by Loine Sweeney

When Mariagrazia Panetta draws back her bow each morning at the archery range in Bullrush Park / Warnpangga (Park 10), any tension she is carrying drops and her sense of wellbeing soars. 

When she first arrived in Adelaide with her family from Italy four years ago, Mariagrazia, couldn’t believe all the green Park Lands around the city. “It was so beautiful. We felt so lucky to find this here,” she said. 

“In Italy, we mostly had grey roads, buildings and apartments in our cities and its very rare to find a green area. So discovering the City of Adelaide was surrounded by green space was a breathe of fresh air. It’s just lovely. You can just come here and walk around the Park Lands and find all this beautiful nature and environment, full of trees, birds, and everything. It’s very uncommon.“

Mariagrazia, now aged 26, found work in Adelaide in her field of Social Work.

“It’s a very stressful job. I strive to take some of the burdens off families and elderly people. So in my own time, I really need to do something for myself, to get out into nature and relax, while also getting some physical exercise.”

Two years ago for her birthday, Mariagrazia decided to look for a regular activity, a sport, that was actually held in the Park Lands that she loved. “The options I was looking at were archery or yoga, but when I read the description of archery and that it was good for the mind and body, I thought, this is the sport for me.“

She tried a beginners’ course with the Adelaide Archery Club, which has its club rooms and archery range in Park 10. The Club runs beginners’ courses every month for adults and children. “Well, I did that beginners’ course and I never left!” she said. 

Mariagrazia is very dedicated to her sporting craft, arriving at the crack of dawn each working day to join club coach, Graham Winston, and other keen archers for practice -  before it’s time to go to work. And if you think that’s dedicated, she even returns after work each day for several more hours’ evening practice! She is honing her skills for competitions, including at State level. 

Mariagrazia and a number of her fellow archers at the Club are currently practicing hard for the next national competition, due to be held at the end of the year in Queensland.

I asked Mariagrazia what it was like for her to be out in the Park Lands daily.  

“Oh, I feel free,” she said with a beaming smile. “I feel like I can really breathe. Being here on a daily basis, I feel the Park Lands recharge my battery, and I can then go to my working day giving this positive energy back to the community through my job. If I miss a day out here, I can really feel the difference at work.”

Mariagrazia tells me she adores the chorus of birds she hears in the background at her dawn and twilight practice sessions. “We have beautiful rosellas - a riot of color - and the white corellas - they are loud but I love them! Then there are the magpies who come visiting for a regular feed from our Target Man. He just whistles and they come from everywhere! We also have a lot of possums around in the morning and evenings, the bats (Flying Foxes) come flying overhead and we often see koalas up in the gum trees who come over from the river.”

Mariagrazia and coach, Graham, are clearly very proud of their unique archery club in the Park Lands. “We get a lot of comment from visiting interstate and regional archers about how lucky we are to be located in these Park Lands, so close to the city,” said Graham. “If you take a photo of what you have here, there aren’t that many clubs that are this pretty. I’ve  been to many clubs in Australia for the job that I do, and it is still one of the best clubs by far.”

And for someone with the stress demands of social work, our daily Park Lands archer is the picture of health, vibrance and relaxation. 

Pleased to meet you Mariagrazia!