words by Doug McEvoy - Chair, South East City Residents Association
Photos by Shaun Li - “Capture the Present”

At a delayed Neighbour Day event in Victoria Park / Pakapakanthi (Park 16) on Saturday morning 29 April, a new community-led volunteer organisation, Green Pakapakanthi, was officially launched.

Thirty volunteers and four City Councillors, (Crs David Elliot, Keiran Snape, Mark Siebentritt and Janet Giles) attended.

As soon as the formalities were over, everyone got stuck in to undertake Green Pakapakanthi’s first project – planting 350 shrubs and trees in the Park’s Central Garden to replace plants lost over the summer months.

What a joyous affair it was! People of all ages were seen chatting - heads down, bottoms up, completing the project in under two hours and just in time for the heavens to open for 10 minutes, to give everyone’s plants a thorough watering!

Matt Jorgensen (Team Leader, Horticulture, City of Adelaide) and his team provided excellent instruction and support with the planting, and Malia Wearn and Emma Kindred (Arts and Culture, City of Adelaide) provided the welcome marquee and coffee.

Green Pakapakanthi is now completing plans in collaboration with the City of Adelaide for further greening projects in the park.

Planting 100 new native trees for shade around walking paths and sports fields (Friday July 28th
School Tree Planting Day (Sunday July 30th, National Tree Day)
Planting hundreds of understory plants to attract birds and enhance biodiversity around the new wetland (July/ August dates and times to be announced)
Regular maintenance, and further plantings in the Central Garden (dates and times to be announced)

If you are interested in participating, please contact Doug McEvoy (dougmcevoy@hotmail.com) and the next Green Pakapakanthi newsletter will be sent to you with further details and an invitation to register for one or more of these projects.

As well as getting your hands dirty the projects provide opportunities for fun and education; an opportunity to meet and share a cup of coffee with neighbours and make new friends; and to join citizen science projects to measure the biodiversity impacts of the revegetation plantings.

Green Pakapakanthi invites you to join with others to help climate proof Pakapakanthi for future generations.