Re-Greening? Yeah, sure

by Shane Sody

It seems Premier Steven Marshall has turned into a Fringe comedian. This is what the Premier calls "re-greening" of Helen Mayo Park in your Adelaide Park Lands.

A $662 million, 15-thousand seat stadium. “Re-greening”?

Thousands of people have signed a petition to Save Helen Mayo Park, which is part of Park 27 alongside the River Torrens in your Open Green Public Adelaide Park Lands.

If you haven’t yet signed, here’s where you can add your name: https://www.change.org/p/steven-marshall-mp-save-helen-mayo-park

The “Save Helen Mayo Park Picnic Rally” last October

The threat to Helen Mayo Park comes not only from the Premier's proposed $662 million stadium. The bigger long-term risk to this part of your Adelaide Park Lands is that the Liberal State Government in January 2022 re-zoned Helen Mayo Park as an "entertainment zone" so the Park is now an approved site and can be replaced with hotels, restaurants, nightclubs, offices etc.

The re-zoning has put at risk more than two hundred trees including dozens of river red gums near the River Torrens.

Images of Helen Mayo Park by Yuri Poetzel

SA Labor Deputy Leader, Susan Close has promised that if Labor wins the State election on 19 March, not only would the proposed stadium be scrapped, but more importantly, the January 2022 re-zoning of the Park would be reversed, so that Helen Mayo Park would be zoned, once again, as a Park.

SA Labor Deputy Leader Dr Susan Close making the commitment during an on-line National Trust forum on 16 February 2022.

Nevertheless the Premier is doubling down on his threats and is sending out letters to constituents claiming that “the new arena's design will see the 're-greening' of the site." The Premier’s letter says the stadium's architect has been encouraged "to bring the greenery of the Parklands up to and inside the venue."

The Premier in his letter argues that there are parts of Helen Mayo Park that are degraded and contaminated. He's right. But there are other parts that have dozens of mature trees, like these:

Images of Helen Mayo Park by Yuri Poetzel

There have been many many parts of your Adelaide Park Lands where past degradation and contamination have been overcome with landscaping, and real re-greening. Rymill Park, for example, once was contaminated with a decades-old rubbish dump.

The cost of remediation and restoring a Park is far, far less than the cost of destroying a Park with a huge stadium.

At the southern end of Victoria Park / Pakapakanthi (Park 16) massive earthmoving works (the largest in your Park Lands for 60 years) have led to the creation of a soon-to-be-unveiled city oasis, with thousands of plants and increased biodiversity, and picturesque walking trails.

The cost? Just $13 million, a tiny fraction of the cost of the Premier's threatened $662 million Park destruction. Helen Mayo Park would certainly benefit from remediation, but that is no excuse for destroying the Park and its hundreds of trees.

What can you do?

THIS IS RE-GREENING?

This is “re-greening?”