How Much Has Been Lost?
by Shane Sody
City Council administrative staff have been researching the answer to a simple question: How much of your Park Lands has been lost, since the election of the Malinauskas Labor Government in March 2022?
After March 2022, the incoming State Government unveiled, in rapid succession, six attacks on your Park Lands. Five of these six attacks have now been carried out. Fortunately, the State Government backed down on its proposed sixth attack after two huge protest rallies in 2023.
On the other hand, we are not aware of any locations where (since 2022) the State Government has actually replaced any Park Lands buildings nor any bitumen paved areas with Open Green Public Park Lands.
That’s why Councillor Philip Martin asked the City Council to investigate.
On 13 August 2024, Councillor Martin asked in a Council meeting, how many hectares of Park Lands had been lost, and how many hectares had been restored to Open, Green, Public, since March 2022?
The Council’s new CEO Michael Sedgman could not provide an immediate reply, but undertook to give an answer to all Councillors in due course.
Councillor Philip Martin
State Government claims
State Health Minister Chris Picton says the Government is proposing to make 30,000 square metres of Kate Cocks Park “publicly accessible” but only when a new Women's and Children's Hospital is finished taking away other parts of your Park 27, by 2031. He hasn’t responded to our restoration challenge to release fenced Park Lands that are effectively hostage to the Government’s Park Lands building program.
The State Government claims that while it took away part of your Park 11 for a new High School building, it did a land swap with the City Council, so that there would be no net loss of Park Lands. The claim of “no let loss” is simply false, because the land that was swapped with the City Council was, and remains, Open, Green Public. Therefore, the net result is simply a loss of that part of Park 11 that is now buried under the new Botanic High School building.
The State Government claims that construction of a new Aquatic Centre in Denise Norton Park / Pardipardinyilla will lead to the return of 1,000 square metres of Park Lands. This is simply false, as we have previously documented, because the fenced compound of the new centre, under construction, is even larger than the fenced area of the old aquatic centre. Even if it were true it would not justify the recent needless destruction of hundreds of mature trees, in a cruel blow to wildlife and biodiversity in that Park.
The Member for Adelaide, Lucy Hood, has issued a widely-ridiculed leaflet, falsely claiming the Malinauskas Government was “restoring and returning Park Lands” with examples drawn from decades ago, even before she or Premier Malinauskas were born!
Promises broken; protection postponed
Apart from four broken promises associated with the new Aquatic Centre, the State Government has also failed to fulfill promises to:
It’s also backtracked on earlier support for State Heritage listing of your Park Lands, and committed no resources to progress a World Heritage bid.
The long view
Taking a long view, we know that more than two hundred locations within your Adelaide Park Lands have been taken away since Colonel Light first surveyed the Park Lands in 1837.
The losses are cumulative and on-going. There is no law that prevents this slow-moving tragedy; the ongoing process, of whittling away slices of your Park Lands.
Your priceless treasure has no effective legal protection, and so every generation loses more.
Join us today.
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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