by Shane Sody
There’s been a lot of publicity in recent weeks about two controversial development proposals in your Open Green Public Park Lands.
However the proposed new Aquatic Centre in Park 2, and the proposed new Women’s and Children’s Hospital in Park 27 are only the latest examples of a decades-long trend of Park losses.
In October 2022, work is well underway to turn four other Park Lands sites into something other than Open Green Public.
This site on North Terrace, where the biomedical Bragg Centre is well on the way to completion, is part of Park 27. Pic: Lyndon Stacy
Do you remember what this part of Park 27 used to look like? No? Fortunately there is a photographic record of how it’s changed over the past few years.
Only 11 years ago, there were Park Lands here in Park 27, on the north side of North Terrace. Images: Aussie Kanck.
The most egregious misuse of your Public Open space, is a public donation of both land and $250 million to the Walker Corporation. That development is continuing apace in what was previously known as Festival Plaza.
Described as “an outrage” that “beggars belief” the transfer of your open public space to a billionaire property developer continues, alongside another land gift (background) to the benefit of a trans-Tasman gambling corporation established on your Park Lands. Pic: Lyndon Stacy
Meanwhile, preliminary drilling and soil sampling has been carried out on the site of a proposed new eight-storey high school building that would confiscate part of your Open Green Public Frome Park / Nellie Raminyemmerin Park in Park 11.
No excavation yet, but State Government contractors have been checking out their newly-acquired land in Park 11. Pic: Kim Woods.
On 12 July 2022, the majority ‘Team Adelaide’ faction of the City Council voted to sell this Park Land site to the State Government, after being advised that the Government was holding hostage other Park Lands sites.
Then, on 13 October 2022 (while supposedly in caretaker mode) the same majority faction agreed to a land swap deal that gives the Council more Park Lands to manage, but gives the Government this Park Lands site to destroy.
Meanwhile, Prince Alfred Old Collegians are well under way with their new clubrooms in Bundeys Paddock / Tidlangga (Park 9).
Prince Alfred Old Collegians new clubrooms under construction in Bundeys Paddock / Tidlangga (Park 9) in October 2022. Pic: Lyndon Stacy
This development is of a much smaller scale than the other three mentioned above. However, it does have some advantages over current arrangements at Park 9. When constructed, it will:
facilitate wider community use of the sporting field in Park 9; and
replace two old sheds in the same park; thereby slightly increasing the open green public space available.
APA’s Park Ambassador for Park 9, Rosemary Luke has been watching progress on the building site:
“The biggest sadness for me, as shown in the attached photos [below], is that it is so close to the children’s playground and family picnic area,” Ms Luke says.
“It will present a substantial barrier to children wanting to run out to the open space of the oval, and will make parental supervision of their children more difficult.
“Local residents are trying to be stoic and accept the building’s presence in the park, but say that the real test will be whether the improved facilities will improve the behaviour of those who use it, especially during football season.”
Read more about the Prince Alfred Old Collegians development in Park 9.
BUT WAIT, THERE’S MORE ON THE WAY…
Work has not yet commenced on the proposed new Aquatic Centre that would destroy dozens of mature trees in Denise Norton Park / Pardipardinyilla (Park 2).
Nor has any work yet commenced on the State Government’s proposed $3 billion Women’s and Children’s Hospital that would demolish 10 State Heritage buildings within the Thebarton Police Barracks, and also destroy this mini-forest (below) in Kate Cocks Park (Park 27).
See the extensive catalogue of former Park Lands sites that were once ‘Open, Green Public’
What can you do?
In relation to the proposed new Aquatic Centre:
Sign the petition: https://www.change.org/p/save-these-trees-choose-a-brownfield-site-for-new-aquatic-centre and share it with your friends;
Write to the Premier, Peter Malinauskas, Transport and Infrastructure Minister Tom Koutsantonis and/or the Member for Adelaide, Lucy Hood. Click on their names to open a draft suggested email.
Share this web page with your friends;
Share our ‘We call Bullshit’ leaflet. Download and print the leaflet (PDF, double-sided A4, 570 kb).
Contact candidates for the City Council election and ask them where they stand on this issue.
In relation to the Proposed new Women’s aND CHILDREN’S HOSPITAL:
Sign the on-line petition which focusses on the threatened heritage Police barracks but also acknowledges the threat to your Park Lands;
Contact your member of State Parliament and urge them not to support the proposed Government legislation that would allow the Women’s and Children’s Hospital to be built on your Park Lands. Let them know there is a better site available, and urge them to support the alternative site instead.
