Episode 441 - All Aboard 2026

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HostsMelissa Ellis Tony O'Connell

Roving reportersAli Sheppard Lyndell Murray

Show notes

From the Facebook post

Guess who’s back? It’s your favourite antipodean parkrun podcast with Mel & TOC in the comfy chairs!

We are refreshed from our holiday break and ready to talk adventures as we launch into our 11th year.

There’s reports to catch up on from Tapijn (opens in a new tab) parkrun - Maastricht in The Netherlands and Queen Elizabeth (opens in a new tab) parkrun, Casino in Australia, plus some fun challenges to consider from Reginald.

From the podcast feed

Guess who’s back? It’s your favourite antipodean parkrun podcast with Mel & TOC in the comfy chairs! We are refreshed from our holiday break and ready to talk adventures as we launch into our 11th year. There’s reports to catch up on from Tapijn (opens in a new tab) parkrun in The Netherlands and Queen Elizabeth Casino in Australia, plus some fun challenges to consider from Reginald.

Roving reports

1Tapijn2Queen Elizabeth, Casino

In this episode

• Welcome starts at 0:23

  Melissa Ellis on Wurundjeri Country welcomes Tony O'Connell back for the new year and thanks Lyndell Murray for filling in during a family emergency in November. Since October Mel has added Lake Fyans Walking Track, De Soza, Kingscliff and Inverell, completing the Namely Challenge, spent Christmas at Toolern Creek and stayed home over New Year, tour-guiding around Wimmera River, Horsham and the silo art. TOC's family road trip in 42-degree heat took in Renmark, a New Year's Day barcode-scanning stint at Yeldulknie Weir Trail in Cleve where Dan and Sandy Baldwin turned up as a surprise, tail walking at Broken Hill, and then Jackie's 500th at The Phar Lap Track with Mel and Dave, Dawn and Deborah Jessop, marked with the event's Melbourne Cup-style milestone cup.

• parkrun news bulletin starts at 11:24

  News round-up: three new non-executive directors appointed to the parkrun Australia board on 6 January (Darren Goucher of Centennial, Rowan Greenland of Burley Griffin, Stevie Ring of "Cameo" parkrun); parkrun Global appoints Ellie MacArthur as global head of event delivery and volunteering; 31 Australian events broke attendance records on 3 January with Albert Melbourne setting a national record of 1,570; extreme-weather cancellations (43 in Australia, 392 in the UK, 26 of 27 Netherlands events); and a farewell to retiring parkrun Australia staffer Mandy Oliver.

• Watching the numbers starts at 20:40

  Weekly participation stats for 10 January 2026: New Zealand 67 events, 13,844 finishes (an all-time country record) with 1,098 volunteers; Australia 488 events, 89,382 finishers, 6,438 volunteers, just under 7,000 new registrations; five junior events with 457 finishers. Smallest events Baxter (4), Pyramid Hill Golf Trail (5) and Bourke Racecourse (6); largest Toowoomba (737), South Bank (883) and Albert Melbourne (1,072).

• Roving reports & the Channel 5 News crew starts at 23:37

  TOC hands over to two roving reports: Ali Sheppard from Tapijn parkrun in Maastricht, Netherlands (interviewing ED Remco and Australian tourist Heather Hunter), and Lyndell Murray from Queen Elizabeth parkrun in Casino, NSW (interviewing RD Michelle, plus a follow-up on UK alphabet-chaser Mark Pinney).

• Dazza's starts at 42:07

  Melissa Ellis explains the segment from scratch for new listeners, the weekly Saturday Facebook post and "virtual cafe", with Dazza being her concrete Buddha statue. Posts read out: Sam Schroder at Shellharbour for Oliver Spake's 250th; Johan Duvenhage RD-ing at Heidedal, South Africa for his 350th volunteer credit; Jo McLean at Rouse Hill for Gus Garbers' 250th; Xavier Sanchez at Bishan, Singapore; Jagdeep Singh volunteering at Elara Riparian Parklands; Dan Joe at Trentham Memorial; Alana Truig at Dietenbach, Freiburg; and Andy Poole at Bulltofta, Malmö.

• the Obi Award — Jagdeep Singh starts at 49:46

  Awarded to Jagdeep Singh for his Dazza's post about turning up to volunteer at Elara Riparian Parklands parkrun after a bad night and low confidence, and being lifted by the morning, "I walked in as one person and walked out as another". Running gag: the physical "Obilope" envelope has been retired in favour of an on-screen pop-up, prompting a request to the editor for a new sound effect.

• Emails starts at 52:08

  Two listener emails: David Irwin on Queenswood Country Park parkrun, the third Q event in the UK, between Hereford and Leominster; and a short note signed Sarah, which prompts Melissa Ellis's aside that she and Sarah Jantscher have matching yellow Jimnys.

• Club Corner starts at 53:44

  Delivered by the Reginald Yardley Pomphrey III persona. Three new unofficial parkrun clubs for 2026: "What is the Point?" (eight events with Point in the name, complete them to be a pointer), "The Three Billy Goats Gruff" (three events with Bridge in the name, Hoblers Bridge Reserve, Wagi Bridge, Woodbridge Riverside, completing them makes you a goat), and "Stationery" (Alice Springs Telegraph Station, Old Esk Railway Station, Tallangatta Station). Includes a digression on D. L. Ashliman's folklore taxonomy.

• Consolidated Club Report starts at 59:04

  For Saturday 10 January 2026: of 862 Adventurers Club members, 602 took part across 293 locations in 10 countries. Internationally 61 in the UK, 7 South Africa, 3 USA, 2 Ireland, and one each in Germany, Japan, Singapore and Sweden. Locally NSW and Queensland 51 each, Victoria 45, WA 20, SA 18, Tasmania 12, North Island 8, ACT 7, South Island 4, and no Northern Territory, so no "bowling strike" this week.

• the Frond starts at 59:56

  Largest international frond was five at Kilkenny Lane parkrun in the UK (Kat and Nigel Lane, Matt Lovelock, Denise Evans, Tina Durie). Largest Australian frond was eleven at Reddall Reserve, NSW. Fronds of seven at Red Hill Rail Trail and Shellharbour, and of six at Bibra Lake and The Phar Lap Track. Nobody made the pilgrimage to Bushy on 10 January.

• Launches and anniversaries starts at 1:01:06"Where is the cake?"

  Launches missed over the break: Killarney Country Club (Johannesburg, 20 Dec, 177 finishes); Beecraigs Country Park (UK, 27 Dec, 357 finishes); Cadell (a closed facility in SA, 3 Jan, 24 finishers of whom 20 were first-timers); Belladrum (west of Inverness, 3 Jan, cancelled on week one for ice but three volunteer credits recorded); Padersee (near Paderborn, Germany, 10 Jan, 41 finishes); Flint Castle (UK, 10 Jan, 253 finishes); and Holme Pierrepont (Nottingham, 10 Jan, also cancelled for weather), noted as possibly among the closest pairs of start lines anywhere, across the Trent from Colwick.

• Sign-off starts at 1:05:37

  Mel wrapped the launches and asked TOC what he was looking forward to: a couple of new events, Underwood parkrun in Brisbane, and above all Palm, six or seven weeks away, he asked people to mark the event as going only if they really were coming, since dinner numbers are booked on that. Mel announced she was stepping back to recording bi-monthly, with Lyndell kindly agreeing to step in on the alternate months, so listeners would hear from her again in March. Next parkrun day Mel would be at Queen's Domain parkrun in Hobart, seeing her daughter Ezra off on the STS Young Endeavour, while TOC hoped to get to De Soza parkrun at Buninyong near Ballarat to return to Victorian statesmanship, fires and weather permitting, with an aquathon run leg on the Sunday. Sarah and Simon were due back next fortnight.