The garden city is in peril, according to the Australian Institute of Landscape Architects.
The institute says, “”The Garden city image of Canberra will inevitably decline if the (ACT) Government’s attitude to urban landscaping continues.”
The institute was responding to the ACT Government’s call for submissions on its capital works proposals for 1992-93. Its president, Judy Butt, said yesterday that the decline the standard of public works in the ACT was not restricted to the parliamentary triangle.
The decline in the rest of Canberra had begun in the days of the National Capital Development Commission, but had accelerated since self-government and the division of responsibility between the new National Capital Planning Authority and the ACT Government.
The submission said, “”As the years have passed the community has come to accept the landscape and its many benefits as a “given’.” Harsh winter and summer conditions of the windswept treeless plain had been modified by landscaping.
It was essential that capital be committed to continue that, but the 1992-93 projections were defective.
The submission listed its short-comings:
Derelict and vacant grassed spaces in existing suburbs, particularly in road corridors that could be infilled with ecologically based plantings that would cut maintenance costs, especially mowing.
No money for forward planting in Tuggeranong or Gungahlin or urban-consolidation land.
Gungahlin Town Park expenditure should be brought forward to it establishes as the town develops.
No capital works in Belconnen Town Park or Glebe Park.
No landscape expenditure planned for lakeside parks in Inner Canberra, Belconnen or Tuggeranong.
No funds for the Lake Ginninderra management plan launched by the Government in January.
No commitment to new district parks in south Tuggeranong or Gungahlin.
No capital works for management plan for Village Creek Corridor.
Playground safety capital of $150,000 too small considering serious playground accidents.
No capital works plan for Haig Park in inner Canberra to follow through 1984 tree management plan and to replace old trees removed for public safety.
Only minor provision for repair landscaping to upgrade streetscapes and major road landscaping where trees have been damaged by contractors or otherwise in poor health.
No provision to upgrade or repair significant heritage landscapes.
Hill reserves spending limited to Rob Roy Range east of southern Tuggeranong and even that has no planting program.
The institute concluded that “”the ACT Government’s commitment to urban landscaping in 1992-93 is totally inadequate and calls on the Government to review its draft proposals in light of comments made by the institute in its submission.”