Background:

On 10 March 2019 the Minister for Recreation Sport and Racing announced the development of the South Australian Sport and Recreation Infrastructure Plan (the Plan).

The Plan will identify the infrastructure needed to support sports participation from the grass roots level through to our elite athletes.

It will also identify infrastructure needs for those members of our community that want to be active through recreational pursuits such as walking and cycling.

We want to develop facilities of the future that fill current gaps, are accessible, and encourage all South Australians to live an active and healthy lifestyle.

The Plan will include wide ranging community engagement, enabling the Government to listen to the community about their priorities and ideas.

The Plan will identify a strategic response to issues related to the provision of infrastructure for sport and recreation to support overall objectives such as increasing levels of participation, improving services, creating jobs and economic growth.

The Plan will also feed into the 20 Year State Infrastructure Strategy https://infrastructure.sa.gov.au/ being developed by Infrastructure SA to assist the South Australian Government to plan, identify and prioritise major infrastructure across the State.

We are currently in Phase 1 of the Plan.

Phase 1 Current State - Gap and Issues Identification

Consultation:

This phase included wide ranging consultation through a YourSAy community survey. The results have now be analysed and a report summarising this survey is available HERE PDF, 2316.62 KB.

Throughout July and August 2019, staff from the Office for Recreation, Sport and Racing (ORSR) undertook significant statewide consultation. These session were held in conjunction with the ORSR two other major projects; Game on, Getting South Australia Active and the review of our Grant Programs. A summary was produced for attendees of each session, with a final report to be compiled detailing what was heard.

A total of 34 sessions were held across the State engaging over 600 participants including community members, council representatives, sport and recreation bodies and other providers to gain an understanding of the current context, key issues and suggested responses.

Further consultation has been undertaken across government agencies and with relevant stakeholders to determine where there are opportunities for synergies and partnerships to address the key issues raised in the process.

Data Collection:

The current state phase will also identify the current supply of sport and recreation facilities and investigate current participation to analyse gaps and overlaps in facility supply.

As part of this process three data collection tools have been developed to collect the following:

• Current number and type of facilities including sport, recreation and parks and reserves (over 5 hectares) – sent to Councils
• Proposed facilities over $2 million in value – sent to Council and Sport and Recreation Organisations
• Participation data – sent to Sport and Recreation Organisations

These tools were distributed to Local Councils and State Sport and Recreation Organisations during August 2019 who have been providing information regarding the above. The next part of this will be modelling the data to establish a picture of the current and future need as it relates to provision of sport and recreation infrastructure.

We are still accepting data from Councils and Sport and Recreation Organisation and if you are yet to provide us with your organisations please send any data to SARecSportInfrastructurePlan@sa.gov.au. This process will be ongoing, ensuring that we have appropriate and accurate data readily available for analysis and informed decision making.

Future Key Project Deliverables to end December 2019:

• Current facility gaps and issues identification
• Future facility gaps and needs identification
• Collection of participation data
• Future infrastructure program and projects identified for Infrastructure SA Strategy
• Further engagement across stakeholders across State Government, Local Government and both State Sport and State Recreation Organisations
• Development of a decision making framework
• Draft SA Infrastructure Plan

Achievements to Date:  

May/June 2019 – YourSAy survey completed and summarised

July 2019 – YourSAy survey results and report published

August 2019 – Completion of 34 statewide consultation sessions

September 2019 – Facility and participation data collected

Contact:

For further information email:

SARecSportInfrastructurePlan@sa.gov.au

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