Southern Suburbs Parks

The Hon. G.A. KANDELAARS (16:16): My question is to the Minister for Sustainability, Environment and Conservation. Will the minister inform the chamber about how the government is engaging with residents in the southern suburbs in its $2.4 million investment in parks in the area.

The Hon. I.K. HUNTER (Minister for Sustainability, Environment and Conservation, Minister for Water and the River Murray, Minister for Aboriginal Affairs and Reconciliation) (16:16): What a fantastic, fascinating question from the honourable member, and his ongoing interest in the southern suburbs is well known. On Friday, 21 November, I had the pleasure of joining representatives from southern suburbs local government, schools, sporting and recreational groups and conservationists at the Flagstaff Hill Golf Course. The purpose of this inaugural roundtable meeting was to begin a discussion about how we can best enhance visitor numbers and experience in our parks in the southern suburbs.

South Australia has over 300 parks covering almost 20 per cent of the state, and 29 of those parks are right here in the metropolitan area. This makes our parks easily accessible to Adelaide residents. While a handful of parks like Belair and Morialta and Cleland are well known and enjoy very high visitor numbers—in fact, I understand that Cleland now has more visitors to its park centre than Kakadu, I think, for last year—there are other beautiful parks which are rather less well known—places like the Onkaparinga Gorge, which I visited earlier this year—a fantastic place, fantastic gorge.

I think the original viewing post was burnt down in a fire some years ago and it is now being replaced, and I understand that gorge is used by STAR Force officers to train in abseiling. I can imagine that abseilers around Adelaide would find that a very attractive proposition, but many people do not know about Onkaparinga Gorge Park.

Of course, we have the wonderful geological wonders of the Hallett Cove cliffs, which the Hon. Mr Ridgway may have visited when he was a six year old at school, as well as in grade six, and I am sure that was only a few years ago from his memory. There are the shifting dunes of Aldinga Scrub and Moana Sands and the mining heritage, of course, of Scott Creek. We are incredibly lucky here in southern Adelaide to have such a wealth of natural beauty, and we want more people to visit and enjoy our parks.

Studies have shown that communities with green space have lower rates of stress and disease. Of course, one expects that is probably because we are out using those green spaces; we want to drive an increase in that usage of green space, particularly around where people live. At a time when children are spending more time in front of screens and less time outside playing, when obesity rates are at worrying levels, we need, more than ever, to embrace our green spaces as a community and utilise them to our best advantage. That is why the state government is investing $10.4 million over the next four years to improve facilities and encourage more people to use our parks, and $2.4 million will be invested in infrastructure in our southern metropolitan parks.

I understand that the consultation phase will run for approximately the next six months and, once the projects have been agreed upon, they will be designed with construction scheduled for 2016-17. The round table covered a variety of topics. Participants were asked to reflect on the different ways people connect with the different parks in the south. I asked them in my opening address to tell us how they utilise parks and how they think we can best engage the community to come out and want to use parks more. They discussed what people most value about the parks, which you would expect that we would know but, of course, asking people these questions, you sometimes elicit responses which are surprising.

We also asked what could be done to enhance visitor experience in the parks and, importantly, what the barriers are that we need to address that prevent people from visiting parks. Participants were also asked what would make the greatest contribution to increasing the quality of the connections that people make to the parks of southern Adelaide.

An important discussion that will certainly require further work centred on identifying groups that we need to reach and gathering ideas about how we can best connect with these groups who do not currently use these parks and perhaps have never considered them as part of their organisational structure or activities and perhaps how they can fit into the usage of those parks even better. So, we have asked each organisation or individual represented at the roundtable what role they can play in achieving these outcomes, and this roundtable is the second of three community engagement initiatives on the future of our metropolitan parks and reserves.

In October, we began discussions regarding the creation of an international mountain biking destination in the Mount Lofty Ranges with the Adelaide Hills community. A third roundtable event focusing on the parks in the northern suburbs will be held in coming months. Whatever activity people choose to pursue, be it walking, cycling, watching wildlife and birds, fishing, or just enjoying the beautiful surroundings, it is my hope that our parks and reserves will have something for everybody.

I would like to thank all the participants, of course, for giving up their time, coming to the roundtable, and generously being involved and giving us their opinions on this very important initiative. As locals who live and work in the south, they understand the area and its community. They are best placed to tell us what facilities are needed most and how we can encourage more people to use our parks. Their input will play an important role in ensuring that we provide the most needed facilities and services.