Brisbane's 'third places' providing a spot away from work, home, and online echo chambers

With social interaction increasingly commodified, where can you go to just … hang out?

Third places are spots that people can go to spend time away from home and work without having to pay big fees.

With cost-of-living pressures biting, people are understandably looking for cheap and accessible places to spend time. 

Whether that involves having a picnic at the park, playing games at an arcade, or visiting South Bank beach, Brisbane's third places are increasingly important to maintaining good mental health and community ties.

'Elevates the mood'

The term "third place" was coined by sociologist Ray Oldenburg in his 1989 book The Great Good Place, which explored the role of places like cafes, parks, and libraries in societies.

He argued that such places were not only important for mental health, but were essential to democracy and a sense of community.

Stephanie Wyeth is an urban planning expert at the University of Queensland and said these spaces were also often about mental health and wellbeing.

"They give you opportunities to form social connections, address issues such as loneliness, and spark those opportunities for inclusion, access to ideas that you normally wouldn't investigate," Ms Wyeth said.

Jesse Figueroa said he goes to New Farm Park "at least twice a week", despite living in Sherwood, more than half an hour's drive away. 

"It's just one of my favourite places in Brisbane. It's always really lush and green," he said.

Even though he had to pay for parking nearby, he said it was worth it for the positives. 

"Especially with the weather like this where it's finally not rainy, it just really elevates the mood and makes you feel more at ease and relaxed," he said. 

Faye and Gareth brought their kids to South Bank parklands because they were looking for "different things to what they're used to at home".

"It's quite safe, you know? Somewhere nice for us to hang around outside while the kids could have a play and somewhere to relax," Gareth said.

Active places and quiet spaces

Ms Wyeth said it was not a coincidence that South Bank drew people looking for a place to spend time — she previously sat on the board of the South Bank Corporation and said it was specifically designed to be a third place.

"It has a very clear intent in the South Bank Act … it is for the benefit of all of Queensland and it needs to meet social and commercial outcomes," she said.

"When you go into South Bank you'll see that there are active places and quiet spaces. There's places for people of different levels of ability."

Not always zero cost

Although it is not technically free — you'll need a few dollars for the pinball or Galaga machine — the bar and arcade Netherworld in Fortitude Valley has risen in popularity in recent years as an option for people to hang out and play games together.

Summer Crabb and her friends said it was hard to find somewhere to spend time where payment was not required.

"You can get into most places for free, but then there's always something that you have to pay for," she said. 

She said libraries were one of her go-to third places. 

"Caboolture Library, they're open every single day. Closed early on Sunday, but usually six o'clock every day."

Ms Wyeth said it was important to maintain the accessibility of third places. 

"There is a concern about how do we ensure that essential community infrastructure, whether that's galleries, whether that's libraries, community centres, are open for the wider community to use," Ms Wyeth said.

"And they should offer free or low-cost activities to people, because that's really important if we want to create a socially inclusive and connected society."

Third place 'deserts'

Ms Wyeth said she believed care should be taken to ensure outer areas of Brisbane did not become third place "deserts".

"I think some of our social infrastructure, like libraries in our suburbs in small communities, hasn't kept pace with the contemporary lifestyle," she said.

One example was libraries not staying open later, and Ms Wyeth said keeping third places broadly accessible should be a top priority.

She said people were increasingly spending their free time online, often in so-called echo chambers on social media, and mindful design and infrastructure was vital to drawing people to third places.

"Because if we don't, we will lose people to the virtual world. And we know that's not necessarily a healthy place to be," she said.

Ms Wyeth said the onus was on communities, governments, and the private sector to work together to ensure that "our physical places are the best that they can be".

"The world's in a funny place at the moment, there's a lot of strife," she said.

"And so we do need places where people can come together and just be with each other and do new things which are positive and engaging."