Metropolitan Parks

The Hon. J.E. HANSON (14:51): My question is to the Minister for Sustainability, Environment and Conservation. Will the minister inform the chamber about the recent upgrades to our metropolitan parks system?

The Hon. I.K. HUNTER (Minister for Sustainability, Environment and Conservation, Minister for Water and the River Murray, Minister for Climate Change) (14:51): I thank the honourable member for his very important question. We are indeed very lucky in our state to have fantastic parks and natural resources right across the state. There are not too many capital cities in the world that can boast pristine beaches, parklands and national parks quite so close by to the capital city.

It is partly the reason why, at the last state election, the state government committed a further investment of $10.4 million to upgrade the peri-urban parks around Adelaide. We undertook an extensive consultation process with the local community to ensure that we allocated this money to projects that the community told us they wanted. Many residents said that they wanted to see more opportunities for camping close to Adelaide and the government has, of course, listened to that.

It is not something that would have immediately jumped to our minds. When you think about camping, you think of packing up the car and driving for several hours and finding a campground, but a lot of people made the very cogent argument to us that, in fact, for time-poor families these days, the ability to get to a camp site relatively quickly, in under an hour or so, and be able to spend a weekend in a national park so close to Adelaide would be very advantageous. I am pleased to advise now that the first campground in a metropolitan Adelaide park is being built as part of the $1.7 million upgrade to Onkaparinga River National Park.

The campground, due for completion this spring, will accommodate about 15 camp sites catering for small and large groups in a secluded area near the Onkaparinga River in the eastern end of the park. A new lookout over Onkaparinga Gorge at Punchbowl waterhole will help entice more sightseers to the park, and further trail improvements and signage upgrades will make the park even more accessible and easier to navigate for walkers, cyclists and horseriders. A toilet and a 20-space car park are being constructed at Piggott Range Road, the trailhead for many of the park's most popular walks.

I would like to recognise the ongoing support these upgrades have had from members in the other place, particularly the members for Kaurna, Mawson, Reynell and Fisher, who have long been agitating for this fantastic set of upgrades in these peri-urban parks close to the city of Adelaide that their constituents will be able to enjoy further. These upgrades are exciting for families in Adelaide's south, especially those with young children who will now be able to set up camp just a stone's throw from where they live.

We have also had some exciting progress in Adelaide's north-east. Morialta Conservation Park, one of Adelaide's most popular parks, is currently receiving about 300,000 visitors every year. People come from all around the state to enjoy bushwalking and picnics and family outings at Morialta. The latest parks visitation survey found that Morialta was in our top three most visited parks, along with Belair and Cleland.

Mr President, you might recall that last year I informed the chamber of the success of the state government's Minecraft 'Design a park' competition. The Hon. Robert Brokenshire was very keen and interested in that. The competition is run as part of the Connecting Residents of the North and South with Nature Project. I am advised that more than 40 designs—

The Hon. R.L. Brokenshire interjecting:

The Hon. I.K. HUNTER: He is a very competitive person, the Hon. Robert Brokenshire. More than 40 designs were submitted to the competition, with Linden Park Primary School's year 4 class winning the competition.

Earlier this year I had the pleasure of launching the exciting new concept plans for a new playground at Morialta, the design of which is based on the work of the Linden Park students. An amount of $900,000 will be spent upgrading facilities at Morialta, including the existing playground, and that is due for completion later this year, I am advised.

The design will incorporate physical challenges, Aboriginal culture, learnings and native plants and animals. The Stradbroke Road picnic area will have four themed play areas: frog island, great snake, kookaburra nest and climbing boulders, along with paths, lawns, creeks and climbing trees. At the kookaburra nest play area giant lifelike nests of different heights can be climbed and explored. At frog island children can explore an Aboriginal fire pit, search for Aboriginal carvings in the bush and use stepping stones to cross a creek. This wonderful new area will be a safe, welcoming space where kids can reconnect with unstructured outdoor play and discover the value of nature for themselves. I am also advised that works are now well underway there and will be due for completion around spring.

The government is committed to ensuring that South Australia continues to enhance our reputation as one of the world's great natural environments, and, of course, in Adelaide, being one of the world's most liveable cities, we will continue to invest in our fantastic peri-urban parks to encourage people who use those parks already to use them more often and, perhaps for those people who do not get out to parks at all, to come and have a look and come and enjoy nature at its best, in a very close location to where they live.