Last Sunday 17 February 2002 hundreds of residents, environmentalists and unionists plus City Councillors rallied in the grounds of the former Royal Park Psychiatric Hospital in Parkville to give the Bracks Government the message that ‘Royal Park is No Place for a Village’. This is the location ‘preferred’ (a euphemism for ‘already chosen’?) by the State Government for the 2006 Commonwealth Games Village.

It was a perfect summer’s day for a picnic in the parkland surrounds of the magnificent Australian Federation heritage Hospital buildings. (If the village for 6,000 is built here – up to1, 000 trees will be cleared and heritage buildings threatened.) Rod Quantock served as the MC for the Rally and Bushwahsee provided the music. Speakers included Melbourne City Councillor Kevin Chamberlin, Democrat Senator Lyn Allison, local ALP Legislative Council MP Glenyys Romanes and Dr Barbara Falk, historian/author and venerable ‘elder’ of RPPG and the Parkville Association. Messages opposing the Village on this site were read out from Martin Kingham, State Secretary, C.F.M.E.U and Greens Senator Bob Brown plus Victorian Greens. Also read to the Rally were messages from Professor David Copolov, Director, Mental Health Research Institute of Victoria and Professor Patrick McGorry, Director, Mental Health Services for Kids and Youth supporting future use of the site for mental health research and services.

At the conclusion of the Rally resolutions were passed unanimously – ‘Yes’ to ‘Green Games’ for Melbourne in 2006, ‘Yes’ to location of the Games Village on an appropriate site such as the Docklands or Jolimont Railyards, ‘No’ to location of the Village in Parkville and ‘Yes’ to save parkland and restore heritage buildings of the Royal Park Psychiatric Hospital for future community use or for mental health services and research. Our thanks go to the extraordinary number of groups plus Melbourne and Moreland Councils who are supporting our campaign.

Write again to your Parliamentary representatives to tell them ‘Royal Park is no Place for a Village’ – locate the Village on an appropriate site NOT in Parkville. Tell Premier Bracks, Commonwealth Games Minister Madden and Member for Melbourne Bronwyn Pike. (Write to Parliament House, Spring Street, Melbourne 3000.)

Here are ten reasons to oppose the Games Village on the ‘Parkville site’: (1) Isolation from the community – no shops and services. (2) Unsuitable neighbours (CSL, a prison and a freeway). (3) Site too small and high rise accommodation (12 – 20 storey tower blocks) unacceptable, especially for welfare housing (4) Difficult transport access with bottlenecks at Park Street & Flemington Rd (5) No public transport – nearest rail and tram stops 1.7 kms away (6) Public land handed over to developer to sell for private profit (7) Light glare, noise and pollution from Tullamarine freeway (8) Loss of amenity for West Parkville and Brunswick residents if new suburb built next door (9) Threat to heritage buildings of the former Hospital and loss of open space/parkland setting

(10) Inevitable damage to Royal Park with new roads/through traffic, negation of Royal Park Master Plan revegetation and bird/animal habitat projects and a new wildlife corridor designed under the Government’s ‘Linking People and Places’ strategy to link Royal Park and the Moonee Ponds Creek will be blocked.