by Shane Sody

Lobbying is under way to replace old sporting sheds in Blue Gum Park / Kurangga (Park 20) but with what?

For more than 100 years (since 1917) Pulteney Grammar School has had permission from the City Council to use this Park for its own school sport.

The School also sub-licences many other community groups to use the sports fields in this Park. Licenses are not necessary for casual use though. Many other groups and individuals use these Open, Green, Public spaces of Park 20 throughout the year, on an ad hoc basis.

Pulteney Grammar School has made a submission to Kadaltilla / the Park Lands Authority seeking to renew current arrangements within the Park, with a five-year licence extension.

The School's submission has also pressed the case for upgrading or replacing the existing sheds in this Park, at its own expense.

The School's Business Manager, Nick Miller reminded the Park Lands Authority that the facilities in Blue Gum Park / Kurangga (Park 20) are old and degraded, without separate female changerooms which, he said, was discouraging female participation in sport.

Few would dispute that yes, these existing sheds are in need of replacement and/or consolidation.

But there are concerns about the scope of any new buildings that might be sought. In recent years, in other parts of your Park Lands, sectional interests have been successful in getting function centres, private meeting rooms, bars, storerooms, and gymnasiums included in new buildings.

Mr Miller has told the Park Lands Authority that Pulteney Grammar School has "costings and plans" that can be made available "on request".

He's referred to examples in other parts of your Park Lands - e.g. a 2023 private school building in Park 9 as being a "good parallel to Park 20" and the two-storey Adelaide Comets building erected in 2018, in Park 24, as enabling a "higher standard of use" of the Park Lands.

A sequel to the 2018 ambit claim

It was six years ago when Pulteney Grammar School made an ill-fated push to "expand its campus" across South Terrace into your Park Lands.

That plan was thwarted but ever since then, it's been expected that alternative plans would be produced.

Kadaltilla /the Park Lands Authority has recommended that Pulteney Grammar School's existing arrangements for the sporting fields in Blue Gum Park / Kurangga (Park 20) should be renewed for another five years.

The recommendation is scheduled to be dealt with by a Council committee on 6 August and by the full Council on 13 August.

However it remains to be seen whether Pulteney Grammar School will share with the public the "plans" that Mr Miller says the School has drawn up; and whether these plans would really represent what its submission says would be "business as usual" for community sport, or whether the plans would include private facilities, or even open the door for elite-level professional sport, with its characteristic demands to restrict public access.

See the detail of Pulteney Grammar School's submission in the agenda papers for the meeting of Kadaltilla/the Park Lands Authority on 25 July 2024.

The author of this article, Shane Sody, is the President of the Adelaide Park Lands Association and the editor of the semi-monthly newsletter, "Open Green Public".

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