Marrickville Recreation Needs Research Strategy – part 2

The little green shapes are a flock of Red Rumped parrots eating the grass seeds on the playing fields of Tempe Reserve. There were at least 80 birds eating here just yesterday, though they were impossible to photograph as a group. If this area is covered with synthetic turf these & other birds will lose this important food source.

Following on from Part 1 http://bit.ly/K54Jvr Marrickville Council has released its Recreation Needs Research Strategy for public comment.  Only 1.27% of the population participated in the community consultation opportunities. The results are now up on ‘Your Say Marrickville’ & the community is being asked to comment by 6^th June 2012. 

Council also wants to do “synthetic conversions of sports field open space to increase usability,” & for Tempe Reserve, introduce synthetic surfaces on the vast area of playing fields.  I do not want synthetic surfaces used anywhere in the LGA, least of all in Tempe Reserve.

Playing fields are not just used by sporting people.  A range of birds such as Magpies, Red Rumped parrots, Magpie Larks, White-Faced Herons, Masked lapwings & Australian Ibis use the playing fields as a food source by either eating the grass-seed or by digging for worms & other small insects. To cover such a large expanse in plastic will not only kill off all living things, including microbes, but will also remove an important food source for a population of birds already stressed by lack of habitat.

If Marrickville Councillors approve the plans to convert 9-holes of the current 18-hole Marrickville Golf Course into playing fields they will also likely cover that area with synthetic turf further removing another major food source & habitat area for wildlife.  See - http://bit.ly/K54Jvr

Synthetic turf will create further problems when it rains allowing all the rubbish, including plastic bottles, to wash into the Cooks River.  I’ve stood in Tempe Reserve & watched litter wash over the grass & into the Cooks River. It will be much easier with synthetic turf.

Covering sporting fields with synthetic turf will allow Marrickville Council to get much more money from hiring out the fields because they can lease the fields year round, but it will be done at great cost to the environment & the rest of the community. It should not happen & I am appalled that it has even been suggested.

The following information comes from an excellent article on synthetic turf (1MB) from - http://www.lawndoctor.com.au/images/userfiles/file/synthetic%20grass.doc

Briefly, the problems with synthetic turf are –

• It is made from petroleum products ie. recycled car tyres & frequently contains heavy metals such as lead, aluminium, chromium, copper & sulphur.
• Making the turf produces carbon, while ordinary grass removes carbon from the atmosphere.
• It smells like old tyres.
• It is laid on road base so gets very hot. On a hot day artificial turf can be up to 50% hotter then natural turf, so it contributes to the urban heat island effect.  Granulated rubber is brushed into the synthetic grass after it is laid.  Playing on this sort of heat can’t be good for players.
• It causes turf-burn sports injury.
• It needs to be washed with a cleaning liquid to maintain shine & to disinfect from substances such as blood, spit, urine, vomit, food, beverages & animal excreta weekly during use.  This water then goes into the surrounding environment.
• It has a life span of 10-years & then goes to landfill.
• Any air-born weeds that take hold need to be sprayed with weed killers & the chemical stays on the artificial turf.

I think these are more than enough reasons why installing synthetic turf is not a good idea.  There is plenty more studies to show that communities have stopped using the product because of the problems associated with it.

Council says Tempe Reserve has “poor drainage & dangerous surfaces by sports users & careful consideration needs to taken to ensure that this large area of multi use open space is maximised.”  The $300,000 Mackey Park upgrade used sand under the field as part of the drainage system.  More work on the fields was done on at least 2 occasions shortly after completion.  The grass species they used is fragile & deteriorates very quickly. The ground is uneven with holes in the sand making even a walker be aware of where they are stepping.

A soccer Dad & friend said that the field was too soft & more suitable to a professional pitch that endures less games, as opposed to a community park with more frequent games as the pitch can’t recover from frequent damage.

One thing that alarmed me about the upgrade of Mackey Park is when I noticed the lack of wildlife.  Prior to the upgrade this park had hundreds of birds on the fields mornings & afternoons when there were no games, including White-Faced Herons. Now it is almost devoid of wildlife as really, very little can live in dry sand.   I would not like this to happen for other sporting fields.

Marrickville Council’s Biodiversity Plan strives to increase habitat & biodiversity, yet their planned upgrades of huge areas by covering them with synthetic turf will remove even greater areas of food source for wildlife. This does not fit with Council’s aim to increase biodiversity.

More trees around the perimeter of the sporting fields of Tempe Reserve are needed. Trees will not impact on the ability to play sports, but will offer much needed shade for spectators & provide a buffer for the wind that often makes this park a miserable place to be.  Trees will also provide food & habitat for wildlife.

You can download the Recreation Needs Research Strategy & leave comments online here – http://yoursaymarrickville.com.au/your-say-marrickville?module=guest_book#tool

Council offers a summary of the Recreation Needs Research Strategy, but this doesn’t discuss the finer points.  I will write more about the other issues of interest in Part 3.

This is a Google map of Tempe Reserve. The park is surrounded on 3 sides by the Cooks River.      I’ve left the housing in to give an idea of how large this park is.   The pink space is the playing fields & where Marrickville Council are suggesting should be covered in synthetic turf. It is opaque so you can see the marks of the actual fields. The turquoise areas are all the hard surfaces – roads, concrete footpaths, bitumen roads & car parks & the buildings (Jets Sporting Club & the Robyn Webster Sports Centre, plus 2 toilet blocks).   Although the map is old, the trees are essentially the same.   The remaining spaces are lawn grass, except for landscaping (mainly long grasses with some small shrubs), the saltwater wetland & a large triangle of long grasses next to the wetland. If the sporting fields are covered with synthetic turf I believe that more than half the park will be hard surfaces.

Marrickville Recreation Needs Research Strategy – part 1

Google map of Marrickville Golf Course & Mahoney Reserve. Compare this map with the map below of Kogarah Golf Course & it is easy to see that Kogarah Golf Course has a far greater number of trees.  There are many opportunities for Marrickville Council to improve biodiversity at Marrickville Golf Course without reducing it to a 9-hole course.

Marrickville Council has released its Recreation Needs Research Strategy for public comment.  Only 1.27% of the Marrickville LGA population participated in the community consultation opportunities. The results are now up on ‘Your Say Marrickville’ & the community is being asked to comment.

Most popular comments at the time of reading is the call for more off-leash areas for dog walking with many people very concerned by Council’s proposal to reduce the 18-hole Marrickville Golf Course to 9-holes. Marrickville Council say they want to do this to make more playing fields next to Mahoney Reserve & use the freed up land to create a biodiversity corridor along the Cooks River.

I do not believe that reducing the golf course to 9 holes is the right thing to do & I do not play golf. Golf courses are hotspots for biodiversity traditionally being a large space of green usually with much landscaping & lots of large trees. Council should be planting many more trees & shrubs along the fairways, the escarpment & along the river as this will increase habitat & biodiversity.

One of the comments said the Marrickville Golf Club had a membership of 600 & they will have many more guests using the club as well.  This is not a small usage in my opinion.  Plenty of people other than golfers use the golf course.  There are the many people who walk through the golf course as well as along the river with or without dogs.  The Club has always willingly shared the space with the community.

The golf course is one of the best places for bird watching in the whole LGA & has a huge variety of birds.  The Marrickville Mudcrabs also has a remnant bush site here that they look after.   The club acts as a club where you can eat & get a drink. They have seasons of Sunday Jazz open to everyone & all sorts of functions are held here.

Marrickville has a great golf course that offers a great deal & is an asset to the community.  It should be improved, not reduced in size & certainly not for playing fields as these will actually significantly decrease the biodiversity potential of the site.  It doesn’t make sense to do this.

Sporting clubs are a wonderful vital asset, however there are many in the community who don’t like that they only have limited use of parks because of use by sporting clubs.  I would hate to see yet another facility reduced in size.

The aim to improve biodiversity at the golf course can easily be achieved by clever design ideas that do not require the reduction of the golf course to 9-holes. You can look at Kogarah Golf Course to easily see the difference in the amount of tree & shrub planting & landscaping.

Marrickville Council also wants to review the requirement for 2 croquet clubs in the LGA. Once again Council is looking at removing facilities.  Council should be letting people know about the facilities & encouraging them to use them.  Who knew there would be such an upswing in what appeared to be the dying sport of lawn bowls.

You can download the Recreation Needs Research Strategy & leave comments online here – http://yoursaymarrickville.com.au/your-say-marrickville?module=guest_book#tool

Council offers a summary of the Recreation Needs Research Strategy , but this doesn’t discuss the finer points such as decreasing the golf course to 9-holes & other quite major things.  I will write more about the other issues of interest over another couple of posts.

Google map of Kogarah Golf Course showing an abundance of trees.

Vandals – leave these trees alone!

These trees will look terrific once grown & add much needed greenery as well as a food source for wildlife

I love posting about good news & today I have just that.  Last October 2011 I posted about the stupid vandalism of 3 new Gordonias in a row of 10 street trees that Marrickville Council had planted on the Richardsons Crescent crest that goes over the railway line between Marrickville & Tempe. Another tree was pulled out a week or two after I posted. See -  http://bit.ly/tfq78S

The good news is that Marrickville Council have replaced all 4 trees & added another one for good measure.  Thankfully, Gordonias are slow growing & Council used trees that are pretty much the same size as the older Gordonias, so the line of trees will grow together & not look hotch-potch.

This area needed street trees.  Once these trees grow, this section will look lovely, especially when they are in flower.  Flowers like large fried eggs sitting sunny-side up on the grass will give a cheery sight for people stuck in traffic here.  These trees are also good for nectar-eating birds, bats & bees.  Thank you to Marrickville Council.  A lot of people will be happy about this work.

They will also be visible from around the area

Tree saved in Camperdown Memorial Rest Park

Lovely Bauhinia tree in Camperdown Memorial Rest Park saved from removal

The first sign asking for the community’s help to save this tree. I love the drawing of the tree in flower.

A while ago I received an email with a few photos.  The photos were of signs sticky-taped to a tree in Camperdown Memorial Rest Park.

The first sign said that Marrickville Council intended to remove this tree & asked people to contact the Council requesting that Council do not chop it down.

Taped over this sign was another saying that the tree had been saved with a photocopy of an email from Marrickville Council saying that they were pleased to say they would not be removing the tree.

Last October 2011 Marrickville Council put out to community consultation their concept plan for Camperdown Memorial Rest Park – tree removal & tree planting, plus some other improvements. See – http://bit.ly/KkeCSn

I did not see in Council’s concept plan anything about removing this tree.  However, I did think it was at risk of removal when I walked through the park with the concept plans because of where it is situated. The tree sits inward & does not follow the line of trees around the perimeter.

Showing a very happy response

Having seen Council remove a healthy Tulip tree in nearby Enmore Park simply because it did not match their design, I was not at all surprised to learn that this tree in Camperdown Memorial Rest Park was also on the chop list.

This tree was not listed on Council’s website as up for removal either.  However, this is not unusual as Council does remove public trees without notifying the community.

The tree is a Bauhinia & comes from China.  It is the official emblem of Hong Kong.  It is also called the Hong Kong Orchid tree. Colloquially it is called the Sheep’s Foot tree because of the cloven hoof shape of the leaves.

This evergreen tree can reach 7-metres (23-feet) tall though the one in Camperdown Memorial Rest Park would be around 3-4 metres tall.  From September to October it is festooned with large pink orchid-like flowers. It also flowers sporadically from February to September making this one very beautiful tree.  There are hundreds of varieties of Bauhinia, all with 2-lobbed leaves & orchid-like flowers.

So to the wonderful person who found out about its impending removal & started the campaign to save this tree, thank you.  To those in the community who responded by sending Council a submission email, thank you as well.  Without your intervention & lobbying to save this tree it was likely to be chopped down, assumedly for purposes of symmetry & design.

The second sign that included a copy of an email from Marrickville Council saying they would not remove this tree

Cormorants, stormwater pollution & a dead tree

4 Cormorants swiming with a garbage bin lid

This was just a small section of the bottles that had come from the stormwater drain that enters directly into the Cooks River at Tempe harbour.

I saw something I thought was profoundly beautiful on the Cooks River at Tempe on Saturday.  Cormorants had moved in to perch on a boat to catch the last rays of sun & watch the river before a spot of fishing.  The owner of the boat may have not been too happy, but for others & us having a walk around the water it was a great sight.

30-metres down towards Holbeach Avenue we saw 4 Cormorants fishing right next to a floating orange garbage bin lid that someone had tossed into the water that day or the previous night.  All week people had been picking up this lid from where it had blown or was thrown hoping that Marrickville Council would replace the bin now that it was broken. No such luck.

Another 20-metres away we came to the end of the boat harbour inlet to see a cluster of plastic bottles gathered around a stormwater drain.  The next tide or two will pick these up & send them up the river to add to the thousands of plastic bottles lining the river there.

It would be great if people didn’t litter, but until there is money in it for them via a Cash-for-Containers scheme or there is an anti-litter education blitz, it is likely that they won’t stop.

My question is simple. Why can’t Marrickville Council put a floating boom here & a net that is connected to the pipe to capture all the plastic bottles & other garbage so it can be removed before it gets into the river?  It seems the obvious thing to do & one that would also pay back handsomely in terms of managing pollution along the river.

This is not the only drain like this that goes into the Cooks River & Marrickville Council is not the only Council who leaves their stormwater drains nude like this allowing everything to enter the river unimpeded.  Why?  Doesn’t it make a mockery of every other attempt to clean the river when the basics are not covered?  I don’t understand this.

The wildlife deserve better.  They should not have to live in such conditions, especially when the pollution is so easily preventable.

We counted 45 Cormorants in Tempe harbour.

During the March 2012 floods a tree was caught on a sandbar off Tempe Reserve. The river is really shallow here, even at high tide, so I don’t think the tree was a hazard for the skiers or boats. Besides, the river is wide here so there is plenty of room either side.  The tree was City Central for the waterbirds as there are very few natural perches for them along the Cooks River.  Sometime in the last week the tree went & the birds now perch on the boats in Tempe harbour. Having once owned a boat I can say that very soon the boat owners will be complaining about the mess the birds leave behind. It would be great if the waterbirds could have natural places to sit & watch the river. I consider providing natural perches a vital part of improving biodiversity along the river.

Light rail coming for George Street Sydney

George Street – imagine this being a pedestrian-friendly space full of trees

The City of Sydney Council has announced it is working in partnership with the NSW state government to create a people-orientated boulevard along the length of George Street in Sydney CBD. George Street will be pedestrian from Hunter Street to Bathurst Street & light rail will run every 2-minutes from Haymarket to Circular Quay.

There will be new public space, public art, revitalised laneways & a green outlook with more street trees.   On the strength of what is shown in the video I think this will be fabulous.  Hopefully they will add more trees than the video shows.  City of Sydney’s video can be viewed here – http://bit.ly/KJ8Zfn

 

Marrickville South loses another major tree

Tonight Marrickvile Council will be chopping down an old Melaleuca that is about 20-25 metres tall because a water pipe broke underneath the tree.  Apparently the roots of the tree broke the pipe cutting off water supply to houses along one side of the bottom of Cary Street.

It appears that the roots of the tree were severed during exploratory excavation.  Sydney Water workers said that Marrickville Council decided that the tree was dangerous & was to be cut down tonight.

I went down there & had a look in the hole. Yes, roots near the surface had been cut, but I could see no thick roots at all.    To me they looked like thin surface roots, but I am not an expert.

The community had some questions –

1. Could the new pipe, which is quite small, have been fed through the roots under the tree & be reconnected on either side, therefore keeping the tree?
2. Could they create a by-pass pipe around the tree like the telephone company does with big trees?
3. Could the tree not be braced while any needed roots grew back?  A Fig tree that fell over on the Bradfield Park North Sydney was craned upright, propped & is standing free, alive & healthy 5-years later.
4. Could a temporary water pipe be installed to run along the footpath as what happened for a few weeks in 2011 so no house has to go without water?  This would allow the situation to be reassessed during the day where the outcome may be different.

The local community did not understand why the tree needed to be chopped down.  They felt that removing the tree was the most expedient way for Council to manage the situation & that there could very well be other alternatives that allow for this magnificent tree to be saved that may be cheaper than chopping a tree down at night.  There was a belief that this would not have happened in other municipalities.  The Sydney Water workers were not worried about it falling saying that Council decided to remove it.  I don’t know.  I’m just reporting the news.

Showing one side of the excavation – it’s a big tree.

Victoria Road Precinct

Showing the boundary of the proposed Victoria Road Precinct. Click to enlarge.

At the Marrickville Council Meeting of 1^st May 2012 Councillors voted to allow developer Brookfield Multiplex to proceed with a planning proposal for a new development in Marrickville called the Victoria Road Precinct.

Clrs Olive, Phillips, Byrne, O’Sullivan & Wright voted against the proposal.  Mayor Hanna, Clrs Macri, Iskandar, Tsardoulias, Thanos voted for it with the Mayor using his casting vote to pass the vote.

Council’s recommendation was, “Council advise the proponent of the Victoria Road corridor development proposal that it will consider revised planning controls for the precinct along the lines of those which apply in the B5 & the B7 zoned areas under MLEP 2011. These may include bulky goods uses, showrooms, creative industries & live/work (similar to that permitted in the St Peters triangle precinct) land uses in appropriate parts of the precinct. Additionally, that these investigations be undertaken in advance of the next review of the MUS which is scheduled for 2013.”

The developer’s main selling point is that it will be a 6-star energy-rating precinct.  The area is mostly industrial zoning as far as I can tell & is under the flight path.

Brookfield Multiplex say we don’t provide enough local employment opportunities & want to create “showroom retail along Victoria Road, Intermediate zone to inland commercial uses, transitioning to industrial uses in the east, transitioning to residential uses in the west, sprinkled with cultural uses, extending green corridors through the site.”

The Inner West Courier say that, “…. the precinct would push showrooms as the main type of employment, with items such as timber, tiles & all home renovation needs.”  http://bit.ly/K3vldC  I guess this will be like what is happening in Alexandra – a place to go to look for your new bathroom, taps, tiles etc.

I cannot see in the proposal or my notes how many people or how many units they intend for the precinct, but considering they are looking at around 350 units just for the Marrickville RSL development, I would guess in the thousands.  I seem to remember 5,000 people mentioned, but don’t accept this as fact.

In the papers it says that, “Council which has fulfilled its commitments under the State planning framework to plan for additional dwellings & employment numbers.”  These are 4,100 extra people in Marrickville. “Pivotal to any strategic assessment is the fact that Council has met its dwelling targets to 2031 & requires an additional 600 dwellings to meet its 2036 target.”  That is 24-years in the future.

Two other sites are being looked at to add further housing on top of the 4,100 agreed for the LEP 2011 that takes us to 2031 – Carrington Road Marrickville (1,000-1,500) & West Street Petersham.  I can’t see how the Victoria Road Precinct plan will not go ahead in some form or another now that approval has been given for developers to do more work on the idea.

Lastly, the perimeters of the precinct –

Sydenham Road from to Fitzroy Street to Edinburgh Road, then up Leicester Street, around Enmore Park via Victoria Road, Black Street & Llewellyn Street, back onto Enmore Road, then into Cowper Street, down Phillipott Street, Fahey Lane, down Perry Street, Addison Road to Illawarra Road, then along York Street, back onto Illawarra Road opposite Charles Street, down King Street, into Shepherd Street, around Marrickville Primary School at Thompson Street, incorporating all the industrial properties down Farr Street to return back onto Sydenham Road.  It’s a big place.

This is the Victoria Road frontage of the Victoria Road Precinct as part of the development proposal. Unless these are old trees already in place & to be retained, they are projections of trees that would need at least 15-years to grow to this size.

This is the frontage of Rich Street West as included in the development proposal for the Victoria Road Precinct.

Green Bans Park Erskinville

Lush, beautiful landscaping with plenty of shade-producing trees are just one of the factors that make Green Bans Park an excellent small inner city park. 

Last week I needed to travel to Erskineville. While I was there I discovered Green Bans Park & what a lovely park it is.  It’s actually 2 parks, smallish spaces across the road from each other.

A bit of history – “In 1996 ownership of the land was transferred to the former South Sydney Council following a campaign by local residents, unions & Council to have the land, which had previously been earmarked for development dedicated as public open space.” http://bit.ly/K4wJdT

City of Sydney Council has created something quite lovely here.   Green Bans Park has many features that I think make it a great park.

HEDGES – The park perimeter along Erskineville Road not only looks great, but it also blocks out some of the traffic noise & the visual impact of the traffic.  As this is a high traffic thoroughfare, not being able to see the traffic immediately allows one to feel that they are somewhere peaceful.  Not the same for green space like Enmore Park, Marrickville Park & Wicks Park.  In all these parks & others like them with a clear sightline from road to road, I never get to feel that I am away from the traffic. I can see it, hear it & often I can smell it.

Hedges are also good for wildlife, especially insects & small birds.  If they are food-producing hedges, even the better for wildlife.  They not only block traffic, they also serve as a windbreak allowing the park to be a pleasant place on windy days.  Try Tempe Reserve if you want to experience a park where there are few windbreaks.  It can be miserable even when the sun is shining, that is, unless you like the wind as I know some do.

One final thing about hedges is that a large & long block of living green colour is good to look at & has a positive impact on our subconscious. “Green is very calming, balancing, healing, relaxing, & tranquil. It represents growth, vitality, abundance, & nature. Green stimulates possibility & is very inspiring.” http://bit.ly/tmrjiH

To be surrounded by a green hedge has got to be better that looking through the park at traffic whizzing past & houses, shops & signs.

TREES & SHADE – I counted 65 trees in this relatively small park & as I was leaving saw others that I hadn’t noticed.  Trees were varied & tall. No 5-metre trees in this park, unless they are growing.  This provides for trees to be visible on the skyline instead of roofs, which helps green up the local area.  Many of the trees are grouped together giving the feeling of a forest. Trees are also used to very good effect to block & screen the railway line.  There are trees in the middle of the park, not just around the perimeter. The trees are useful habitat & provide food for wildlife.

One very beautiful Fig tree

There is no need for shadecloth over the children’s play area because the trees provide natural shade. This makes the environment much nicer in my opinion. Natural shade is cooler on hot days, provides a dappled effect that again is calming & allows the breeze to flow.

A Fig has been planted at a corner, that will in time, grow to become a feature tree with branches cascading over Erskinville Road, offering shade & beauty & softening the landscape.  We need this kind of addition to our municipality on as many corners as is possible to soften the landscape, add beauty & cool us down.

One big beautiful healthy Fig decades old stands as the crown jewel. The City of Sydney Council has allowed it to grow aerial roots that work to prevent heavy branches falling.  These aerial roots actually make the base of the tree wider as it literally spreads to match its growing canopy.  This makes for a beautiful & visually interesting high-impact tree & it really is the main feature of the park.  That it has survived this long on a small street is wonderful.

The Council has planned for the Fig tree’s health by rounding the kerb around its roots & importantly, not shaving them off at ground level like some Councils do to remove trip hazards.  Problem is they do this to Fig trees in parks, even if the Fig is a fair distance from the pedestrian pathway.  Above ground Fig tree roots are not only of vital importance to the health & stability of the tree, but they are of immense beauty & interest.  It is very sad to see them shaved off & looks like butchering.  The ground around the Fig tree in Green Bans Park is permeable, even that which is beyond the footpath.  This tree doesn’t have to struggle for water when it rains.

SEATING – There is lots of seating in Green Bans Park on both sides.  There are park benches, plus interesting long curved benches that promote group get-togethers & little one-person stools.  There is seating in the sun & in the shade catering to all needs.  Benches are mounted on a concrete base that is covered in old bricks. This causes them to blend in rather than the usual stark white-grey of a concrete slab that gradually becomes darker & filthy.

LANDSCAPING – I didn’t notice woodchip in this park. Instead I saw leaf litter, which made it nice to walk through the play area.  I actually like the sound of walking on leaves.   Leaf litter was also in the landscaped areas, deep enough to be able to cool the roots of the plants & prevent weed growth. It looks nicer than woodchips.

Unlike the beds of woodchip with the odd plant, as is a feature in many of our parks, Green Bans Park has significant landscaping.  An under-storey of plants is grouped & follows the line of Eucalypt trees.  Elsewhere garden beds full of plants, some flowering, follow the perimeter & serve to block sight of the railway line. Also along the railway line fence is shrubs & smaller trees. Until a train goes past you are not aware of the railway line because you can’t see it.  The garden beds look well kept & pretty.

There are a couple of largish lawn spaces where games like touch footie could be played or people could lie in the sun if they wanted to.  While I was there, everyone was sitting somewhere in the shade.

SIGNAGE – One sign that I love warns that this is Magpie nesting area so to be aware during the 6-weeks of August/September when the chicks are in the nest.  Such a small consolation for a big gain because there is nothing like Magpie song to make you feel happy.  It’s nice to see the wildlife acknowledged too.

Open space showing the hedges that block visibility to busy Erskinville Road

The park is not full of signs.  I don’t know if you have noticed that all the green spaces across Marrickville LGA have signs.  There is the sign to say the name of the park, signs to say what you can’t do in the park, signs to say this is a walk wise park, signs to say – no alcohol.  Soon there will be signs to say – no smoking.  Most of the signs are repeated in other areas or entrances to the parks.  Someone or many people are systematically going around & spraying all Marrickville Council’s signs in parks with either a tag or a squiggle – a message that I read as, ‘stuff your signs.’

Green Bans Park has a good-looking sign against a house wall with a map of the park. It provides information with a few dos & don’ts & it has Braille for the blind.  The sign also tells you that City of Sydney values your feedback & provides a 24-hour phone number that you can call if there is litter to be removed or something is broken for example.

The other signs are hand-painted tiles that are mounted into the brick fence at the main entry points.  These colourful signs are quite beautiful & they tell the history of the park.  They add art to the landscaping, rather than being an assault on the eyes.

LITTER & GRAFFITI – There is an important lesson here…. provide something that is beautiful, useful & maintained & the incidence of graffiti & littering reduces markedly. Studies have shown that people are less likely to graffiti areas that have many trees & are well maintained.  I saw 2 pieces of litter & 2 tags in the whole park.  Pity though, that the tags were on the trunk of the beautiful Fig tree.

SAFETY – Paths curve through the centre of each side of the park.  Even with hedges, garden beds & trees in the centre of the park, there is high visibility.

DOGS – There is off-leash areas for dogs to play.

I made a short video of Green Bans Park here – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KjcSmm5Royk

This beautiful Fig tree with aerial roots makes quite a statement

Landscaping & plenty of seats, plus another section next to Erskinville Road

Tempe Reserve – who cares?

This is a 10 cm high pile of streamers mixed with fishing line & a balloon collected by                        2 people over 30 minutes at Tempe Reserve this afternoon.

Sometime this weekend someone must have been celebrating something & brought others to share their happiness.  Unfortunately they left a potentially dangerous mess behind.  It took 2 people 30-minutes to collect string, streamers & fishing line from around one kiosk & I am not sure we got it all.

The outcome of bringing things like string, nylon, fishing line, balloons & streamers to a park & leaving them there is far too often, gross pain & suffering for birds – often for many months.  Death may in fact be easier for them.  Heaven knows what happens to those that live in the river when this litter makes its way to the water.  All it takes for that to happen is a stiff wind or some rain.

I am sick of being witness to this suffering of our supposedly protected wildlife, especially as it is totally preventable.   All that is needed is for Marrickville Council to step in & send a Ranger down on weekends & public holidays to educate people & fine them if necessary.  A few educational signs with an image of a bird injured by fishing line would not go astray either.  Neither would an LGA-wide educational campaign using Council’s resources (like rate notices, libraries, Marrickville Matters etc) to tackle littering.

I do not understand why Marrickville Council cannot have staff trained to help wildlife or at the very least, call in a consultant who can.  All the birds have to help them is volunteers from the community wildlife organizations & they are stretched to the limit with a workload that covers the whole of Sydney – or people like us, doing their best.  It’s not good enough.  If Council won’t do anything to catch the birds to get help for them, then they should be doing all they can to prevent this kind of thing happening to the wildlife as a priority.

Do you remember me posting a photo about a poor wounded Ibis in Tempe Reserve? The photo I posted is below.  The first time we saw him fishing line shackled both his legs. Then somehow he managed to break one leg free. He hasn’t been around much & we thought he had died. Today he returned missing 3 toes & still with fishing line as tight as it can be around his ankle. If he is not caught, he will either die or lose his whole foot – or what’s left of it. He shakes with the pain.  Not being trained, we have not been able to successfully catch him.

This is the same Ibis as the close-up of the fishing line injury & amputated toes above, though this photo was taken January 2012.