Have your say on our region's draft 10-year Sport and Recreation Strategic Plan

Yes the draft strategy meets the brief criteria.

Hi, We have recently started the Mackay Power Boat Club in Mackay. Our objective is to hold boat racing events on Kinchant Dam. 4-5 events per year, free to the public to spectate. We aim to use this as a forum to promote safe and responsible boating activities and open to all types of racing and recreational boats from juniors to veterans. We are excited to see this venture become a long standing part of the sporting activities available to Mackay and surrounding areas, and further by sharing our goals with other power boat clubs within Australia. We look forward to the support from Mackay Regional Council and the input it can provide to our region through this sporting strategy.

It would be great to see local community bands supported more by the council. I would love to see the bands utilised for community events such as council organised carols and other public events. Given we now have the amphitheatre at the botanical gardens, it would be great to have a concert with the other musical groups maybe twice a year.

Great to see a motorsport precinct in the mix. Overall looks a good framework for the region.

Removed by moderator.

Removed by moderator.

I think the draft is sound. Identifies a lot of stuff we in the sport industry probably already are aware of. There is a lot of work to be done.

Our local sports club could certainly do with more indoor facilities closer to train, develop and grow our club.

Yes I do, plus we need more

A good overarching document building a framework for the region. It will be important that most facilities are easily accessed by those that could benefit. This will require an effort by the Council and clubs etc to correctly manage facilities and have them run by experienced people and not have them run to benefit of few/
One discussion point not mentioned is the linking of the outdoor and natural settings. Eg linking river swimming areas with mountain bike trails and walking/running trails. As present they are disjoint and require travel on open roads in between. Having them joined will allow for more multisport adventure events in the region and reduce the need to negotiate with interconnecting land holders.

Sport and Active Recreation has an obligation to community health but the link doesn't exist. In fact the gap between the insufficiently active members of the community and the sport & active recreation sector is widening. Both the QLD Government and Federal Government are currently reviewing their Sport & Rec strategies in an attempt to realign with community needs.
The evidence suggests that amongst the required facility upgrades, decline in volunteerism etc the internal capacities of the sport & rec communities and regional LGA's is not sufficient in terms of providing a coordinated approach to resolving the issues.
The draft Mackay Regional Council Sport & Rec Strategic Plan provides the framework however a coordinated approach involving a number of stakeholders including state government, community organisation's, specialized support etc will be required to have a sustainable long term impact. Mackay Regional Council is in the best position to have an impact in the region but what strategies are proposed to engage the inactive members of the community, to invest into the internal capacities of the sporting community, to invest into the internal capacity of the council? Happy to share some of the evidence we have collected regarding delivering community health & wellbeing intervention bundles and regional sports & rec and LGA capacities.
Thanks

Hi it was an interesting read and a lot of what has been written is very relevant from the both a club perspective and as an individual.
Finding the facilities to start a new sport is limited to who currently has the space and is willing to share it.
Having recently started up the relatively new sport of Walking Soccer in Mackay we were lucky to be able to find a wonderful facility at Abbott Park to do so and it has paid dividends for us.
Any strategy that helps to get people out and about and being active is good for the community and a benefit to the region.

The Equestrian Arena at Mackay showgrds ! Why is it not available for hire after 5 yrs since plans were drawn up?! This is a ludicrous state of affairs! The Equestrian facility should be managed by Equestrian knowledgeable people !