Case Studies

Pelzer Park / Pityarilla Activity Hub (Park 19)

Design Feature

Type of Project
Local Government Initiative
State
South Australia
Location
Urban
In June 2016, the Minister for the City of Adelaide announced Pelzer Park/Pityarilla Activity Hub (Park 19) as the first major project under the Park Lands Demonstration Project Fund. The project aimed to create an exemplary, community park in Adelaide’s southern Park Lands, providing a variety of recreation and play opportunities serviced by high-quality facilities and amenities. 
A key recreation destination
Working closely and collaboratively with all stakeholders, the Park is now a large multifunctional recreational space nestled within the South Park Lands. The project successfully combines the park’s heritage and culture, and is set to be a unique, vibrant and inspiring destination for all to enjoy.
The project is more than a large community park of some 53 thousand square metres. It encompasses a series of carefully designed natural and created spaces that provide a multitude of active and passive recreation spaces. It has a strong connection to the wider Adelaide community and encourages them to play, rest and explore. 
The space has been designed to be multi-generational and can be enjoyed by a wide range of users with stakeholder-guided elements such as:
  • Play – including the fenced ‘Marshmallow Playground’ with play features suitable for kids of all ages.
  • Central meeting plaza
  • Irrigated grass zone with spectator mounding. Suitable for informal ball sports and picnics
  • Courts and Paths
  • South Park Lands Creek
  • Dog Park with separate areas for large and small dogs

Project team
  • City of Adelaide
  • Department of Planning, Transport and Infrastructure (DPTI)


Consultant Team: Park
  • ASPECT Studios: Landscape Architecture and Play Design
  • Southfront: Civil & WSUD Engineering
  • Lucid Consulting: Electrical / Hydraulic engineering
  • Cameron Consulting: Irrigation design
  • Struktura: Structural Engineering
  • Nature Play: PSLA & Climbing Tree
  • Rider Levett Bucknell: Quantity Surveyor


Consultant Team: South Park Lands Creek
  • Australian Water Environments: Civil Engineering
  • Hemisphere Design: Landscape Architecture


Construction Team:
  • LCS Landscapes

Project cost
$4.5 Million
Health value
  • The Park has a strong focus on ensuring play and active recreation safe, accessible and inclusive of all abilities.
  • The Park Lands areas provide for active and passive recreation.
  • It encourages healthy lifestyles and pedestrian activity by providing a more inviting environment, which includes shading and locations in which to rest and take shelter. In turn, this will support an increase in the use of parks and pathways.
  • It increases opportunities in the city to connect with nature for improved wellbeing outcomes.

Economic value
  • The Park hosts 36 thousand visitors per annum, a number that may increase due to this upgrade.
  • It provides high-quality designs that are sustainable and will realise long-term savings on maintenance costs. Designs also help reduce carbon emissions and energy-use, and cool the city.
  • It makes living in the city more appealing and viable.

Environmental value
  • The Park ensures that sustainability and green infrastructure are part of a holistic approach to designing public spaces.
  • The South Park Lands Creek is not a natural creek line but an artificial drainage channel that was built almost a century ago. The City of Adelaide developed a Master Plan, which set out a five-year program of work needed to restore the condition of the creek to improve safety, increase biodiversity and hydraulic flow and assist with reducing the impact flooding in the South Park Lands.
  • The creek was a key environmental and recreation element in the upgrade of the Park. The creek bisected the park, undergoing a major renewal with the banks stabilised and biodiversity improved using indigenous plant species to minimise erosion.
  • The creek has designated flood out areas to prevent water from overflowing at the culverts that can cause significant damage to assets and inconvenience the public. The flood out areas retain water for longer in the South Park Lands to provide trees and landscaping with extra water. The renewed creek assists with reducing the impact of flooding in the South Park Lands and contributes to the ecology of the area. The result is more natural creek which greatly improves the landscape values of the South Park Lands.
  • Rock weirs were incorporated into the creek realignment to slow down water and increase the biodiversity of the area. Recreational benefits include: walking trails along the creek corridor, community interaction with the creek, mounding / seating by the sporting fields, and points of interest at intersections with pedestrian and bicycle pathways in the Park Lands.
  • Increased tree planting and other vegetation will help mitigate the urban heat island effect.

Social value
  • High-quality communal facilities encourage an active and supportive community spirit.
  • The South Park Lands Creek was laid back to improve access and safety during maintenance.
  • The Park is named after August Pelzer who was Adelaide’s city gardener from 1899 to 1932 and his influence is evident in the layout of Osmond Gardens and elsewhere throughout the Park Lands.
  • The meaningful engagement with a wide range of key stakeholders ranging from the public, to council staff, local schools and the Kaurna community ensured the project was truly community driven.
  • The design and features provide a variety of opportunities for social interaction including play, informal sport and the dog park.
  • The Kaurna name for the park, Pityarilla, translates to ‘marshmallow root place’ which was a key to design elements. The first nations’ people identified the Australian Hollyhock Malva preissiana as Ngunna and would mash and eat the large tubular roots, known as Pityarra, for its medicinal benefits.
  • An innovative and environmental solution was the large Wiltja structure, central to the Oxbow creek flood-out area. This was constructed from a tree earmarked to be removed from Glen Osmond Road. Instead the seven-metre main trunk was salvaged and craned into position, allowing the tree to stay on site, preserving a sense of place.

Use value
  • A significant upgrade of park facilities includes new shade shelters, accessible barbeques and drink fountains, improved bridge crossings, bike racks, community tennis court and half courts for basketball and netball and new public toilets with disability access and baby change facilities. Services and ample space have also been provided to cater for food trucks.
  • Adjoining dog parks are located at the northern end of the hub. They have proven to be the most popular new addition to the area. The site selected for the parks formerly housed netball courts and a club house, which were positioned among trees requiring remediation. The layout is best-practice approach and can accommodate large and small dogs in its separate off-leash areas with water fountains and water play particularly popular. Lighting, shelters, planting and seating transform the site.
  • For the more actively minded visitor there are new and upgraded basketball and tennis courts which are lit at night. Complementing the active nature of the park, all areas can be accessed via extensive cycling and walking paths which also provide connections to the wider Park Lands.
  • The lush green grass zone is a natural amphitheatre creating the perfect picnic spot and space for community events and performances.
  • Multiple spaces for kids of all ages and abilities to play, explore and challenge themselves in a safe manner have been provided. The core themes are Learning to Play, Playing to Learn and Wild Play. Facilities range from fully fenced areas with interactive water and sand play, themed cubbies, artworks and climbing elements aimed at toddlers, through to creek beds, a super-sized Wiltja and timber climbing frames for the highly adventurous kids.
  • The Oxbow Playspace promotes adventure play with climbing frames, boulder island and stepping stones encouraging kids to get down into the Creek and develop their creativity and sense of adventure.
  • The resulting park creates a welcoming environment that works both as a collection of great places and a sustainable network of transport for all modes of travel.
  • The project improved the connection of the Rugby/Porter Street bikeway in the City of Unley to the Frome Street bikeway in the city, encouraging and enabling an active transport connection from city to suburb and vice versa.

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