Adelaide Park Lands Association

View Original

Gov't to chop falcon, possum, cockatoo habitat

Shane Sody

The State Government is undertaking a new round of sham, fake consultation, ticking meaningless boxes on the way to a proposed attack on your Denise Norton Park / Pardipardinyilla (Park 2).

Despite overwhelming community demand that a new Aquatic Centre should be built on a near-city brownfield site, the State Government is barging ahead, still refusing to listen to community pleading for your Park Lands.

Documents released for so-called "consultation" include a report from ecological consultants that reveals construction within your Park Lands would be "highly likely" to disturb habitat of the:

  • Peregrine Falcon that has been observed to breed within 5km of the site.

  • Yellowtailed Black Cockatoo that feeds on pine trees within this park.

  • Grey-headed Flying Foxes, that forage in the Moreton Bay fig trees here; and

  • Brushtail Possums, who would lose nesting sites in dozens of mature trees.

Consultants found 128 hollows in trees on this site, with the majority occurring in River Red Gums (Eucalyptus camaldulensis) and Sugar Gums (Eucalyptus cladocalyx).

Koalas have also been spotted in sugar gums in this Park.

In addition the ecological consultants found that the area around the threatened trees provides "significant amounts of leaf litter, providing habitat value for [other] native fauna, including foraging birds, small reptiles, and invertebrates."

A separate report, from Government-appointed arborists, has identified 457 trees potentially at risk from proposed construction in the Park.

They include 25 classed as “significant” and an additional 59 are supposedly “regulated” - even under what the State Government admits is Australia’s worst legal tree protection regime.

457 trees in the construction zone, each one rated by Government-appointed arborists on its “environmental and/or aesthetic contribution to the area”

A comparison of Australia's tree laws by the Conservation Council report has found that SA has the worst tree protection legislation in the nation.

Prof Chris Daniels

The chair of the State Government's own Green Adelaide Landscape Board, Professor Chris Daniels said in the Foreword to a recent Conservation Council report:

“This report identifies just how far behind the rest of Australia we are. … The report clearly identifies that we need more comprehensive legislation to protect our forest.”

The State Government has so far ignored the results of a community survey on preferred locations for a new Aquatic Centre.

By 27 January 2023, Peter Malinauskas had not responded to the growing number of signatures on our petition, demanding an alternative brownfield site. Here’s the letter that we sent the Premier on 20 December 2022 about that petition.

Read more:

Hands Up for Your Park Lands! If not now, when? If not you, then who?


What can you do?

You could participate in the charade that the Government is undertaking, pretending to seek your views on the proposed zoning changes, to authorise a new Aquatic Centre in your Park Lands.

That consultation closes on 6 March. However, the bureaucrats undertaking the process are merely implementing a political decision to attack your Park Lands. They are interested only in HOW the attack should occur.

The message needs to be delivered over the heads of the bureaucrats, directly to State Government politicians, and to the City Council, which controls the site. Therefore, if you haven’t done so already, then:

hhhh

Suggested email (please amend as you see fit)

Dear Councillor:

Congratulations for your decision on 13 December 2022, to support the Adelaide Park Lands.

I especially appreciate the Council’s expressed willingness to engage with the State Government on a long-term strategy to restore parts of the Park Lands to ‘Open, Green, Public.’

This Council resolution will be put to the test in 2023 if the State Government continues its agenda to construct an $82 million aquatic centre on a new site in Denise Norton Park / Pardipardinyilla (Park 2). The State Government so far has ignored overwhelming community demand to select a brownfield site instead.

When push comes to shove this year, I hope that you will stand firm on your commitment to the Park Lands, respect the wishes of the public, reject any new lease over any part of the Park Lands and advise the State Government to choose a brownfield site instead.

Regards

Here are their email addresses:

See our earlier coverage of the proposed new Aquatic Centre: