Academic literature on the topic 'Outdoor recreation Victoria'

Outdoor recreational activities (e.g., bushwalking and bird-watching) can increase participants? environmental awareness, but can also cause environmental damage and impact negatively on wildlife if conducted irresponsibly and/or in large numbers. A field experiment with a before-after-control-impact design conducted in Wyperfeld National Park, Victoria determined whether simulated bushwalking by researchers over a 4-week period had an immediate impact on the composition of breeding bird assemblages on ten 1-ha mallee plots. Birds were surveyed with point counts preand post-intrusion. Species richness, diversity and composition of bird assemblages were unaffected by the pedestrian traffic regime imposed. Results suggest that normal pedestrian traffic in spring and summer may not influence ?bush bird? assemblage composition very markedly in the short-term in Victorian parks. However, the birds could have responded to intrusion, but less dramatically than by leaving the plots. That bushwalking and allied activities may have other adverse effects on the behaviour and physiology of Australian ?bush birds? still needs to be investigated.

<div align="center"><p>The Western Anachronism: thanks to western novels and Hollywood, the general public and a great many foreign visitors believe that the “Real West” is, or should be, the mythic West of cowboys and Indians, pickax miners, mountain trappers, and Oregon Trail pioneers. And for a great many busted resource towns, Real West tourism seems to be the boom waiting to replace moribund mining, logging, ranching, and agriculture. So, in many places, towns have rushed to re-create the past in order to attract visitors and new residents. Tourists want to see 19th century saloons and bordellos, old-style signs, Main Street gunfights, blacksmith shops, and hitching posts, not irrigated agriculture, sprawling suburbs, interstate highways, franchise America, and retirement communities. To meet these expectations, towns have reinvented themselves as “museums” of the Old West. For some, historic preservation and resurrection of past landscapes have sufficed, but for others, the “old” look is completely contrived. In both cases, this “Old West” iconography has become emblematic of the rapidly growing modern “New West.” It appears as Victorian, Bavarian, Mining, Wild West, Alpine, Old West, Southwest, Frontier, and other themes. Indeed, one can hardly visit a rural western town without seeing half-timbers or false fronts or board sidewalks or adobe bricks or tile roofs or some other representative adornment or period bric-a-brac. Furthermore, the activities of tourism and outdoor recreation seem most at home when rooted in these “themed” landscapes. The only problem is this: while many theme towns have enjoyed sustained economic success, the costs and tradeoffs have often rendered them no more real or stable than a western movie-set façade.</p></div>

Abstract Background Active recreation contributes to child and adolescent physical activity, however, factors affecting uptake are poorly understood at the systems level. The aims of this study were: (1) to use systems analysis methods to understand youth active recreation in Victoria, Australia, (ii) identify potential system leverage points to enhance active recreation, and (iii) explore stakeholder views of systems analysis methods for informing practice and policy decision-making. Methods Phase 1: Umbrella review of systematic reviews (2013–2018), synthesising evidence for correlates, determinants and intervention evidence for promoting active recreation. Phase 2: Development of three systems models (ActorMap and two ActivMaps), depicting active recreation actors/organisations, correlates, determinants and intervention evidence. Phase 3: Development of causal loop diagrams (CLDs) and identification of leverage points based on the Action Scales Model. Phase 4: Model feedback via stakeholder interviews (n = 23; 16 organisations). Results From the literature, 93 correlates and determinants, and 49 intervention strategies were associated with child and adolescent active recreation; the majority located at a social or individual level. Ten potential system leverage points were identified in the CLDs, which differed for pre-schoolers versus children and adolescents. Only time outdoors (an event leverage point) emerged for all age groups. Changes to the built and natural environment (i.e., land use planning, urban design) as a complete domain was a key structural leverage point for influencing active recreation in children and adolescents. Subject matter experts and stakeholder interviews identified 125 actors operating across seven hierarchical active recreation system levels in Victoria. Stakeholder interviews identified 12 areas for future consideration and recommendations for practice/policy influence. Conclusions Our findings underscore the need for dynamic models of system behaviour in active recreation, and to capture stakeholder influence as more than a transactional role in evidence generation and use. Effective responses to youth inactivity require a network of interventions that target specific leverage points across the system. Our models illustrate areas that may have the greatest system-level impact, such as changes to the built and natural environment, and they provide a tool for policy, appraisal, advocacy, and decision-making within and outside of government.