By Juliano Oliveira
Activities for Brisbane’s seniors will now encompass springboard diving, tennis and power yoga in an expanded version of Council’s Growing Older and Living Dangerously (GOLD).
Last year’s first semester, the free health program had to be cancelled due to COVID-19. Since August 2020, participation in the classes has exceeded 65,000.
Lord Mayor Adrian Schrinner has encouraged elderly residents to be part of the program.
“Our older residents are active, confident and fearless, and the GOLD program has now been extended to include new activities including springboard diving, tennis and power yoga alongside long-time favourites of Zumba and Tai Chi,” Cr Schrinner said.
To stimulate a higher attendance, BCC offers a free off-peak travel policy, initiated in October 2019, with more than 1.7 million free trips taken this year to date.
“The off-peak seniors travel patronage is at about 76% of levels in 2019-20 and we would love to see more residents making the most of this free travel, be it to get to and from an Active and Healthy class or general travel across Brisbane,” Cr Schrinner said.
“The combination of free travel with a free active and healthy class means our Seniors can get out and about enjoy Brisbane and not pay a cent to do so.
“These free events and free travel are something we’re extremely proud to offer our residents and just one of the ways we’re making Brisbane even better.”
Council’s Active and Healthy attendance:
| JUL | AUG | SEP | OCT | NOV | DEC | JAN | FEB | MAR | APR | MAY | JUN | |
| 2019/2020 | 11368 | 14445 | 6849 | 12101 | 15455 | 6330 | 6464 | 16109 | 11469 | 0 | 816 | 2953 |
| 2020/2021 | 10003 | 14091 | 11671 | 12371 | 14547 | 6379 | 4626 |