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Online exhibition: Trashed or Treasured?
The Adelaide Park Lands have the potential to meet State and World Heritage criteria,
and additional National Heritage criteria.
Celebrating the resilience of William Light's plan of the City of Adelaide and its
Park Lands 175 years after he was appointed Surveyor-General for South Australia,
this online exhibition explores whether the Park Lands have been trashed or treasured
in the last quarter of a century.
To view exhibition images follow the links below to image galleries,
or select a labelled area in the clickable map.
Updated weekly with new image galleries, coming next:
Adelaide Oval and Creswell Garden.
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A copy of the original plan of the City of Adelaide by William Light, 1837.
Adelaide City Council Civic Collection No. 001383.
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1985 Australian Register of the National Estate
On 26/3/1985 the Adelaide Park Lands under the care of the Adelaide City Council
were entered on Australia's Register of the National Estate (RNE), for more information see
here.
Note:
Australia's RNE protected over 75% of Australia's
World Heritage sites prior to their nomination to UNESCO's World Heritage Committee.
The RNE is now a static historical list affording no statutory protection from Government actions and decisions.
1996 World Heritage Nomination proposal
World Heritage nomination was proposed in 1996, and advocacy by the Adelaide Park Lands Preservation Assocation
Inc. has subsequently been supported by independent expert identification of the Adelaide Park Lands as a 'cultural landscape' with
the potential to meet at least three World Heritage criteria.
Labor's empty promises
Political parties give all manner of undertakings when in Opposition and especially when an
election is looming. As Labor Leader in Opposition going into the 2002 Election
Mike Rann promised to protect the Park Lands for good.
At a public forum during Kate Ellis' 2004 election campaign for the Federal seat of Adelaide
World Heritage nomination of the Adelaide Park Lands was given unqualified support
by South Australian Premier Mike Rann: "We'll do it, and we'll do it right."
2008 National Heritage List
In November 2008 part of the Adelaide Park Lands was placed on Australia's National
Heritage List as the Adelaide Park Lands and City Layout, South Australia see
here.
Note:
The areas of Park Lands excluded from the
National Heritage List, including sites intended for State and Australian Labor Government
multistorey construction projects, marked in white in the Location Boundary plan
here (PDF - 948 KB), and the values listed see
here (Commonwealth of Australia Special Gazette No. S238 dated 7 November 2008, PDF - 819 KB).
National Heritage listing has provided no protection from proposed land grabs.
State Heritage delays aid Labor Governments' destruction of SA's most significant cultural heritage site
Australian and State Government funded destruction of South Australia's most signficant cultural heritage site,
the State Heritage-nominated location of the former campsite of Surveyor-General Colonel William Light
within the former North Terrace Railyards, has been aided by delays in State Heritage listing of the Adelaide Park Lands.
The SA Health and Medical Research Institute is being imposed upon the Park Lands with
Australian Government 'Nation Building' funding that purports to avoid the outlawing of
Major Projects on Park Lands delivered by the Adelaide Park Lands Act 2005.
Note:
Executive Government changes to South Australia's Development Regulations
fast-tracked Nation Building funded projects for sites not on the State Heritage Register.
Editorial note:
Founded on the principle of government for the greatest good
based upon criteria for establishment of an Ideal City and reserved as a unique figure-eight of
green open space dedicated in perpetuity for passive recreation, the Adelaide Park Lands have been
most trashed by those with the greatest obligations and duties for conservation and protection,
but are still treasured for many and various reasons.
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25 Years of State Heritage Delay
... and counting
1986 - 2011 State Heritage Nomination Saga
Over 25 years ago the Adelaide Park Lands were nominated by a city resident (February 1986)
for inclusion on the South Australian State Heritage Register.
Since then many nominations have been lodged, including a joint nomination by
the National Trust of South Australia, Adelaide Park Lands Preservation Association Inc,
and North Adelaide Society Inc, among others.
In 2009 an application for urgent Provisional Entry on the State Heritage Register
sought to prevent imminent damage to Light's camp on the western North Terrace Park Lands
and protect significant trees from destruction by State Government projects
(New Park Lands Railyards Hospital, North Terrace; Adelaide Zoo, Botanic Park;
Coast to Coast Light Rail, North Terrace and Bonython Park),
and to conserve precious remnant native vegetation including
rare indigenous species that had survived in Victoria Park and the South Park Lands since prior
to European settlement.
In 2010 an expert report (9/7/2010) informed State Government and Adelaide City Council
Victoria Park was likely to contain a threatened ecological community that,
with careful weed management, may pass the
condition threshold for protection pursuant to the Commonwealth Environment Protection
and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999.
An expert assessment also found Victoria Park's remnant native vegetation was
likely to meet one or more State Heritage criteria, and shortly before the
March 2011 Clipsal 500 Adelaide V8 Motor Sport a rare Butterfly
(the Chequered Copper (Grassland) Butterfly, Lucia limbaria) previously thought
to be locally extinct was re-discovered in Victoria Park.
See the Park Lands News June 2011 here (PDF 1.13MB)
or Chequered Copper (Grassland) Butterfly Fact Sheet
here.
Due to the State Heritage Listing delay several projects have avoided referral for State Heritage advice,
culminating in the April and May 2011 commencement of broad acre land clearance,
destroying remnant native vegetation and other species in Victoria Park and the
South Park Lands.
Conversion of Adelaide Oval into a commercial Stadium for the profit of sporting codes
is the latest State Government major project proposed to be inflicted on Park Lands.
On 18 May 2011 the Government tabled the Adelaide Oval Redevelopment and Management Bill 2011
(here)
in the House of Assembly.
See the Hansard for the Second Reading Speech
here.
On 26 May 2011 the Adelaide Park Lands Authority (APLA)
called on the State Government to withdraw its Bill, objecting to its purpose of permitting "unfettered commercial development to the detriment
of the Park Lands", see APLA's Media Release here, and APLA Board Member Gunta Groves' 'News from the Adelaide Park Lands Authority No.17' here.
Adelaide Park Lands Preservation Association opposes Adelaide Oval Redevelopment and Management Bill 2011
See the Park Lands News June 2011 'McAdelaide Stadium' article here (PDF 1.13MB, see pages 4,5,10).
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