Park

 

Image: Fitzroy Gardens, a photograph taken by my great uncle John Henry Harvey (1855-1938), probably in the 1890s.

One of the great urban revivals in Melbourne was the planning and setting out of green belts and green corridors into the centre of the metropolis during the 1970s. Silver firs were no longer the suburbanite’s statement of status, as silver wattles weaved again through old gullies, rediscovered meadows, and along riverbanks; the Western Australian ‘silver princess’ eucalypt became today’s favourite ornamental. Landscapes were reclaimed from Edwardian Europeanisation, native birdlife returned in abundance and proper ecosystems developed. The exceedingly cheerful sound of lorikeets and galahs all across town is a result of this change of mind about our use of space and flora. Though more like a wake-up call than a change of mind, as Melburnians grew to understand their interconnectedness with the local natural environment. It is hard to imagine the city ever going back to the pre-raucous caucus days of street-by-street exoticism, even as we order in our well-shaped pine tree for Christmas at home. It is very hard, though, to believe the same city now permits sprawling new suburbs with vast square houses that take up each block, no gardens to speak of, let alone parks. Developments edge down to gullies that overlook creeks, where greenery is left to the imagination of the new home buyer. These jigsaw miles of brick and tile scarcely allow a sprout to show between the joins. They are Templestowe temples converted into Sicilian compounds, fully reliant on cooling systems for survival; the future could entail one hell of a summer. And curiously, each residence still gets to be separated by that quintessential Melbourne feature, the paling fence. The sheer waste of timber resources expended on this unnecessary add-on is itself a scandal. Parks and garden aerate the mind, stretch the limbs, deliver relief. Getting-out-of-the-house-a-bit is not just an impulse, it’s a prerequisite for both dog and human. It’s why gardens, parks, green corners were mapped in such number and size by the makers of Melbourne. The temporary escape from rooms and grids are the green swathes, spacious and shaded wherever the eye explores. For Marvellous Melburnians, ‘green shades’ are necessary for ‘green thoughts’, and especially those who have adopted the apartment for their existence. European apartment living has gone from eccentricity to solitude solution to fad to style choice to force for change in just a few years. And as any European knows, a nearby park or garden held in common is about community, refreshment, and sane living. An hour, or half a day, may be spent there. Quite simply, each new apartment estate on the landscape should plan equal space for a park, within easy walking distance. Legislation should be put in place this third term in the interests of all of us, those with a home and those without, dogs, lorikeets, the list goes on.