by Loine Sweeney

“We all come here every morning, rain, hail or shine,” says Bruce Stewart, who in his working life is the librarian with the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra.

I found Bruce earlier this week taking his sociable pet dog, Chloe, “the orchestra dog,” for her morning walk.

There she caught up with her dog friends, including elderly Maltese-cross pair, Monty and Pickles, who need the support of a pram these days to get down to the gardens, although they eagerly spring from the pram once they reach it. Meanwhile, Bruce meets up with their owners, mother and daughter, Christina and Bronte Morris, and daily visitor, Margaret, as they all greet regulars passing by.

Nearby residents and their pet dogs, such as these, joggers, Park Lands gardeners and people on their way to work all find their way each morning to this lovely area of the Adelaide Park Lands, Veale Gardens,  in Park 21, otherwise known as Veale Park or Walyu Yarta. 

“The beautiful Park Lands are certainly one of the hallmarks of Adelaide,” Bruce says, “the fact that we have this free, green space so close to the CBD.”

And while I’m meeting some of the early morning set, Bronte says “there is probably not a time of the day when people aren’t using these parks. “It has a whole life that goes on throughout the day. If you had a time-lapse camera, you would see so many people - and creatures - doing all kinds of things at different times and it is really gentle.” 

Christina says they often see people on their way to work, park their cars in adjacent streets and walk through the gardens. “They know these Park Lands intimately as an important part of their daily routine and they tell us pretty precisely when the flowers, including these roses, are going to bloom!” Christina says the wealth of birdlife welcomed so close to the city by the 8-shaped belt of Park Lands is “something different again,” including laughing kookaburras, which they see and hear often.

Margaret has been a daily visitor to Veale Gardens for some years, having both worked and lived in the City Centre. “I couldn’t get by without my daily walk through the Park Lands,” she said. “Coming down here each morning also gives me my doggie fix!” And she certainly seems to be very popular with the visiting dogs, as she reliably reaches into her pocket for her container of morning snacks for them. It is clear the dogs look forward to them as part of their morning adventures.

“The Park Lands have so much life in them,” says Bronte,” the garden life, the birdlife, the people and pet life.” “I would have thought there are so many people living in and near the city now, and a key reason is because of these Park Lands. We really must protect and look after them into the future.”

Christina says she couldn’t agree more. “In our experience, it has to be a key reason Adelaide rates so highly as being one of the world’s most livable cities.”