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House of Assembly - Fifty-Fourth Parliament, Second Session (54-2)
2021-12-01 Daily Xml
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Dry Creek Linear Park

Ms BEDFORD (Florey) (15:04): My question is to the Minister for Environment and Water. What is being done to identify and establish significant green areas in the north-east, such as along the Dry Creek Linear Park near Walkleys Road in particular, to be brought to the same level as the Glenthorne National Park?

The Hon. D.J. SPEIRS (Black—Minister for Environment and Water) (15:04): I thank the member for Florey for her interest and care for our natural environment. I know she is interested in practical outcomes that improve the livability of her communities, create conservation opportunities and draw people into practical action and volunteering to benefit the natural environment.

It is a really interesting place that I visited in the north-east with the member for Florey I think sometime last year, which is the Dry Creek corridor. The importance of river corridors and those connected areas that move through the landscape, often from the hills to the sea, should never be overlooked when it comes to their immense value for restoration and recovery because they do connect various points across the landscape. They are often unbroken in many ways—not entirely, but they are unbroken corridors of open space that can be invested in to create space for biodiversity to survive and thrive.

The Dry Creek corridor in particular has been identified as being potentially a strategic project for the Green Adelaide Board in the future. It has been great to connect with some members of the friends of Dry Creek. I know that through the Green Adelaide Grassroots Grants program, our legislated guaranteed $2 million fund for community grants on an annual basis, the friends of Dry Creek received about $6½ thousand in a previous round to go towards tools and weed control and revegetation programs.

It is also important for these areas to try to identify connections with traditional owners in relation to this area of the state, and that's obviously the Kaurna people and, extending further up into the Hills catchment, the Peramangk people. The Dry Creek area has been, as I mentioned, identified by Green Adelaide as one of these strategic corridors in a similar way that not only Glenthorne is but the Field River valley, which extends further away from Glenthorne into the southern suburbs, through areas like O'Halloran Hill, Trott Park, Sheidow Park and on into Lonsdale and Reynella and Reynella East.

That connected corridor is incredibly valuable in the south, but we have to look for these connected corridors in other parts of the city and invest in them accordingly. In the north-east, the Dry Creek corridor is incredibly valuable. Then, through the heart of the city and into the western suburbs, there is of course the Torrens catchment and corridor which we, through Green Adelaide, are investing significantly in, not only in the CBD context but out into the western suburbs through the Breakout Creek investment, which is a multimillion dollar investment.

The Green Adelaide Board have been looking very closely at the opportunities with Dry Creek. They have identified it as a place worthy of significant investment. They are looking for ways to leverage that through their strategic plan in the coming months. Kelvin Trimper, a member of that board, a significant South Australian and someone I know both myself and the member for Florey would describe as a friend and someone we rely on for greening and conservation advice, has firmly locked onto the opportunities with Dry Creek, keen to connect with the friends of Dry Creek, the Green Adelaide Board and my department to make sure that corridor is preserved and revitalised into the future.

I thank the member for Florey for drawing this important project to my attention and finally would apprise the house of the $500,000 investment in the Dawson reserve, which is part of that broader corridor, which the Marshall Liberal government has made possible in recent weeks.

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