australia to the National Obesity Strategy – it advocates for increased outdoor activity opportunities for all of the increased health and wellbeing benefits that it can bring to all Australians.
See https://consultations.health.gov.au/population-health-and-sport-division/national-obesity-strategy/
Involvement in Industry Research:
The UPLOADS (Understanding and Preventing Led Outdoor Accidents Data System) project released an updated annual report outlining incidents within led outdoor activities and contributory factors.
Despite the increase of reported incidents in this report compared to previous UPLOADS datasets, the overall incident rate (6.9 per 1000 participation days) and for injuries (4.6/1000), illnesses (1.5/1000), psychosocial incidents (0.4/1000) and near misses (0.4/1000) remains low. For injuries in particular, the incidence rate of 4.6 is lower when compared organised sports such as cricket (242/1000), horse-riding (122/1000), soccer (107/1000) and netball (51/1000; Finch, Cassell, & Stathakis, 1999). This finding is consistent with previous UPLOADS analyses and provides further evidence that participating organisations are effectively managing risk in Led Outdoor Activities. This is critical information for the ongoing viability of our outdoors sector, at a time when adventurous activities are being scrutinised by the insurance industry it is important to be able to clearly demonstrate that these activities have a significant lower risk of injury compared to sport when well managed. The report can be downloaded at https://uploadsproject.files.wordpress.com/2019/12/2018-2019-annual-report-v2.pdf
In addition to the report UPLOADS has also released Preventing Incidents Method (PrIMe). The UPLOADS Preventing Incidents Method (PrIMe) is a quick and simple process that organisations can use to translate UPLOADS outputs into incident prevention strategies.
Organisations can use this process to identify and develop appropriate incident prevention strategies and ‘Action Plans’ that will support implementation, monitoring and evaluation.
Sector promotion and recognition
Outdoors SA is dedicated to seeing more people adventuring outdoors and regularly promotes what is happening in the various areas of the SA outdoors sector.
Hiking Expo 2019 – let’s get outdoors.
Outdoors SA proudly supported the Hiking Expo on the ground by providing a rockabout climbing wall on the day – with free climbs for everyone. There was plenty of kids and families taking advantage of the climbing opportunity while exploring SA walking options for 2019 and beyond. The day provided a wonderful showcase of the many hiking trails and destinations awaiting to be discovered.
The #HikingExpo celebrates the start of the South Australian bushwalking season. South Australia’s bushwalking clubs and Walking SA came together to celebrate the occasion with a unique day in Belair National Park. Activities also included:
- Expo of walking tours, walking destinations, outdoor retailers, walking clubs, free entry.
- Guided hikes ranging from 45mins to 3 hours, including child-friendly and Accessible options. Guided Walks departed every 10 minutes.
