by Carla Caruso

Veale Gardens is celebrating its 60th birthday with a ‘glow-up’.

A renewal project is seeing the gardens within Veale Park / Walyu Yarta (Park 21) – which has dedicated ceremony areas for weddings – undergo a revamp.

According to the Adelaide City Council, the following items have been identified as needing an upgrade, so that the area can continue to be used as an event space:

• Two footbridges to help with inefficient water reticulation, poor erosion control of adjacent footpath, and the accessible width of the structures.

• Creek that requires improvements to prevent water overflowing and soil erosion, as well as improve pedestrian accessibility.

• Several asphalt footpaths that require improvements to provide a safe and reliable urban infrastructure to the community.

 The maintenance works are being undertaken in two stages, as follows:

·       Stage 1: July - October 2023.

·       Stage 2: January - February 2024.

Access to the park is still be available except for in the work zone area. The creek and rock pools are drained during construction works.

One of the creek bridges has already been removed and will be replaced. However, there are alternative locations where you can cross over the creek.

History of the park

The gardens were built in 1963 to the design of the council’s then town clerk, William Veale. (See our Trail Guide for more information.)

The well-known gardens represent just the northern part of Veale Park / Walyu Yarta, alongside South Terrace.

It was only in 2017 that the council extended the name ‘Veale Park’ to the entire area of Park 21, extending to Greenhill Road.

The other name of this park, in the Kaurna language, is ‘Walyu Yarta’, which means the area where you find the ‘Walyu root’.

Walyu is a native edible white root, like a radish, which would’ve been a source of food to the Kaurna people.

Meanwhile, water was always a major part of Mr Veale’s vision for the gardens. They feature not just an artificial creek but a series of six grottos.

Each grotto was intended to be different from the other – one, for example, has a fountain, and another, a waterfall. Although, the grottos are humbler than Mr Veale had intended.

His proposal included ideas like a ‘dolphin display’, where jets of water would appear to leap between ponds, and a strobe-lit waterfall.

However, his plans were scaled back to the modest water features seen today. The effect is decidedly more restful.

Coincidentally, before 1963, weddings in Australia could only be held in a church or registry office. Outdoor weddings weren’t possible.

But even after the law changed the same year that the gardens were built, it took another decade for the first wedding to be held there. The council wouldn’t permit any of the Park Lands to be used for weddings then.

Fortunately, that policy changed in the 1970s – and the sunken rose garden has become one of the most popular venues in Adelaide for weddings.

In other council news…

On June 27, the council adopted its 2023/24 business plan and budget, with some amendments. After taking on-board community feedback, the changes now include: 

•    Upgrades to Light Square / Wauwi electrical infrastructure at an estimated cost of $400,000.

•    Amending Park Lands event fees from October 1 to reflect a reduction to 2020 fee levels, and

•    A commitment to continuing to work with the Adelaide Community Sport and Recreation Association on its proposed facility within Golden Wattle Park / Mirnu Wirra (Park 21W) and developing policy options for Park Lands buildings for the provision of fit-for-purpose facilities, including toilets, changerooms and storage.

In its e-newsletter, the council’s community engagement team said the council would continue to “protect and celebrate our Park Lands” while improving “our infrastructure for all to enjoy and … by being financially sustainable”.