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Legislative Council - Fifty-Second Parliament, First Session (52-1)
2010-09-30 Daily Xml
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FROME PARK

The Hon. R.P. WORTLEY (14:36): My question is to the Minister for Urban Development and Planning. Will the minister provide details of how the state government is working with the Adelaide City Council to return former alienated land to the Parklands?

The Hon. P. HOLLOWAY (Minister for Mineral Resources Development, Minister for Urban Development and Planning, Minister for Industrial Relations, Minister Assisting the Premier in Public Sector Management) (14:37): I thank the honourable member for his important question. Recently, I had the pleasure of joining the Adelaide Lord Mayor, Michael Harbison—the Deputy Leader of the Opposition was present as well—at the ceremony to mark the opening of a new area of parkland in the city. Situated near the soon to be opened western entrance to the Botanic Garden, Frome Park has been rehabilitated from a car park into a quality landscaped space.

Among the design highlights of the $3.75 million rehabilitation project are young tree plantings, including spotted gum and plane trees, a timber bridge over an overflow creek and an avenue lined with native gums. The park provides feature seating along lit pathways, large lawn areas and native plantings.

The site holds a great deal of cultural significance, and I recognise the importance of the Adelaide Parklands to the Kaurna people. In recognition of its importance, the park has also been named in honour of Nellie Raminyemmerin. The name was chosen in conjunction with the Kaurna Heritage Board and commemorates Nellie Raminyemmerin, a Kaurna woman who was kidnapped from the banks of the Torrens and taken to Kangaroo Island to live with a sealer and whaler.

The site also has a significant European history, having hosted a range of previous medical, military, educational and community uses, including the hosting of the first agricultural and horticultural society produce show back in 1844. These showgrounds introduced to South Australia such important inventions as the Ridley Stripper, a prize-winning harvesting machine invented by local farmer John Ridley in the 1840s, which speeded up the reaping process. A sign at the park features an old photograph of the site in its day as the showgrounds, including the old Exhibition Hall in the background.

In later years, this area became a car park to service the institutions in the Frome Road precinct. In 1990, the 1.8 hectare site was dedicated by the state government to the Adelaide City Council, under a trust land grant. This grant was established to guide the future of the site and ensure its eventual return to parkland in exchange for approval for a multistorey car park further south on Frome Road. The agreement required that the former bitumen car park be returned to parkland and that it be developed and managed in a way that is compatible with the adjacent Botanic Garden and Botanic Park. This government, through the Open Space Grant funding program, provided financial support to the Adelaide City Council in its endeavours to return this alienated land to the people of South Australia, with two grants totalling $1.2 million.

Twenty years after the original trust agreement and after facing some unforeseen challenges in remediating the old car park, this land has now been landscaped and an avenue of trees planted that provides a visual link between the eastern entrance of the University of Adelaide's Barr Smith Library and the new gateway to the Botanic Garden. As Lord Mayor Harbison said at the official opening, it will be a truly stunning avenue connection which will realise Walter Bagot's original landscape master plan.

On the occasion of the opening, we were joined by ducks and other water birds that were making the most of the spring rains to explore the new overflow creek. Our support for returning a car park to use as parkland is consistent with the principles and objectives of the 30-Year Plan for Greater Adelaide. The 30-year plan recognises open space as an essential part of a liveable and healthy city. Aside from restoring alienated land to the Parklands, we have also proposed a network of linked quality open space throughout the city featuring urban forests and parks, a watercourse and coastal linear parks, trails, greenways and green buffers, and sustainable recreation facilities. The project also typifies the Rann government's commitment to protect and improve the national heritage listed Adelaide Parklands as a focal point for community activity. I look forward to a similar event perhaps next year when the former SA Water depot at Thebarton is also returned to parkland.

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