00:00At this adventure playground, children find their inner light.
00:19Making mistakes is A-OK in this temple to risky play.
00:28We don't of course want anyone to have a broken bone, but we want them to show us their spirit
00:33and to climb that tree, to run at speeds.
00:37It's called the Veni and for 50 years it's been an urban sanctuary in the shadows of
00:42Melbourne's public housing towers.
00:45I feel safe here, knowing that I can just be myself and play.
00:50There's fire and toasted marshmallows, trampolines, bikes and ramps, the odd brews, as well as
00:58animals to pet.
01:00All the hallmarks of childhoods of old that are increasingly hard to find in busy cities.
01:06The main thing about this is that all these things feel beautiful for the children, incredible
01:11feelings of achievement and that buzz of adrenaline when you climb, when you feel like you can
01:17conquer something.
01:18Do you think I can do a front flip right now?
01:20Fatima Hadji Ali started coming to the Veni as an 8-year-old and loved it so much she
01:26ended up working here.
01:27Yes!
01:28Muscle memory!
01:32One of 11 children, Fatima says risky play at the Veni transformed her life.
01:38Seeing myself, you know, completing things, whether even if it was trial and error was
01:42involved, it didn't stop me.
01:45I tried another method or I tried to build this or I tried to create this and it really
01:49built resilience, that's what it did for me.
01:55The challenge is that places like this are increasingly rare, but David and his team
02:01say healthy danger is needed now more than ever.
02:05By having fire and running and by climbing and by playing with water and by having rough
02:12and tumble, which I just saw you do before.
02:17Risky play isn't just about squeals of delight.
02:21Child health experts overseas say that it's as important as getting a good night's sleep
02:25and having a good diet and they want Australia to start taking risky play seriously.
02:32Paediatrician Dr Anthea Rhodes says emerging research shows a link between risky play and
02:38better mental health in teenage years.
02:41Perhaps if a kid hasn't had those opportunities, they might be more likely to be overwhelmed
02:46or become anxious when they're faced with similar challenges in a real world environment.
02:50Okay, we're going to cross this way, so we've got to wait at the bus.
02:57Across town, Peter Currie, dad of Harriet and Patrick, has found his kids can practice
03:03risky play just about anywhere.
03:05Dad!
03:06Yeah?
03:07Watch this.
03:08Okay.
03:09Whoa.
03:10Running down a hill as fast as you can, walking along a sea wall, looking down at the rocks
03:17below.
03:18Risky play like this might alarm some parents, but Peter says there's a payoff.
03:24Their behaviour did change when they came home.
03:26They were far more relaxed, happy and positive.
03:30Push up and then you balance along.
03:33As his little ones turn into teenagers, Peter plans to adapt risky play to be age appropriate.
03:40Eventually that will lead to walking to the shops to buy an ice cream, just like I used
03:45to do in the 80s.
03:46Solutions to seemingly intractable problems in everyday locations.
03:51She's pretending to be, what, a lion?
03:55Wild.
03:56Wild.
03:57Just add a little imagination and relax the rules.
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