As a beneficiary of a happy, healthy childhood, Robyn has made her life’s work advocating the same for all children. Her career has spanned 35 years, encompassing senior leadership roles in education, local government, children’s services and the charity sector.

With qualifications in education, children’s services, community management and training Robyn held representative leadership roles in children’s services at a state and national level for 25 years. In 2012 Robyn was part of the international delegation to the United Nations in Geneva to progress the development of the UN General Comment on Article 31 “The child’s right to play”. She was elected to the voluntary role of President of the International Play Association (IPA) in 2017 and in doing so was the first Australian to hold that position in the history of the organisation.

A frequent guest speaker at conferences and seminars across Australia, as well as internationally, she is a regular writer and media spokesperson on middle childhood. Her work as an advocate for Children’s Services has been recognised with the awarding of Commonwealth Centenary medal. An alumni of the NSW Benevolent Society's "Sydney Leadership" program and a Fellow of the Australian Institute of Community Practice and Governance. In 2012, Robyn was awarded The Allan Laughlin Perpetual Award for excellence in leadership from the Australian College of Educators. This was followed by the awarding of an “Outstanding Educator” award in 2014 and a fellowship from the Australian College of Educators. In 2018 she was awarded the Joan Matheson Distinguished Service Award by Play Australia and in 2022 an AM in the Australian honours list for services to children.

Robyn is committed to ensuring that all children experience a sense of belonging to their community through guaranteed access to play opportunities and as active and valued contributors to their community.

Kieran Brophy is the Assistant Director at Play Australia and loves helping people rediscover the value and power of play.

His role involves driving strategy to grow play in Australia and he is the project lead for 1000 Play Streets. He has spent most of his career in the health promotion and sport industries, gaining a mix of experiences with VicHealth, Sport Australia and within state government. He is also a children’s book author and illustrator, who holds a bachelor’s degree in Media Communications, as well as diplomas in Health Promotion and Project Management.

He lives in Melbourne and his favourite past time is playing up at home with his three kids.

Joanne looks after membership, as well as administering the CRM and website at Play Australia. Joanne comes from an administration and business support background, with over 15 years experience in the not-for-profit children's education and care sector.

Peter Curry is the Digital Training Developer at Play Australia and has a passion for creating authentic learning experiences.

His combined experiences in business development and creative entertainment have provided the launching pad to our journey into online education in the realm of playspace development. He is enabling Play Australia to reach a far greater audience, in turn, strengthening the advocacy for play.

Alli is a Landscape Architect, working with the Open Space Design & Development Unit at Moreland City Council, since 2004. Alli has frequent contact with Council’s in house construction and maintenance teams, and through collaboration they provide high quality, low maintenance outcomes for the community.

Alli has a keen interest in reusing or ‘up-cycling’ existing park infrastructure to give it a new life, promoting sustainability in public open space. Alli has two young children and is thrilled to watch them develop and learn through play.

Carly is the City of Casey’s Team Leader, Recreation Planning and is passionate about creating and transforming spaces for people of all ages and abilities to enjoy. Carly has a strategic and collaborative focus, and considers the broader outcomes for Council and the community in delivering open space.

From nine years of local government experience, and coming from the sport, health and wellbeing sectors, one of her proudest achievements as a planner is the multi-award winning Valley Reserve Playspace in Mount Waverley, definitely worth a visit! With the move to the rapidly growing City of Casey, there is an exciting opportunity to influence, innovate and simplify the ways in which we plan, design and build for play.

Carly leads an active lifestyle with her family, spending much of their time outdoors exploring (and testing) parks, beaches, nature and sporting reserves!

Don established The Play Works in 1984 and as MD has been at the forefront of evolving playground and play equipment design throughout. Play Works won the 2006 National Playspace award for their breakthrough All-abilities playground at Pioneer Park and the 2015 award for the Frew Park playground that redefined the place of risk in play. He served on the Australian Playground Standards for committee for 10 years and has been a long-time friend of Play Australia.

Mark's first career was wool classing in country NSW. Over the years Mark has worked in sales & management roles that in 2003 led him to move to Melbourne from country NSW. In 2007 Mark joined KOMPAN in a Victorian sales role and in 2009 he founded Ikonic Playgrounds becoming the exclusive agent for KOMPAN play equipment in Victoria. In 2016 KOMPAN opened a direct sales office in Melbourne and since that time Mark has led the Victorian KOMPAN team. Mark is a keen runner and with his wife and 2 daughters enjoys an active outdoor lifestyle. His interests include golf and family escapes to the country. For several years as his children were growing up, Mark was involved in School Council and the local Little Athletics Centre holding various positions including Secretary and Vice President of these organisations. He now coaches in a recreational running club.

Kerry’s interest in outdoor play began in 2002 when she joined the PlaySafe Advisory Association team, re-ignited in 2009 when she joined Kidsafe WA’s Playground Advisory Service; becoming an all-consuming passion in 2011 following her attendance at the IPA conference in Cardiff and joining Nature Play Solutions shortly after that.

She writes…

Growing up in the 1960s and 70s I spent endless hours playing outdoors – helping in the vegie garden, riding my bike around the neighbourhood, collecting tadpoles, raising frogs, climbing trees, harvesting mulberries, hours and hours of unsupervised play.  Holidays were nearly always to visit cousins in the WA Wheatbelt and full of kid-only adventures – picnics on the top of the hill in the back paddock, playing in the creek, gathering mushrooms and scary visits to the haunted old farm house near the shearing shed.

The more I have researched, the more I believed that outdoor play provision of recent decades actually inhibits quality play opportunities and therefore does little to support children’s learning, development, health & wellbeing.  I agree with a colleague who proposed that our attitudes to and understanding of ‘play’ and how we provide for it are a litmus test of our attitude to children and young people and the rights afforded them within a civil society.

I have a strong belief that public open spaces are also a site of intersection for a wide variety of issues – child and community development, community safety and wellbeing, conservation and environment, connection to place and country, habitat protection, intergenerational social connectedness, universal access and inclusion, as well as PLAY – such that design and development of these spaces require a multi-disciplinary approach to challenge our perceptions of childhood, outdoor play and playspace design and inspire a change in thinking about the Nature of Play.

Brendon is Associate Dean (Research) of the Faculty of Arts and Education at Charles Sturt University, where he also holds an Associate Professor of Education position within the School of Education. He is a qualified school teacher with postgraduate qualifications teaching and leadership, alongside a PhD investigating the play influences on primary and secondary school children from RMIT University in Melbourne. His play research commenced over a decade ago, when the ‘Lunchtime Enjoyment Activity and Play’ (LEAP) intervention research from his PhD was released. Loose parts equipment had yet to feature with any prevalence within Australian ‘primary school-aged contexts’ (e.g. had been more focused within Early Childhood contexts). The findings have helped towards challenging the popular notion of schools implementing traditional, fixed play structures within primary school grounds.

Among his publications and play advocacy over the past decade, he is the editor and primary author of the research book 'Contemporary School Playground Strategies for Healthy Students' and launched a new field of research into the influence of heat and weather on children’s play and outdoor recreation, which led to the updating of school protection guidelines in various Australian jurisdictions and resulted in the newly released research book titled “The Impact of Extreme Weather on School Education”.

From 2014-2020, he has been involved in hundreds of media appearances and contributions that were largely focused on getting school children’s play ‘on to the radar’ through print media, radio interviews, television appearances, podcasts (including Spotify) and other types of media releases based upon the research I have conducted. He has been involved in the development of national and global statements on guiding schools towards prioritising play (including as children return from pandemic restrictions) and is Australian representative for the Global Recess Alliance organisation.

Read more about Brendon in our Autumn 2022 edition of Member News

Kylie Brannelly is the Chief Executive Officer of the Queensland Children’s Activities Network (QCAN) and has been involved in the Education and Care Services sector in various support, advocacy and leadership roles for more than 20 years. As a National representative for Outside School Hours Care, Kylie participated in the steering committee overseeing the development of the Learning Framework for School Age Care, My Time, Our Place. At this level, Kylie has also been able to advise government on pertinent policy and program issues for the sector, representing OSHC on both Federal and State Government Advisory forums. Kylie appreciates the opportunity to work together with other organisations in both government and non-government sectors to advance OSHC (and ultimately the opportunity for play!).

Kylie holds a Bachelor of Education (Early Childhood), Master of Education (Special Education) and has an ongoing commitment to professional learning and development. She has just recently become an Adjunct Research Fellow, Griffith University - Brisbane, Australia.

Bron is a committee member of and the Resource and Professional Development co-ordinator for Environmental Education in Early Childhood ‘EEEC’. Bron is also the Early Years Facilitator for Play Australia critically reflecting with professionals on the value of outdoor play for children and connecting with nature.

Bron’s roles have included director of education and care settings, training manager of a registered training organisation while also writing and facilitating accredited and non-accredited training from Certificate III to Advanced Diploma of Children’s Services.

Bron is passionate about play, especially outdoor play for all children birth to five years. Bron works within childhoods everyday and feels privileged to do so.

For the majority of their childhood Bron and her sister explored outdoors in the natural world where they had opportunities with my friends and family to engage in the language of play… rain, hail and shine. Eventually, she realised this was not a way of living for all and for some children, it was unexplored. Something had to change.

In addition to the above roles, she is also a consultant and director of learning happens and director and teacher at Diamond Creek Memorial Kindergarten.

Bron feels honoured to be on the board of Play Australia with such experienced and passionate play advocates.

Andrew Reedy has worked with playgrounds since 1994, initially involved in manufacturing, and in 2014 he started Play Check, and playground auditing and advisory consultancy. He’s been a member of the Standards Australia committee for playground equipment for 20 years and currently chairs this committee. He also represents Standards Australia on two ISO (International Standards Organisation) technical committees dealing with playgrounds and risk in the recreational sector. Andrew has six children and enjoys getting away camping and travelling with family.

Dr Jane Webb-Williams is a leading Early Childhood expert, highly experienced Social Researcher and Lecturer at the University of South Australia. She holds a PhD in Psychology & Education and a Masters in Educational Research from Cambridge University, UK.

Jane’s career in education spans over 25 years in a variety of roles including Program Director Master of Learning and Teaching, Deputy School Principal and Early Years Teacher.

Jane is a passionate advocate for play within schools and communities to benefit children’s social and emotional wellbeing. She currently leads courses in Play, Learning and Development within teacher education programs at UniSA.

Jane's research focuses on playful pedagogy, children's self-efficacy beliefs, social comparison, children’s identity, voice and community connectedness. Jane has been a Chief Investigator on a number of projects tackling a diverse range of global issues including ‘Young and Well CRC: Safe and Well Online’ which examined at the role of technology to improve youth mental health and ‘Preschool Children’s Participation and Education as Valued Active Citizens’. Recent research projects Jane has led include 'Social Comparison Processes in the Classroom' which focused on peer relationships, ‘Children’s Voices in Play’ investigated children’s perceptions of play and ‘Community Connectedness through Play’ which focused on the role of play to promote community connectedness in disadvantaged, multicultural communities.