Warragul mother calls for inclusive playground after autistic daughter's near-accident
Late last year, Elysha Clarke was watching her two children at the local playground when the unthinkable happened.
Her eldest daughter Claira, who has autism, slipped from her care and ran away from the playground towards a dog on the other side of the park — right next to a busy road.
Ms Clarke strapped her one-year-old Lily into the pram as fast as she could and raced after her older daughter, catching up just as she reached the street.
An accident was averted, but it was a close call.
"That was the moment I thought, 'I can't do this anymore,'" Ms Clarke said.
Thirty years ago, her brother, who is also autistic, ran off at another playground into a nearby lake.
"Thirty years later, we're still dealing with the same issue," Ms Clarke said.
She sprang into action and started a petition calling on Baw Baw Shire Council to build fencing around Warragul's Civic Park playground, a popular spot for families and the site of her brother's mishap.
The petition attracted more than 500 signatures and a second petition on the council's platform got almost 200 backers.
But at a meeting in late May, the council rejected the petition.
Council officers reported that the installation of full fencing around the playground was not supported because it had been designed to allow children to freely enter and exit the area to enjoy the surrounding environment.
Councillors instead agreed they would look into the feasibility of constructing an all-abilities inclusive playground elsewhere in the shire.
While Ms Clarke said the decision to reject her petition was disheartening, she was encouraged by their interest in an all-abilities playground instead.
"In some ways, I feel that I have achieved something because it started the discussion and it brought to everyone's attention that this is something we need," she said.
"[But] it's going to take years, and that's not something that my children are going to benefit from as much as I would have liked."
She hoped the council would engage with parents like her to design the playground so it reflected what the community wanted and needed.
Almost 300,000 Australians are autistic, and that number is rising.
In 2017, Autism Awareness Australia noted that wandering, or elopement, was common amongst autistic children and that 58 per cent of parents had reported it as the most stressful behaviour they had to deal with.
Ms Clarke said she and her family had travelled more than an hour from their home in Baw Baw Shire to find a fenced, safe and engaging playground for her children, often ending up at all-abilities spots.
Justine Perkins is the co-founder of the Touched by Olivia Foundation, which builds inclusive playgrounds called Livvi's Places across the country.
"There is something there for everyone," Ms Perkins said.
"There are active spaces, there are sensory spaces.
"It's blending it all together with a very deliberate design."
There are 52 now open around Australia, including nine in Victoria.
Each one is different, but they typically include disability-friendly play equipment, sensory-friendly areas, fencing and accessible toilets.
She said parents were overjoyed when they found Livvi's Places.
"They're just in tears of joy, or exhilaration, that finally their voices are being heard," Ms Perkins said.
"Particularly parents of children with disability or kids who are neurodiverse who need different kinds of configurations to ensure they feel safe, that they're not overwhelmed."
She believed when planning destination playgrounds, councils should ensure they were accessible and inclusive.
"We're not there yet in ensuring everyone is included, and inclusion really needs to be part and parcel of our everyday lives," she said.
Play Australia CEO Robyn Monro-Miller said there were no Australia-wide standards for playground fences because every playground was different.
"Fences don't necessarily make a playground safer, they give an illusion of safety," she said.
"Children still need to be supervised when using play equipment, and that's really important regardless of their ability or their age."
She said Play Australia supported playgrounds that were inclusive for all children, considering visible and invisible disabilities and differing ages or ability levels.
"It takes some thoughtful planning, but it's actually more cost-effective and more appropriate for us to do that," she said.
Baw Baw Shire's director of community infrastructure, Ben Wood, said planning for an all-abilities inclusive playground would be part of the shire's upcoming Playground Strategy, which would begin after its Open Space Strategy was finalised by the end of the year.
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