Community & Business
21 January, 2025
Inaugural parkrun a great success
THE official launch of Parkrun in Mareeba proved to be a massive success with more than 220 people participating in the inaugural event.
From the local community to Atherton, Cairns, Canberra, and Gippsland (Victoria), the Mareeba Rail Trail Parkrun saw 222 registered runners, joggers and walkers complete the 5km event, as well as many others who were not registered.
“It far exceeded my expectations,” event coordinator Dr Nathan Walmsley said.
“I thought we’d get 20-40 people at our trial runs, and we had over 100 there, but to have well over 200 people for our official launch was just absolutely amazing to see, it’s a great community achievement.”
A sea of blue flowed up and down the rail trail behind the Jackaroo Motel with Parkrunners donning the colour to signify Mareeba’s meaning of ‘meeting of the waters’ and also representing its blue skies with ‘300 sunny days a year’.
There was also a minute of silence held before the event to honour the late Kevin Davies, who played a big role in bringing the event to his community.
“Kevin was part of the first committee to start Parkrun,” Councillor Ross Cardillo said.
“He played a huge role. Kevin did a lot of things people aren’t aware of and he was always very passionate to do good things for his community.”
Parkrun is a free, timed event that happens across the globe every Saturday morning.
In Mareeba it will be held every Saturday morning from 7am.
The course begins on the rail trail behind the Jackaroo Motel and goes up to McIver Road and back three times, totalling to 5km.
The idea to bring the event to Mareeba came after Dr Walmsley attended a general practitioner conference in 2023 and heard about Parkrun encouraging GPs to consider prescribing the event to their patients.
“I heard so many great stories of people that just volunteered initially or walked part of the course, that are now running 5km and have done good things for their health,” Dr Walmsley said.
“I’m always passionate to do whatever I can to improve the health of my patients, and I’m a big believer in ‘prevention is better than cure’.
“So, after that conference I felt really encouraged to bring it to Mareeba,” he said.
With strict rules on finding an appropriate location and needing to raise $7,500 to purchase equipment, it wasn’t an easy process.
“The biggest hurdle with setting up any park run is finding an appropriate location,” Dr Walmsley said.
“You can’t cross the road, you can’t cross a driveway, the pathway needs to be wide enough, it can’t be too uneven, you need a place where there’s toilets and parking near the start and finish, there’s a lot of rules.
“The other thing is, to start a park run you need to raise $7,500, which helps pay for a defibrillator, insurances and all the timekeeping equipment.
“Fortunately, that wasn’t too much of a difficulty because the Rotary Club kindly donated $2,500 and the Emerald Creek Windfarm Grants gave us the final $5,000, so thanks to them we were able to reach our goal quite quickly,” he said.
Dr Walmsley is encouraging all members of the community and anyone who is interested in Parkrun to try it out.
“Running, jogging or walking is good for your cardiovascular health and good for your muscular skeletal health, something is always better than nothing.
“I have this saying with some of my patients, sometimes you have to do the hard things, or the hard things will happen to you.”
To register for Parkrun visit www.parkrun.com.au/register/
