by Shane Sody; banner image above by Kylie Christian

Since 2008, your Adelaide Park Lands have been listed on Australia's National Heritage Register, but this has proved ineffective at protecting them from a series of attacks.

These attacks have come primarily from successive State Governments, who (over many years) have tended to view your Park Lands as a "land bank" i.e. vacant allotments ripe for infrastructure or commercial development.

ICOMOS is a world-wide non-government organisation dedicated to the conservation of the world's monuments and sites. Among other things, ICOMOS issues alerts about heritage at risk.

The ICOMOS 2023 General Assembly brought hundreds of international delegates to Sydney for a nine-day event that concluded on 9 September.

Among the many presentations at the event was one by Adelaide Heritage expert Stephanie Johnston, who is not only a member of the Adelaide Park Lands Association, and our nominee on the Board of Kadaltilla / the Adelaide Park Lands Authority, but is also a member of South Australia's State Planning Commission.

Ms Johnston's presentation on Tuesday 5 September focused on what she described as a "community-initiated and local government-led" push for World Heritage nomination of your Park Lands.

Ms Johnston's presentation included:

• the incremental alienation of your Adelaide Park Lands over many decades;

• efforts by Trees for Life and Bush for Life volunteers to restore native species to sections of your Park Lands;

• efforts this year by APA and other community groups to protect a Trees for Life biodiversity site in Park 21 West from the threat of new police barracks;

• imagery revealing the extent of native vegetation replanting, in areas such as the northern Park Lands (Parks 3, 4 and 5); and

• efforts by the University of Adelaide and citizen scientists to record biodiversity in your Park Lands.

Watching the presentation, fellow delegate, New Zealander Stuart Monro Read noted that your Park Lands are:

"…a unique piece of Enlightenment era town planning, prioritising public open space and recreation provision, and systematic colonisation after systematic land survey. Planned settlement, not accidental, episodic.

"Their 1840s (sic) layout is still evident today, despite sporadic incursions, ever present 'fill that empty space' pressure and small mindedness.

"Colleague Stephanie Johnson joyfully profiled several successful community campaigns to keep or regain parkland as open space (as originally intended), find alternative sites for infrastructure 'infill'... revive aging tree and shrub stock, bolster green belts and urban biodiversity habitat through weeding and planting programs, bit by bit..."

See Ms Johnston’s full presentation here: (PDF, 18 pages, 18.3 Mb).

ICOMOS is an international, non-governmental organization of conservation professionals which acts as UNESCO’s advisor on cultural heritage issues and the World Heritage Convention.

Through its 110 national committees and 28 International Scientific Committees, ICOMOS has more than 10,000 members in 144 countries worldwide and engages a wide range of participants in the promotion and protection of the heritage places of the twentieth-century.