Our contributing cultural historian, Dr Noris Ioannou, has once again given his personal view of the impending demolition of the historic police barracks and Kate Cocks Park in Park 27 – to make way for a new Women’s and Children’s Hospital and mammoth car park. 

by Dr Noris Ioannou

In my previous article, I talked about how the uniqueness of a locality – its sense of place, its cultural character, and even its spirit or soul – emerges and develops over time as historical effects impart an accumulation of material culture.

In the case of your Park Lands, this is blended with the landscape of trees, shrubs, gardens, and open, grassed areas.

It’s a process combining directed human activity and the forces of nature. This is a delicate balance and the outcome has given Adelaide your magnificent Park Lands – the envy of cities world-wide.

Of course, over time, your Park Lands have and will continue to change and evolve. Surely, we expect that those in charge of managing and preserving this irreplaceable asset understand and value what previous generations have bequeathed?

Is there not a huge responsibility in preserving and guiding the blending of your Park Lands’ cultural and natural features and qualities?

Ponder then, the thought, or lack of, for the decisions which have led to the following…

Over a hundred years or so of activity by our police force – notably, by the unique police greys – some 12 site-specific buildings (barracks and stables etc) and groves of over-100-year-old olive trees – have merged within their proximity to the Old Adelaide Gaol heritage buildings, and the nearby River Torrens, to create a vibrant sense of place.

Yet very soon, this extraordinary Park Lands locality will be utterly destroyed. It’s akin to how the surviving manuscripts of ancient, classical scrolls and vellum codices were scraped of their original written works – of philosophy, mathematics and history – to be reused by Medieval monks as blank writing surfaces.

Tragically, that is the decided fate of the impending obliteration of this unique place, and its special contribution to the splendid green and cultural mosaic that makes your Park Lands so distinctive and special, beyond their preserved encircling of the city.

Just imagine if, following the obliteration of this unique site, a plaque is designated to ‘tell’ the story of the establishment of the first police force in Australasia (the third oldest in the world), and the police greys.

It could never resurrect even a glimpse of the ‘soul’ that the locality now has but will soon be wiped clean of.

Yet, although it’s a unique place that cogently tells stories of South Australia’s making, its cultural value has been downplayed, if not ignored, by the State Government.

Very soon, it will be gone, and with it, the stories this place evoked will survive only in memories, photographs, and books.

This means not only an overall loss of the narrative of human activity and ‘sense of place’ for this particular locality, but also the diminishment of the ‘soul’ of your Park Lands.

The making of the unique character of the present-day cultural landscape – of encircling green space; urban pastures of remnant, ancient river red gums; historic structures and tree plantings and gardens; the River Torrens / Karrawirra Pari; lakes; and creek water courses – are an extraordinary weave of history, place and culture, and that makes your Park Lands so quintessentially ‘Adelaidean’.

About the author

Dr Noris Ioannou is a cultural historian whose writing has focused on material folk culture and the decorative arts and crafts, particularly the way migrant traditions, place and innovation, have shaped Australia’s identity and heritage.

His eight books include Ceramics in South Australia 1836-1986: From Folk to Studio Pottery (Wakefield Press 1986); Australian Studio Glass: The Movement, its Makers and Their Art; and The Barossa Folk: Germanic Furniture and Craft Traditions in Australia, as well as the cultural travel book, Barossa Journeys: Into A Valley of Tradition (Wakefield Press 1986), now in its third edition.

His latest cultural history, Vernacular Visions a Folklife History of Australia: Art, Diversity, Storytelling, was published by Wakefield Press in 2021.