Photo by Julianne Bell
Your Park Axed - Your Heritage Demolished - Your Land Stolen - Royal Park Hospital - 24 October 2003
Royal Park Protection Group
News Bulletin – January 2004
D DAY FOR ROYAL PARK
COMMUNITY PICKET & PROTEST OVER GAMES VILLAGE CONSTRUCTION
Maintain your rage over the alienation of 20 hectares of our land, the axing of 2,000 trees on parkland and the demolition of significant heritage buildings to make way for a wall-to-wall, high-rise, high-density development by overseas property interests to be used for 2 weeks only in March 2006 as a Games Village. This is destined to be a long-term environmental and social disaster, plus a traffic nightmare, for inner northern Melbourne.
We are calling on RPPG members, friends of Royal Park, Brunswick and Parkville residents, plus groups who have signed onto the new parks coalition - "Protectors of Public Lands" to make a date for Monday 12 January 2004 to rendezvous at the main gates of the Royal Park Hospital in Park Street to protest and, if you are willing, to join a picket of the site. We will be meeting at 7 am for a 7:30 am start but, if you are not able to make an early start, please arrive any time during the morning to give us support. (Melways Map reference Page 29 10 C)
"GAMES VILLAGE" CONSTRUCTION PLANS
The developers - Australand and the Citta Property Group - have flooded the surrounding suburbs with letters, outlining their plans for what will amount to a takeover for construction of this massive project "for two years". In reality under the Commonwealth Games Arrangements (Amendment) Act 2003, which puts planning authority into the hands of the Games Minister Madden, construction can continue until 2011. So Games facilities may continue to be built long after the 2006 Games are over. Residents are going to be in for a long siege of their suburbs.
According to information provided by the developer, construction is proposed to commence with building roads on the site and a road parallel with Gibson Avenue to Brunswick Road. As far as we are aware, they will use the Park Street entrance to establish the site. Once established, they will use the Oak Street entrance. They will exit onto Brunswick Road via Fleming Street. They say that there will be 8 to 10 trucks per day travelling the roads but we do not know how often. Park Street residents complained about the two trucks carting asbestos contaminated soil and materials, which were traversing the streets for some months. Our view is they ain’t seen nothin’ yet.
RECENT EVENTS
FORMATION OF NEW PARKS COALITION
On Sunday 2 November 2003 a public meeting, protesting about the alienation of public parkland and open space across Victoria by the Bracks Government, met at the gates of the Royal Park Hospital site. The new coalition "Protectors of Public Lands" (PPL) was launched at the rally. We reported on this in our November 2003 News Bulletin. The resolution passed by the meeting and the form for groups to sign is on our website at www.royalparkprotect.org.au See also the website of our fellow PPL organization in NSW on www.nsw.nationaltrust.org.au/ppl.html
We congratulate the Age newspaper for reporting on the formation of PPL and for publishing letters critical of the Bracks Government about Royal Park and the demise of our parks and open space. These are on our website. As a result many groups have contacted RPPG about joining the movement. We plan a forum in February 2004. Enquiries can be directed to Julianne on 98184114 or 0408022408.
1,000 TREES AXED FOR GAMES VILLAGE
On Thursday 18 December 2003 - "Axe Thursday" - over 1,000 trees were axed on the Royal Park Hospital site for the so-called "Games Village". (About nine hundred trees had already been felled when asbestos and other toxic material was removed from the site. Only 80 trees have been left standing.) Next day the workers went on holiday leaving piles of felled trees. The RSPCA was not called in to rescue maimed and injured birds and animals, which could not have escaped the slaughter.
ROYAL PARK HOSPITAL HERITAGE PRECINCT NOW ON HERITAGE REGISTER
On Thursday 18 December 2003 (the same day as the 1,000 tree massacre), as a result of an appeal by the Royal Park Protection Group, The National Trust and the City of Melbourne, the Heritage Council announced that it had overturned an earlier decision by the Director of Heritage Victoria and had made a provisional decision to include the whole heritage precinct of the Royal Park Hospital (the nine buildings remaining after the Minister authorised the demolition of four) on the State Heritage Register. Minister Madden actually put out a press release supporting this decision. This is a major victory for heritage but the battle is not entirely over as the decision is subject to appeal within 60 days.
MORE COMMUNITY "CONSULTATIONS" OVER GAMES VILLAGE
Some months ago, Games Minister Madden announced a full-scale community consultation over the construction phase of the "Games Village". It is only just being set up and the Committee and "stakeholders" won’t meet until the end of January 2004, some time after the developer letter boxed residents. As previous consultations have been, in our view, an absolute sham and as there are still no detailed plans for the Village in Games Mode (as far as we are aware) there seems little point in participating in the "consultation" game once again. Following the last community consultation on 20 October 2003, RPPG wrote a report for Games Minister Madden, on his request, on the threat to security of locating a Games Village on the Royal Park site and the lack of plans for the Village in Games mode. We have had no feedback or acknowledgement from the Minister.
MORE DEVELOPMENT IN ROYAL PARK
Many do not realise what's happening to Royal Park with the continuous erosion of open space at the hands of Council bureaucrats signing off permits for capital works - more parking, toilets, footpaths, barbeques, seats on concrete slabs and lights. The very facilities supposedly to assist "passive recreation" are now slowly killing the park.
The latest outrage in Royal Park recently occurred when Melbourne' Council staff proposed to carve out a section of parkland near the Urban Camp on Brens Drive for bus parking bays, even though there is a bus turning circle and 600 or so car spaces virtually opposite in the vast State Netball and Hockey Centre. Also extraordinary is the plan to put in a cast iron toilet block in Royal Park on Park Street despite the fact that there are few potential users. Contrast the area of the North entrance to the Zoo, which has
355, 000 patrons per year entering by this gate but no toilet in the park for those caught short.
Royal Park - Perfect One Day, Concrete The Next (RPPG banner 1999)
Original Printed with the support of a community grant awarded by the City of Melbourne