Proposal to make parkour permanent in Canberra

German Parkour traceuse training at ‘Toast’ in Canberra City

By Sarah Hill

The Canberra Parkour Association has teamed up with ACT Labor Party candidate Josh Ceramidas on a proposal to create a parkour training ground in the city.

Most people will have seen parkour in movie chase scenes where people sprint through a city, jump across roof tops, or scale walls.

But parkour is not just for the big screen, it is practiced here in Canberra and the number of people turning up for training is growing.

Despite the physical and mental health benefits of parkour, it is still only recognised in very small circles.

Eliot Duffy, President of the Canberra Parkour Association, says that getting wider community understanding and social acceptance remains a challenge.

“We train in public spaces all the time and we’ll get kicked off spaces pretty regularly,” Mr Duffy said. “If we can get the government to sponsor a site, not only does that give us a safe training location, it also says yeah like this is an ok thing to do.”

ACT Labor Party Candidate Josh Ceramidas understands the role the Government could play in recognising parkour as a discipline.

“Providing a space would actually show that Government, as a representative body of society, thinks that it’s ok,” Mr Ceramidas said.

“As I understand it, you can build a parkour park for a relatively small sum of money,” he said. “We’d need to identify a site and make sure the site was acceptable both to the parkour community but also to the surrounding community.

“So it’s pretty simple in some sense. I don’t think it’s unachievable, but it is something that we need to consider amongst the other priorities that Government has.”