OLD RAH SITE - PARK LANDS TARGETED FOR "IN-FILL" |
A decade ago, a far-sighted State Government restored part of Gladys Elphick Park / Narnungga (Park 25) that had been alienated for more than 130 years. The former SA Water Depot at Thebarton was set up in 1879, and occupied part of Park 25 until 2011. In that year it was handed back to the public as Park Lands. The site has been reborn as the Narnungga Urban Forest, a showcase of biodiversity. (See the pic above and our Video of the Month below). In 2020, a short-sighted State Government has refused to take up a similar opportunity on the site of the former Royal Adelaide Hospital. On 30 April Planning Minister Stephan Knoll disowned the status of the old RAH site as part of Adelaide's world-unique treasure. |
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Despite public responses to consultation demanding the return of much of the site to Park Lands, Mr Knoll has now formally changed the zoning of the former Royal Adelaide Hospital in Park 11. His changes encourage "in-fill". His Development Plan Amendment will allow for: - multiple buildings of up to 53 metres (about 15 storeys) on the site;
- one supposedly "iconic building" to be higher;
- tourist accommodation - on public land in competition with commercdial operators in the CBD;
- car parking.
In the so-called "Lot Fourteen" there will be NO Park Lands. The only nod to the land's legal status as Park Lands is that the Government will now permit the "Park Lands Trail" to traverse its newly-created development site. This concession is largely due to the persistent advocacy of former APPA Committee member John Underwood. |
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In our submission, APPA urged the State Government to return the site to Park Lands, as had been done a decade earlier with Park 25. Likewise, the Adelaide Park Lands Authority and the City of Adelaide both urged the Minister to allocate at least 30% of the site as open space Park Lands. Similar submissions were made by the Friends of the Botanic Gardens, the South-East City Residents Association, the South-West City Commumnity Association, and others. These pleas fell on deaf ears. The entire 7-hectare Park Lands site (other than the "trail") is now approved for development. |
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I There remains just one more formal step before this Park Lands site has the door slammed shut for another 100 years or more. The Development Plan Amendment has been referred to Parliament's Environment Resources and Development Committee. The ERD Committee has the power to recommend changes to Minister Knoll's Development Plan amendment. But will it? APPA has been granted a ten-minute deputation to the Committee at Parliament House, on Monday 1 June. |
COVID-19 HASN'T STOPPED PARK LANDS ART |
Although the announcement of winners, and the public exhibition has been delayed until December, that hasn't stopped Park Lands artists benefiting from their entries to the 2020 Adelaide Park Lands Art Prize. After the exhibition was delayed last month, due to the closure of the Festival Centre, all but one of the 77 finalist entries were placed on sale, through the Art Prize website. So far, seven of the entries have sold, with proceeds to be forwarded to the artists. The purchasers will have to wait until the end of January 2021 to collect the art works, because all of the finalists will be on display from 3 December, whether they have been sold before that date or not. Here are some of those already sold: |
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Left to right, from the top: - Deborah Baldassi: "Crows" - pen and ink on paper
- Jane Price: "Clouds" - porcelain
- Dana Kinter: "Falling Slowly, Red Wattle Bird and Red Flowering Gum" - pencil and acrylic on timber board
- Jessica Mah: "My Park Puzzle" - acrylic on canvas
To browse all finalists and purchase any art works still unsold, see https://www.parklandsart.com/ And, of course, please visit the exhibition after the opening night on 3 December. Read more about the Park Lands Art Prize at: https://living.cityofadelaide.com.au/parklands-artworks-online-cv/ |
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NEW-FOUND APPRECIATION OF PARKS |
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| Adelaide University Associate Professor David Paton (pictured) hopes that the extra people who have been heading out to Adelaide's parks and gardens will enjoy the positive effects on their lives much longer than the duration of COVID-19’s social distancing restrictions. “One of the fundamental reasons I think that the environment has been poorly served by governments and the community at large is we’ve lost our connection to nature,” he said. “But I reckon what COVID-19 has done is reawakened people to their local environment." Read the full article here: ($ subscriber-only) |
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PROPOSAL TO WEAKEN FEDERAL PROTECTION |
The Adelaide Park Lands are supposed to have the protection of Federal laws, as they are listed as a National Heritage place. However the federal laws are pitifully weak. They have offered no protection from State Government attacks on the Park Lands in recent years. Federal laws have been useless in heading off State disregard for Park Lands. Over the past five years, the State Government has approved three new hotels on the Park Lands, as well as a casino extension and an office tower (see story below) and is now planning multiple new buildings on the Park Lands site of the former RAH. (See our lead story above.) APPA is part of the "Places You Love Alliance" - a network of 57 environment groups from across the country, campaigning to strengthen Federal environmental protection laws. |
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| Therefore it comes as a shock to learn that the Federal Government is planning not to strengthen environmental protection laws, but weaken them. There is a review under way into the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation (EPBC) Act. The review is being led by former consumer watchdog head Graeme Samuel. |
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APPA agrees that the Federal Government must NOT act to weaken environmental laws. Strengthening of protection for national heritage sites, such as the Adelaide Park Lands, is long overdue. The independent review is likely to point that out, when Graeme Samuels delivers his report later this year. |
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UNLEASHING PARK DEVELOPERS |
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For more than 17 months, State Environment Minister David Speirs has refused to act on a recommendation from the State Heritage Council to declare the Adelaide Park Lands a State Heritage Area. The recommendation, made on 6 December 2018, has been sitting on Minister Speirs desk ever since. In the intervening period, counter-proposals, to weaken State laws that affect the Park Lands, have gathered pace. There's been recent public debate about how the new Planning Code will adversely affect Adelaide's built heritage. Last week, one of the largest petitions ever presented to State Parliament - 13,928 signatures - called for a rethink on the State Government's planning reform agenda. The new "Planning Code" affects not just built heritage in the city and suburbs. It also heralds scary times ahead for the Park Lands with the State Government ready to unleash the developers. We've previously drawn attention to this (in our March newsletter) but Ash Whitefly, writing in the Adelaide Review, has sounded the alarm bells better than we have done. The article points out that "new and confronting [big] development proposals ... will be handled under new rules by a handful of unelected state planning bureaucrats, directed by one planning minister.." Read the analysis here: https://www.adelaidereview.com.au/latest/2020/04/17/slings-and-arrows-park-lands-planning-system/ |
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APPA's AGM - MEET YOUR NEW COMMITTEE |
Our Annual General Meeting held on Sunday 26 April was unlike any we've held before. Conducted entirely on-line using Zoom, we elected a managing Committee for 2020-21, including four new members all of whom, coincidentally, are doctors: - Dr Sandra Lindemann as Secretary
- Dr Iris Iwanicki
- Dr Ian Milroy; and
- Dr Ingrid Wangel
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The outgoing members of the Committee were: Hero Weston, John Underwood, and Sarah Gilfillan. They should be congratulated for their contributions to APPA over recent years. The AGM passed two important resolutions: - Backing a switch for motor racing, from Park Lands to Tailem Bend; and
- Explicitly supporting Greg Mackie for the City Council Central ward supplementary election (See the following story).
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The meeting also heard from guest speaker, former Adelaide Lord Mayor and former Member for Adelaide, Jane Lomax Smith. |
MACKIE TIPS BALANCE OF POWER IN CITY COUNCIL |
Congratulations to newly-elected City Councillor, Greg Mackie. As noted above, after a resolution from the floor at our AGM on 26 April, APPA campaigned on behalf of Greg Mackie in the recent City Council supplementary election for Central Ward. Naturally, we're thrilled that he's been successful. His election to the Central Ward will alter the balance of power in the City Council, diluting the dominance of the conservative, so-called "Team Adelaide" faction. Last year the "Team Adelaide" faction encouraged Adelaide Football Club's attempted takeover of Denise Norton Park / Pardipardinyilla (Park 2) despite evidence that a majority of the community did not want a corporate office block on the Park Lands. We hope this election result will give the so-called "Team" new food for thought. Park Lands supporters VOTE! |
VIDEO OF THE MONTH - PARK 25 |
This month's video looks at one of the western parts of the Park Lands - best known as the site of the SA Cricket Association's Karen Rolton Oval; and the Narnungga urban forest. Our thanks go to our guest contributor, Adelaide University student Simon Risdale, for narration and editing in the middle portion of this video, as well as to Park Ambassador and new APPA Committee member Dr Iris Iwanicki who features in the latter portion of the video. Catch up with the other videos in this series (Parks 1 through to 24) at our YouTube channel. Next month's video: Tarntanya Wama (Park 26) home of the Adelaide Oval and Elder Park. |
NEW SELF-GUIDED WALK TRAIL |
If you find yourself unable to join us on one of our monthly free Guided Walks through the Park Lands, you can take a Guided Walk at any time that suits you. APPA has partnered with the National Trust to provide public walking trail guides to various parts of the Park Lands. Each walk takes an hour or two. Some are longer than others. Each walk features historical and current photos, as well as commentary at each of a dozen or so places of interest. You can use either the Adelaide City Explorer website, or download the National Trust's Adfelaide City Explorer app for your smartphone. At each stop on your walk, you can either read the description, or listen to the audio commentary. These are the Guided Walks available - with the latest edition, released just this week, at the top of the list: |
WHAT'S ON IN THE PARK LANDS |
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There are always events scheduled in the Park Lands, many of them free, and there are always opportunities to explore the Park Lands on your own, or with friends or family. Browse our Explore Parks pages for hints about interesting spots to visit. Many previously-scheduled events have been cancelled or postponed, to assist in limiting the potential spread of the coronavirus COVID-19. In fact it seems that APPA might be the only organisation with events scheduled in the Park Lands over the next few weeks. We've resumed our regular Guided Walks but we've had to limit numbers so there's no more than 10 in any group. |
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| Guided walk through GS Kingston Park / Wirrarninthi (Park 23) - Sun 17 May 2020 from 10.00am We're taking groups of ten leaving at four different times. However all 40 places have been taken, so bookings are no longer available, sorry. |
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| Guided walk through Blue Gum Park / Kurangga (Park 20) - Sat 13 Jun 2020, 2pm to 3.30pm Click the pic for details. More than one start time is available. |
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CORPORATE RAIDS GATHER STEAM |
The two largest corporate raids on the Adelaide Park Lands are gathering pace. There has been gushing propaganda from The Advertiser (subscriber-only links) about the Walker Corporation's takeover of Festival Plaza: https://www.adelaidenow.com.au/news/south-australia/600-million-redevelopment-of-adelaides-festival-plaza-poised-to-go-ahead-finally/news-story/bc75f3e2f958eb693c60d9723acb3594
and Sky City Casino's adjacent expansion in Park 26:
https://www.adelaidenow.com.au/business/sa-business-journal/new-dawn-for-skycity-adelaide-casino-as-330-million-eos-hotel-set-to-open-late-this-year/news-story/ee3dd5566b752abd20949c74f2bd7974
The State Government has allowed multi-millionaires to take over public space, for profit. They're even giving away YOUR cash to the developers. These major new commercial buildings are on land stolen from YOU - all taken from Tarntanya Wama (Park 26).
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BRIEFLY, IN OTHER PARK LANDS NEWS |
Broadening support for the "Rainbow Circuit" A proposal for an unbroken walking/running/cycling circuit around the Adelaide Park Lands (the "Adelaide Rainbow Circuit") which we featured in our newsletter of March 2020 is gathering widespread support. On 12 May, the Adelaide City Council agreed to work with the co-ordinator of the proposal, Jason Redman, to "integrate the Park Lands Trail development into the recovery planning work being undertaken by the City of Adelaide". This decision should unlock doors to the Premier and State Government. The proposal has won in-principle support from leaders of Business SA, the SA Road Runners Club, Athletics SA, APPA, Bicycle SA, the Bicycle Institute, the Kaurna community, and Walking SA. Mr Redman also reports that EY and ARUP have been engaged to cost the development of a business case. |
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Cultural burn postponed The Kaurna management burning in the south Park Lands scheduled for 29 April did not proceed due to COVID-19 restrictions on public gatherings. It will be rescheduled for later in the year, with a specific date yet to be announced. Such "cultural burning" is a national first for a capital city. The procedure aims to encourage biodiversity and reinstate a traditional Aboriginal practice. The burn-off will take place in Golden Wattle Park / Mirnu Wirra (Park 21W), see diagram below. Read the original Advertiser article (subscriber only) reporting on the proposed burn-off. Go to the Council of Adelaide page updating the project. There is also an interactive Q&A section where you can submit questions. |
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International horse event cancelled due to COVID-19 The International Three-Day Event, held annually in November in the east Park Lands, has been cancelled for 2020 due to uncertainty resulting from the COVID-19 crisis. Billed as Australia's premier equestrian competition, this event has run in the Park Lands for the past 22 years. Organisers are looking to run the event again in November 2021. Read their full statement. |
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Join us!
You can be a proud Park Lands supporter, with membership starting at only $15.00 (for concession and student membership) expiring 30 June 2021. Longer-term memberships are also available.
We rely almost exclusively on annual membership fees to continue our Park Lands advocacy, so if you haven't already, please consider putting your money where your mouth is and backing APPA to keep up the Park Lands fight. Join here: www.adelaide-parklands.asn.au/membership
As a financial member of APPA, you receive: |
Existing members will get a renewal invitation in June. |
PHOTO OF THE DAY - RECENT HIGHLIGHTS |
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From the top: - Exercising in Bullrush Park / Warnpangga (Park 10) off MacKinnon Pde
- A "habitat tree" in King Rodney Park / Ityamai-itpina (Park 15) off Wakefield Rd
- Walking the dog along the South Park Lands Creek in Carriageway Park / Tuthangga (Park 17) near Beaumont Rd
- The start of the environmental trail through GS Kingston Park / Wirrarninthi (Park 23) off Sir Donadl Bradman Drive
- Cycling through JE Brown Park (Park 27A) near Port Rd
- Part of the urban forest off Wakefield Rd in Victoria Park / Pakapakanthi (Park 16)
The Park Lands "photo of the day" series has been running since May 2014, and the collection of Park Lands photos gathered over almost six years now numbers over 2,100. We maintain (and gradually grow) more than 40 separate albums: one for each numbered Park and Square, along with several albums for "Alienations". Contributions are very welcome! To find out more about any of these featured Parks, click the link to the Park number. To see the #AdelaideParklands Photo Of The Day as it's released each morning, just follow us on Facebook, Instagram &/or Twitter. |
Despite being a National Heritage-listed place, the Adelaide Park Lands are not well protected by Federal environmental laws.
That's why we've joined the Places You Love Alliance, to campaign along with 56 other organisations for better environmental protection laws. |
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NEWSLETTER TEAM
Editor: Shane Sody
Contributors: Ted Jennings, Kate Treloar
Proofreader: Trish Russell
Send content enquiries/submissions to secretary@adelaide-parklands.asn.au
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Here at APPA, we hate marketing (spam) emails. That's why we deliver news about the Park Lands, in this email format, only once per month. If you're after more regular information, please follow us on Facebook where we are posting every day. Unlike marketing emails, we're not trying to sell you anything, so we hope you'll forgive this intrusion to your InBox. Nevertheless, if you'd rather not hear from us in future, please just unsubscribe here. |
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