Council launches new platform inspired by “burbing” phenomenon

“There was a phenomenon, called ‘burbing’, that came out of COVID-19 lockdowns in 2020 when exercise options were restricted to residents’ home suburbs,” Mayor Williamson said.

“Rather than give up on staying fit, many people used restrictions as an excuse to explore and discover every available path, track, park, piece of exercise equipment or sporting facility in their home suburb,” he said.

“With the advent of apps that let you track your run, ride or walk, people were able to create visual records of themselves ‘conquering their suburbs’ and visiting every part of their ‘burb.

“One of the big things that came out of this was just how many council assets people discovered in their own areas – parks they didn’t know existed, basketball half courts, exercise equipment, cricket nets, you name it!”

Inspired by this wave of home turf discovery, council went to work creating a website that detailed the locations of all their assets in an easy-to-navigate, searchable map format.

The Mayor said Know Your Burb was launching on Monday, June 28, in time for the school holidays.

“To help launch this tremendous new resource, we will have four activations in regional parks where residents can come along, check out the website and grab some Know Your Burb merch,” he said.

“You can also go into the draw to win an Ultimate Adventure Pack valued at $500 by heading to Know your Burb and telling us in about 30 words what you have recently discovered in your ‘burb.

“There are also weekly goodie bags you can win simply by using #knowyourburb on social media when your post about your latest outing.

“There are 105 public playgrounds, 21 basketball half courts, 271,000m of shared pathways and a dozen parks with exercise equipment in our region, so there is plenty of scope for residents to explore somewhere new.

“And now, thanks to Know Your Burb, finding all those public assets has never been easier.”

Residents are invited to drop by any of the following park activations to grab some free Know Your Burb merchandise – including frisbees – learn all about this exciting new website and enjoy a sausage sizzle (Saturday only):

• Canecutters Drive Park, Ooralea – Monday, June 28, 9am to 10.30am
• Nell Baker Park, Marian – Friday, July 2, 9am to 10.30am
• Field of Dreams Park, Sarina – Tuesday, July 6, 9am to 10.30am
• Northview Park, Glenella – Saturday, July 10, 9am to 10.30am

Know Your Burb is an initiative of Mackay Regional Council and is supported by the Queensland Government and the North Queensland Sports Foundation.