Brisbane West Archives - Centenary Today

Nearly 1,500 Gather at Seventeen Mile Rocks for Dementia Fundraiser

Families, friends, runners and community groups filled Rocks Riverside Park on Sunday morning as the Brisbane Memory Walk & Jog brought hundreds of people to Seventeen Mile Rocks in support of Australians living with dementia.

Held on 14 June, the annual event drew 1,478 participants and 89 teams to the popular riverside park, with fundraising reaching $193,631 for Dementia Australia programs, services and research. The result placed the event close to its $200,000 target and turned a local park into one of Brisbane’s largest community fundraising gatherings of the weekend.

A Morning of Movement Along the Brisbane River

From early morning, participants gathered at Rocks Riverside Park to take part in a range of distances, including a 2.5-kilometre walk, a five-kilometre walk or jog, and a 10-kilometre timed run.

The event welcomed people of different ages and fitness levels. Some participants took part to honour family members affected by dementia, while others joined friends, workplaces and community teams to support a cause that touches many Australian households.

As runners and walkers moved through the riverside course, the park became a meeting place for families, carers, supporters and volunteers united by a shared goal. The atmosphere reflected the community spirit that has become a hallmark of the Memory Walk & Jog series across Australia.

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Seventeen Mile Rocks Hosts a Major Community Event

While participants travelled from across Brisbane, the event placed Seventeen Mile Rocks at the centre of a city-wide fundraising effort.

Rocks Riverside Park has become a regular venue for large-scale outdoor events thanks to its open green spaces and riverfront setting. On Sunday, the park welcomed nearly 1,500 participants, creating a strong turnout for a community-focused event in Brisbane’s western suburbs.

The gathering also highlighted the role local public spaces play in bringing people together around important social and health issues. For many attendees, the event offered an opportunity not only to raise money but also to connect with others who understand the challenges dementia can bring to families.

Photo Credit: Memory Walk & Jog/Facebook

Raising Funds for Dementia Support and Research

Memory Walk & Jog is organised by Dementia Australia, the national organisation that supports people living with dementia, their families and carers.

Funds raised through the event help support a range of services, including education programs, counselling, advocacy and research initiatives. Dementia Australia has stated that community fundraising events play an important role in helping the organisation continue its work across the country.

The Brisbane event’s fundraising total of $193,631 represented a significant contribution towards those efforts and demonstrated the level of support the cause continues to receive from the community.

A Cause That Touches Many Families

Dementia remains one of Australia’s major health challenges, affecting hundreds of thousands of people nationwide. Beyond those diagnosed, the condition also affects partners, children, relatives and carers who often provide ongoing support.

The event was about more than completing a walk or run. It was an opportunity to stand alongside others facing similar experiences and to contribute towards services that help families navigate the impacts of dementia.

The turnout demonstrated the willingness of people across Brisbane to support dementia awareness and services, while also showcasing Seventeen Mile Rocks as a destination for major community events.

Published 15-June-2026

Pickleball’s Rise Is Changing Sport in Brisbane

BCC

Amazons Place Park in Sinnamon Park is one of Brisbane’s flagship pickleball locations, home to purpose-built courts that have become a meeting point for players of all ages in the city’s western suburbs as the sport’s Australian participation tops 155,000 people and keeps climbing.

It might be the most social sport you have never played. Pickleball takes roughly ten minutes to learn, costs nothing to access at a public court and can be played by anyone from school-age children to grandparents, often in the same game.

For the families and residents of Sinnamon Park and the surrounding Centenary suburbs, the courts at Amazons Place Park are one of the more quietly significant additions to the local parks network in recent years.

A sport invented by boredom and refined by the world

Pickleball was invented in 1965 on Bainbridge Island in Washington, USA, as a way to entertain bored families during a summer afternoon. The game uses a smaller court than tennis, solid paddles and a perforated plastic ball, combining elements of tennis, badminton and table tennis into something that feels immediately intuitive but rewards practice and strategy.

The first known game of pickleball in Australia was played in 2010 on the Sunshine Coast in Queensland, but the sport remained largely underground until the pandemic years accelerated its spread. AusPlay data released in April 2025 confirmed that over 155,000 Australians are now actively participating, with 267 clubs operating nationwide. Pickleball Australia has grown its membership base at a rate that rivals any sport in the country’s history.

Globally, the numbers are staggering. Pickleball participation has grown from roughly 4.8 million players in 2022 to over 22 million in 2026, making it one of the most rapid participation increases in any sport in modern history. The International Federation of Pickleball now spans 78 member countries, and the sport is the fourth most-searched on Google behind only golf, basketball and football.

The 2025 Pickleball World Cup drew more than 3,000 participants from 68 countries, and the lobby for Olympic inclusion at Brisbane 2032 is gaining real momentum.

A game for everyone, not just athletes

What consistently surprises first-timers is how quickly they feel competent on the court. The smaller playing area means less ground to cover. The lighter paddle places less strain on elbows, wrists and shoulders. The slower ball gives beginners time to react and recover. And the social format, usually doubles, means you are always playing with someone rather than grinding through solo drills.

The average player age has dropped from 41 in 2020 to 34.8 in 2026, with the under-35 demographic now representing 40 per cent of all players, a shift driven by the sport’s spread across university campuses, social media and the broader move toward active recreation that does not require peak fitness to enjoy from day one.

South-side courts, from Sinnamon Park to Runcorn

Amazons Place Park in Sinnamon Park sits alongside four other dedicated pickleball locations across Brisbane’s south and inner-south: Bonemill Road Park in Runcorn, Greenway Esplanade Park in Parkinson, Joachim Street Park in Holland Park West, Wallace Place Park in Coorparoo and Davies Park in West End. Together they form a connected network that puts a court within easy reach of residents from the western suburbs through to the inner city.

Brisbane’s full pickleball network covers more than 20 parks across the city, from Bracken Ridge and Boondall in the north to Kenmore and Forest Lake in the west, meaning the sport is now genuinely accessible regardless of where you live.

While most public park courts offer free use on a first-come, first-served basis, high-demand sites like Runcorn and West End regularly host formal club sessions, coaching clinics and social leagues. These specific programs require prior coordination or a small participation fee.

To find a local club, a come-and-try session or an upcoming tournament near you, click here.

Published 4-May-2026

The Students at Darra State School Have Something to Say to Veterans This Anzac Day

RSL Queensland

With red crayons and careful words, students at Darra State School are among 190 Queensland primary schools taking part in the RSL’s Postcards of Honour program ahead of Anzac Day, sending handwritten and hand-decorated cards directly to local veterans and serving Defence members.

For Year 5 student Van Reuben, the postcard he is making carries a meaning that goes beyond the classroom. His father served in the Australian Army in Afghanistan, and as Van draws poppies across his card, that personal history sits close to the surface.

“It makes me feel glad that he fought for all the people and for our country,” Van said. “Anzac Day is special to me because I get to commemorate all those people who fought for me and I get to commemorate my dad.”

Van is one of thousands of Queensland children for whom Anzac Day is not a distant chapter in a history book. For him, and for many of his classmates, it is something lived at home, at the dinner table, in the silences between stories. The Postcards of Honour program gives that feeling somewhere to go.

The Story Behind the Postcards

The choice of a postcard as the program’s centrepiece is not incidental. Throughout World War One, postcards were one of the primary means by which soldiers on the Western Front and at Gallipoli stayed connected to the people they had left behind. They carried drawings, brief messages and fragments of everyday life between the trenches and the families waiting at home, often the only tangible evidence that someone was still there.

Students of Darra State High thanks veterans this Anzac Day — Photo Credit: RSL Queensland

The RSL built Postcards of Honour around that history deliberately, asking students to participate in the same act of reaching across distance and uncertainty that defined communication for the Anzacs.

Now in its fourth year, the program has grown from its 2023 launch into one of the most widely adopted Anzac Day educational initiatives in Queensland, at various points reaching more than 270 schools and over 24,000 students across the state. This year, 190 Queensland schools are participating, with each school receiving a visit from a local RSL sub-branch volunteer who delivers a presentation about Anzac Day’s history and significance before students create their postcards.

The veterans then return for a show-and-tell once the cards are finished, and the postcards are hand-distributed to veterans and serving members in the community on or around Anzac Day.

A Soldier from Down the Road

Darra RSL Sub-Branch President Grant Hartigan is the veteran who visited Darra State School this year. He joined the Australian Army as an infantryman in 2014 and later deployed to Iraq, giving him a perspective on service that connects directly to the world Van Reuben and his classmates are learning about. Standing in front of a room of primary school students and explaining what that experience means is something Hartigan takes seriously, and what happens when veterans receive the finished postcards stays with him.

“Seeing some of the veterans’ faces when they receive these postcards is just indescribable,” he said. “Especially when they realise kids from the local school were thankful for older Australians and veteran service. It’s pretty touching.”

For Hartigan, the program does something that formal commemorations alone cannot: it creates a two-way exchange rather than a one-way ceremony. Students do not just observe Anzac Day, they participate in it, in a way that produces something real and personal for the person on the receiving end.

“It really gets engagement from the younger generation where they get an opportunity to show remembrance and also give a tangible token of gratitude to servicemen and women,” he said.

How It Changes the Way Students See Anzac Day

Darra State School Principal Tracy Freeman has watched what happens to students when a veteran like Hartigan walks into the room and speaks plainly about service, sacrifice and the weight of what Anzac Day represents. The shift in how students engage with the history, she says, is genuine.

“Listening to Grant really helps our children to connect with their feelings and empathise how the soldiers may have felt back in the Anzac period,” Freeman said. “The students are able to learn, they’re able to connect and they’re able to show gratitude to the servicemen before us, and it’s just across generations.”

That phrase, across generations, is the thread running through everything the program does. Darra is a suburb that holds multiple generations of families, many of them with direct connections to military service across different conflicts and different countries. In a classroom like Van’s, the history of Anzac Day is not one single story but many, and the Postcards of Honour program makes space for all of them.

Schools and RSL sub-branches interested in taking part in future years of the program can find out more here. Darra’s Anzac Day Dawn Service takes place at the Darra RSL Sub-Branch on 25 April.

Published 24-April-2026