From the original text of a press release (s.d.):
Founded in 1974, Cubbies was the first adventure playground in Australia. And what in 1974 was a flat barren piece of land, towered over by the high rise housing commission flats on Brunswick Street (Atherton Gardens Housing Estate), is now Fitzroy institution, flourishing with fruit trees and and hideaway cubbies, with ducks, rabbits, hens, geese, and grass Spud‘ the resident sheep. Cubbies has been continuously funded since 1974 at the federal level, and from 1976 at the state level, when state funding was introduced for Cubbies by the then Liberal government.
The Cubbies is a playground which belongs to children and IS created by them. It’s their own backyard … a place where they can come and go as they wish. Playing on their own terms; building, cooking, digging, making fires, keeping pets, going on outings and camps, or maybe just a place to sit around and talk, or do nothing.
The playground is staffed by 5 youth workers who are based in the playground, working directly with the young people, supervising children helping them with tools, equipment and paint. There are hammers, saws, paint, ropes, tires and wood which can be used.
The playground runs on a shoe-string budget already, with virtually no capital expenditure Cubbies has no office; wood and other building materials are donated, and all the playground structures. such as swings and the flying fox have been built by the workers and the children.
The playground is open every day of the year – except Christmas day Its hours run each day after school and all day on weekends school holidays and public holidays. It‘ place kids can come to when after school programs are shut, when the pool closes, etc.
Any child or young person may attend Cubbies, there is no membership or fees. The ethnic mix at the playground changes all the time, reflecting the larger situation in Fitzroy. At the current time, Cubbies users are mainly from Vietnamese lot of Koori kids, and also Yugoslavian, Somalian and Turkish kids.
The Fitzroy Adventure Playground is a community-based concern, run by a voluntary Committee of Management, and based on the philosophy of the child’s right to play, as enshrined by the U.N.
THE REDUCTION IN FUNDING. WILL MEAN A REDUCTION IN DIRECT SERVICE FOR THE CHILDREN AND YOUNG PEOPLE OF FITZROY
