“Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.”
In 1969, part of your Open Green Public Park Lands were taken away for a swimming pool on what we now call Denise Norton Park / Pardipardinyilla (Park 2). It was not the first such mistake that affected your Park Lands. However in 2022 there is a once-in-a-generation opportunity to learn from that mistake,
In the 2022 State election campaign, we’ve urged you to question candidates about where they could restore Park Lands previously lost to development.
Both major parties, Liberal and Labor, have made threats to your Open Green Public spaces, with election commitments that would replace Park Lands with new buildings.
One of the promises made by SA Labor during the election campaign is to invest $80 million in a new Aquatic Centre. The location has not been determined, but it appears that Labor leader Peter Malinauskas has not thought of restoring a Park site, and is instead focussed on repeating one of the historical mistakes that led to loss of Park Lands in 1854, and more Park Lands lost in 1969 and later.
In 1854 the first Adelaide 'City Baths' were erected off King William Road in Tartanya Wama (Park 26).
The “City Baths” off King William Road in Park 26 as they looked in 1882 - Photo: (1882) State Library of SA
They were expanded or upgraded on the same site in the 1880's and again in 1940.
The “City Baths” off King William Road in Park 26 as they looked in 1941 - Photo: State Library of SA
Then, in 1969, the "City Baths” site was taken over by a brand new Festival Centre and more of your Open Green Public Park Lands here in Denise Norton Park / Pardipardinyilla (Park 2) were taken away for a new swimming pool complex.
Swimming pools off Jeffcott Road in Park 2 as they looked after construction in 1969.
Sixteen years later, in 1985, the swimming pools were roofed and enclosed. Over time, large parts of the adjacent Park Lands were sacrificed for car parking.
The Aquatic Centre roof under construction in 1984
Of course, a swimming pool or aquatic centre is a valuable community resource. Such a public facility encourages health and fitness and a commitment to build a new one is warmly welcomed.
But a pay-to-enter swimming pool building is NOT a park. Although it might well be "public" it would not be either "open" or "green". There is no reason why Adelaide's world-unique green garland should be targeted, yet again, when there are plenty of alternative brownfield sites where a new Aquatic Centre might be located.
Labor leader Peter Malinauskas announced on 12 February that if elected on 19 March, a new SA Labor Government would build a new Aquatic Centre either on the same site as the existing one, or at "an adjacent site" within Park 2.
Labor's candidate for the marginal seat of Adelaide, Lucy Hood, with her two children, and Opposition Leader Peter Malinauskas with his daughter. Pic: ABC News: Candice Prosser)
It would seem that before making the announcement SA Labor did not even consider the possibility of any site NOT on Park Lands.
But if the current Aquatic Centre has passed its useful life, (as the City Council has said) then there is absolutely no reason why a new facility must repeat the mistakes of 1854 and 1969 and be located, once again, on your Park Lands.
Getting State funding for a new Aquatic Centre represents a once-in-a-generation opportunity to restore lost Park Lands. It is an opportunity to learn from the mistakes of 1854 and 1969. It is an opportunity to value Adelaide's world-unique green garland for its own sake, and restore Open Green Public space to Park 2.
It is an exciting prospect that an incoming State Government might be able to learn from the mistakes of the past, and prioritise Park Lands while at the same time putting a new Aquatic Centre on a new brownfields site somewhere in or near the City, perhaps closer to public transport.
Will SA Labor learn from history? Or will the party go to the State election, vowing to repeat the mistakes of the past and sacrifice your Park Lands yet again?
