Getting Active in the West

Program Manager at South West Sport Andrew Sloane gave us an insight into how people are staying fit and active in Warrnambool and nearby towns.

Q: With summer approaching, what are some of the main activities which South West Sport is working to support?

A: The change of seasons motivates people to go outdoors, pump up their bike tyres, go and enjoy open spaces, pathways, parks, beaches, rivers and lakes.

As the weather warms up, South West Sport will be supporting;

A Fast 4 Tennis event as part of the South West Games in early November,
A Gourmet Food Bike Ride down the Cobden-Timboon Rail Trail late November
A Wheelchair Basketball event in late November,
Beach Cricket and other sports at the beach in January,

And an “Open House” of various sports within a sporting precinct in February.

Which State Sport Associations have you partnered with to create new participation opportunities in the south west?

The Vicsport sessions have enabled greater access to SSAs and that has resulted in vastly improved opportunity to discuss potential projects between SSAs and RSAs.

South West Sport has partnered with Basketball Victoria, Gymnastics Victoria, Cycling Victoria, Tennis Victoria, Cricket Victoria, and Netball Victoria with various initiatives in South West Victoria.

How are you supporting clubs or other sport deliverers to promote sporting opportunities?

South West Sport will always promote anything that helps lead a healthier lifestyle; whether that be a club’s Come and Try Day or a community bike ride. We will typically utilise social media to deliver most messages, but we have very good relationships with both print and radio media which certainly helps push messages out into the community. Schools are absolutely bombarded with requests and proposals from all types of organisations, so we try and limit sending them information too frequently. The other aspect that I have particularly focussed on over the past few years is to increase and improve my own network of contacts. It makes life a lot easier if you can speak directly to the key influencers of a target audience.

How will you measure the impact of your programs over summer?

Whether or not people turn up!

Whilst I’m being a little facetious, it’s also a really important factor to be able to understand that there was something about the project plan that appealed to people. Was it because it was fun? Or easy? Or free? Or opportunistic?

The projects listed earlier are all events that lead into something else. For example, we want to support Cycling Victoria to bring Lifecycle 55+ to the region, we want to establish a wheelchair basketball competition, and help support Tennis Victoria and local clubs to bring Fast 4 Tennis into new markets. If we succeed in doing that, then we’ve done something right.

And of course there’s the support from La Trobe University to ascertain if we’ve hit the program’s target market.

Finally, what makes Warrnambool and the surrounding regions a great place for people to get active?

There’s really two parts to that question.

Firstly, there are plenty of sporting opportunities for people to get involved. The annual South West Games demonstrates the sheer variety of sports that exist within the region. Sometimes the less high profile sports struggle to be seen or heard, but we constantly come across passionate people who want to get a new sport or activity up and running in the region.

Secondly, there are so many opportunities for active recreation. We have lots of gyms and pools etc, but we have fantastic natural assets as well. From volcanoes to beaches, rivers and lakes and green open space. And for many people, this is the starting point for leading a more active lifestyle. A simple walk, jog, swim, surf, paddle, ride which they can do in their own time, with no commitment, no cost, and no on-going responsibility.

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