We all know hobbies bring joy, connection and a sense of purpose. What’s less talked about is how essential they are to our mental health and wellbeing and how often the biggest barrier to enjoying them isn’t time, it’s space.
The hobbies we love, and where they live
Cooking, baking, reading and gardening consistently rank among Australia’s most popular pastimes, according to Statista. These aren’t just ways to fill an idle hour. They offer real doses of joy, purpose and connection, and the good news is most of us can do them at home, on our own schedule.
Plenty of our other favourite hobbies don’t work that way. Video gaming is more fun when you can share the thrill of a match with others in the same room, or gather for a fantasy football draft. DIY projects and arts and crafts often need extra hands and a proper workbench. Sports and fitness, meditation and wellness classes, photography and making music all benefit from space.
That’s the real challenge: it’s not enough to carve out the time. You also need a suitable, local and affordable space where you and your friends, teammates or fellow hobbyists can actually show up and do the thing.
The joy of purpose – or of no purpose at all
Yazdan Mansourian, a researcher and senior lecturer at Charles Sturt University, has spent years studying why we pursue hobbies. Speaking with ABC RN’s Life Matters, he describes the simplest form of hobby as one pursued purely for pleasure: reading a book, sharing dinner with friends, or going for a walk. There doesn’t need to be a bigger goal attached; the enjoyment is the point.
“I don’t have time for a hobby”
While it’s the excuse for many, Rob Donovan, founder of Mentally Healthy WA’s Act-Belong-Commit campaign and an adjunct professor at the University of Western Australia’s School of Human Sciences, argues that hobbies keep us active mentally, spiritually and socially. Group activities in particular give us a sense of belonging, identity and connection that solo pursuits can’t fully replicate. He also points to hobbies as a way of building meaning, purpose and resilience, qualities that are hard to manufacture any other way.
In other words, a hobby isn’t a nice-to-have squeezed around the edges of a busy life. It’s part of what keeps that life liveable.
Loneliness is driving a hobby renaissance
This idea is playing out at scale right now. As traditional “third spaces” cafes, pubs, and community halls become less central to daily life, hobby communities are stepping in as what researchers are calling a “fourth space”: a recurring, low-pressure place to belong, built around a shared activity rather than a shared location. Climbing gyms, pottery studios, board game nights, run clubs and community gardens are all examples of this shift, and event data backs it up: attendees at interest-based gatherings are far more likely to form genuine friendships through them.
It’s also showing up in an unexpected trend: Gen Z and Millennials embracing so-called “grandma hobbies.” Needlepoint, pottery, gardening, birdwatching and even blacksmithing have surged in popularity with younger Australians and their peers overseas, as reported by the Associated Press. The appeal isn’t nostalgia; it’s a deliberate, screen-free way to slow down, create something tangible and connect with other people in person. Many who’ve taken up these hobbies say it isn’t a fad rather a genuine shift toward a more analog, hands-on way of living.
The pattern is clear: people are actively seeking out shared spaces to pursue hobbies together, because the connection they build there matters just as much as the hobby itself.
Finding the space to make it happen
Once you decide your hobby deserves real time and real space, the next step is finding somewhere to put it. A community hall for your pottery class. A sports court for weekend games. A function room for your board game night or fantasy football draft. A studio for your photography group.
We are here for you. This is exactly the gap Vennu was built to close. Vennu connects people with a huge range of unique, local and affordable community spaces across Australia halls, studios, courts, gardens and more — so your hobby group has somewhere to actually meet, rather than staying an idea you never quite get around to.
Your hobby has already given you the “why.” Vennu can help you find the “where.” Browse spaces near you and turn your next hobby session from an afterthought into a standing date.
