If you live in Western Australia, you need to get your tribe into the WA ROCKS community. We caught up with Kelly Neylon Stonham, one of the organisers of WA ROCKS for a chat.
How did WA ROCKS start?
WA ROCKS was inspired by Alannah who heard from her husbands relative in New Zealand about the rock painting and hiding game. She sat at her dining room table and painted hundreds of rocks to scatter around Byford. She started as Byford Rocks, but she had people all over WA including the Kimberleys and the Pilbrara so she got herself an admin team and we turned into WA ROCKS.
How long has the rock phenomenon been around?
We have been told by our lovely members in nursing homes how they played as children in a more intimate hide and seek situation, where as now we have the advantage of social media we can actually play on a much larger scale, with some of our rocks travelling worldwide! WA ROCKS itself has been going a little over a year, not bad considering we have nearly 60, 000 members in WA alone. This has inspired us to open groups in every state! It’s a popular game.
You must have seen some incredible rocks through administrating the WA Rocks group. What are some of the highlights you can remember seeing?
Oh for sure. We continually hold competitions for the children and the creativity that comes from children as young as 3 is sometimes awe inspiring.
What tips do you have for families who want to play the game but aren’t sure how to get started?
What about artwork inspiration? Where do you get your inspiration from for the designs?
We have themes on our page of course. We had gold rock designs when we worked with Friends of Finlay to encourage support of childhood cancer, we have had a unicorn month to support a wonderful team of ladies down south combating suicide in youth down in the southwest of WA called The Unicorn Project. There’s been encouragement through different themes when we have worked with Kids Helpline, World Bee Day, among many other charities and community projects. As for our members – HAVE FUN! As long as it’s not offensive or political, or promoting a business, let the creativity shine!
Do you recommend any particular art supplies for creating rocks that last?
A spray sealer is as cheap as $6 and can extend the life of your design. For the more serious artist we recommend Posca paint pens. They aren’t cheap but amazing to use.
Have there been any amazing/heart warming stories to come from your group?
Do you have particular event days for tribes or is it more play as you go?
What age is a good age for playing the rock game?
What are some of the benefits of the rock game that families might not know about?
How many members do you have now in your community?
Is this something that is happening internationally too? Do you ever find you have people from out of area wanting to join in? Or your members doing this in overseas locations?
