by Loine Sweeney

What do you imagine when you think of the State Government’s development of the so-called “Lot Fourteen”?

The title seems reminiscent of an abandoned Hollywood set. You might know it better as the site of the former Royal Adelaide Hospital on Park 11.

Its redevelopment in recent years has turned it into a precinct of “innovation” businesses, which, when completed, is intended to provide workplaces for up to 6,000 employees. The State and Federal Governments have committed $753 million towards the ongoing development of “Lot Fourteen.”

The seven-hectare site is the south-western corner of Park 11 of your Adelaide Park Lands, adjacent to the Adelaide Botanic Garden and Botanic Park.

Plans for the site include a new high-rise tower for BAE systems and a proposed Tarrkarri Centre for First Nations Cultures.

In-between the building sites and the retained heritage buildings alongside, there are now new signs of green life, sprouting leaves and blooming. 

An area of 3,000 square metres (i.e 0.3 ha or just 4% of the seven-hectare site) has been described as a new “Park” with a Kaurna name: “Kuri Kurru”, meaning “the Place of Turning Seasons”.

Last week, a Nature Festival tour was invited to look at what the State Government described as ‘Adelaide’s newest park’.

It’s encouraging to see new life emerge in what has been a disused landscape - especially when that landscape is part of your Park Lands - but there’s also wariness about whether, and to what extent the green reality will live up to the concept design drawings. 

James Hayter and Travis Wright, the two directors of Adelaide landscape architect firm, Oxigen, arrived keen to share the growing results of the ‘public realm’ they’ve been engaged by Renewal SA to design, in concert with senior Kaurna man, Karl Winda Telfer. 

Tour participants were taken through a series of inter-building landscaped spaces that form what they described as the ‘public realm.’

At each turn, we saw areas of growing trees, planted beds with many now coming into Spring bloom, water features, leafy areas with seats and tables, including large round stone platforms to perch on - all using Australian materials, many of which are locally sourced from South Australia or from just over our State’s borders, including Port Fairy marble.

There is also an open-air stage, a gathering circle and lawn area with a well-equipped, bookable outdoor ‘meeting pod’, decorated with Kaurna imagery.

At the heart of the “public realm” is “Kumangka Kuri” a central meeting space surrounded by seating. It’s been designed to visually highlight the spirit dreaming song of this Kaurna region, Tarndanyangga, the Dreaming Place of the Red Kangaroo.

We were surprised to learn from our Oxigen tour guides that all of this leads to a planned new south-western gate into the Adelaide Botanic Garden. Lot Fourteen staff later clarified that this is intended to be an additional gateway into the Botanic Garden.

It’s envisaged that Lot Fourteen employees and members of the public will make their way through the Kuri Kurru land and water scapes, to arrive at the Botanic Garden via the new gate.

Clawing back this small space of Open, partly-Green, Public space in the midst of a huge development precinct is welcome, of course, but it’s notable that neither the Premier nor the Lot Fourteen managers have seen fit to acknowledge that this precinct has been and remains a part of Park 11 of your Adelaide Park Lands.

The author of this article, Loine Sweeney, is the Adelaide Park Lands Association’s Park Ambassador for Park 11.

Top, banner image: One of the visual graphics Oxigen showed the tour group of part of the planned garden lay-out from above

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