Copyright abc
It was an abandoned lot where a building burnt down half a decade ago, but for Manu Etchegoyen, a professional skater and surveyor, it was the perfect slab of concrete for a DIY skate park. Manu and his brother began constructing rails and ledges and brought in wooden ramps, road work equipment and chairs to flip over. Now, on any given day, a group of up to 30 skaters of all ages can be found practising at the secret location until dark, all with one thing in common; they have nowhere else to go. "The Northern Territory is the only place where there's no proper skate parks," Manu says. As councils and governments across Australia pour money into new skate parks, recognising their value as low-cost, high-impact spaces for young people, skaters in Darwin say the local facilities are "outdated" and virtually unusable. Now after years of neglect, experts are questioning why a region grappling with some of the nation's highest rates of youth crime continues to overlook simple solutions — when upgrading skate parks would cost a fraction of the millions the NT government spends on policing and detention. "Back in the day [skate parks in Darwin] were great, but that was 30 years ago," Manu says. "They are outdated, the concrete is getting rough and nowadays skate parks are built differently than back in the early 2000s." At one skate park in the Darwin CBD, built four years ago, steel plates on ledges prevent skating and Manu says large cracks are carved into the concrete "right where you want to pop your tricks." Various skaters say the Leanyer skate park — one of the biggest, built and owned by the NT government — is in a state of disrepair. Plans for a fully-fledged skate park in the satellite city of Palmerston were recently downgraded following opposition from some residents who argued the facility could attract anti-social behaviour. Rosie King, a roller-skate coach at the Darwin Skate School is frank in her assessment. "The skate parks in the territory are very bad, I don't know how else to say it," she says. "We haven't had a skate park investment since 2016." She says the lack of investment into "third places" is a wasted opportunity. "Across Australia, councils are investing in skate parks … Tamworth, Port Headland, Cairns … and Darwin is just so far behind," she says. Charles Darwin University lecturer Matthew Abunyewah has spent years examining the impact of poor infrastructure in vulnerable communities across the world. He while causes of crime in the NT are complex, the current approach to fixing it isn't working. "There is a saying that the devil always finds jobs for an idle hand," he says. Dr Abunyewah pointed to a 2018 five-year study in America which compared the behaviour of young people living with an abundance of public facilities with children who had nothing. "They realised that children who lived in an environment with these facilities had better behaviour," he says. "When you go to Africa, so many communities that have increased anti-social behaviour have been these vulnerable communities where there are a lack of facilities. Two years ago, a remote Aboriginal community outside of Alice Springs called Ltyentye Apurte — also known as Santa Teresa — became the first to fund its own skate park. Professional skateboarder and Traditional Owner Nicky Hayes, who grew up in the community, says the project has made a "massive difference". He says the skate park has reduced anti-social behaviour in the community by giving young people a place of their own. "Young people are there, not running running amok and causing havoc," he says. Greg Barnes, a youth worker who's seen the benefits of skate parks first hand is behind a push to build one in Alice Springs, a town where crime has dominated headlines. "It's long overdue," he says. "[Skate parks are] statistically proven to increase pro-social behaviour." The NT government and Darwin City Council both insist they maintain the skate parks they own. The Darwin City Council says the Jingili Skate Park was redeveloped "after extensive consultation" with the skating community, while its "new skate surface" at Bundilla Beach is suited to younger children on scooters and pushbikes. Palmerston Council says it consulted with the skating community for its new Zuccoli skate park and the "design is promised to meet high standards." And while the NT government says it knows how important it is to have safe places to be active, it doesn't believe skate parks are a "proven crime prevention strategy on their own".
