Swan St Park Redevelopment Under Way

Transcript of media conference with City of Hobart councillors and park neighbours, Swan St Park, North Hobart, 17 August 2022.

Helen Burnet

This is a really exciting launch and start of the building works for the remake or the makeover of the Swan Street Park. You might have already seen the bunting going up. But this has been in the pipeline since 2018 when we first considered it as a council matter to upgrade the park. And the park has, over the course of the time ,we had some community consultation, and some really good conversations with the North Hobart traders, with the landowners who are the Uniting Church, the Swan Street Uniting Church have been very much involved with this, as have the community.

What we’ve heard from the community is what they would like for the park. So it’s a very exciting move that we will be upgrading this really important part of the North Hobart shopping strip,it’s a really valued green space. It was looking a little tired, very tired ,over many, many years. And so having a new tree canopy, having discreet areas like pocket areas for discreet conversations and and groups, as well as a fenced play area was a really important component. So the green space, a little bit of reflective space, as well as a kids play area. And that interface with the North Hobart shopping strip as well. So right next to the Born in Brunswick, and we’ve got Con here. And it’s just going to be such a fabulous makeover, which will be happening over the course of the next six months.

We’re fortunate we have Andrew Wilkie here, we have received funding through the federal government through the roads and community grants project. And that funding is around 530,000 dollars. And the the contribution by the council is around 230,000. So with that money there will be a really great space. With that money there’ll be a really fabulous space for people to gather, for people who work in the strip to come and have their lunch. And it’s a really important asset and contribution for the North Hobart shopping strip.

The park was being used a lot. But this provides better access so there’ll be flat access going into Born in Brunswick from that side entrance. And it will really make a greater addition as it’s looking fairly tired.

Tasmanian Times

Are you going to give it a more interesting name than Swan Street Park? I mean this week with the statue we’ve been talking a bit about how we recognise people and what you do and we don’t value as a community, as an issue.

Helen Burnet

That’s a great idea. I mean, it’s been known as Swan Street Park ,we haven’t looked at any sort of name change but that would be certainly something that the the United Church would have to consider in relation to to any sort of change in name for the land but today we’re we’re really talking about the building works that have have started and over the course of the next six months how valuable this contribution will be once once finished

Jeff Briscoe

I’m the Chair of the City’s Parks and Recreation Committee, a very important committee. This commencement of works here is so important. It’s an indication of what we should be doing around the city, that we should have close-by green spaces where people can enjoy our beautiful weather when it’s sunny, or relax or have lunch. This has been a long term term project from 2018. It’s going to have some funky areas for kids. And I’m really excited about this project. I’ve seen it through the committee a number of times, it’s gone through Council a couple of times. Now we had funding the courtesy of Andrew Wilkie and the funds he can access, and our own ratepayer funds.

But again, I don’t want to say too much because we’d like to thank the church for allowing us to use the land for a public park. And they’ve got to be acknowledged, their work they’ve done in helping us get to achieve to this point. Over the road in recent times we have a new toilet there, which is a funky toilet. And hopefully this park will be a really funky, enjoyable place for children and adults. A long-term business owner who would have been at the start of the project to make North Hobart a restaurant strip is Alderman Marti Zucco, who’s with us today. So I’d like to hand over to him, he has more intimate knowledge of this area.

Marti Zucco

Look, I arrived in North Hobart in 1976. And if those that don’t know North Hobart, where our esteemed restaurateur now has a wonderful cafe, it was actually KFC so so it goes back a long way. And I’ve walked up and down past this park, this this parcel of land, for years, and particularly going to the post office and we’ve got a beautiful post office there. And it was always one of those parcels of land you always hoped got developed. It’s like the Soundy Park in Argyle street that used to be a timber yard. So we’ve actually, you know, come to a stage where we’ve evolved. It’s taken a long time. North Hobart’s evolved in the last 30 years or so. It’s become a one of those go-to places where people want to live people and people want to enjoy. And this just adds to the enjoyment of North Hobart.

Journalist – unidentified

Tell us about what’s actually going on in this park, what development specifically we’ll be coming in there and how you how you think that’s going to benefit the North Hobart community.

Jeff Briscoe

Right. It’s quite extensive and we’ve got a photograph here is probably the best way to look at it. We have a funky play area in this. For the kids. We have pocket parks for picnics and plenty of seating. We have a mini maze in the fenced area and an elaborate seating arrangement and beautiful big trees will be planted to increase Hobart’s urban street canopy and provide shade for visitors. So you can see it is going to be sort of a unique state-of-the-art small park in the city, in an urban area.

Journalist – unidentified

How much funding was required to make this happen?

Jeff Briscoe

Well the principal source of funding is Andrew Wilkie’s funding he got for us, which is around about half a million dollars and the city has contributed a bit over 300,000.

Journalist – unidentified

Andrew how important are projects like these for communities like North Hobart?

Andrew Wilkie

Projects like this are really, really important. There is a shortage of quality green spaces and play areas in the CBD and in this in the inner suburbs. So this is money well spent. So I say thank you to the federal government for seeing the merit in it and chipping in a little over half a million dollars. It will improve this part of town, not just for the residents, but also for the visitors. So this is money well spent. You know, it’s not just about hospitals and schools, it’s also about these sorts of facilities.

Journalist – unidentified

What sort of things can green spaces like these do for our community?

Andrew Wilkie

Well, one of the important aspects of this is it brings people together, it becomes a destination. So people can come here and meet, families could come here with the children and enjoy it. It improves their quality of life. And also just having green spaces in amongst the built environment, it makes for a nicer environment. So this is the sort of development, this is a sort of investment that improves the quality of life for people. It gets them outdoors out in the sun, somewhere for the kids to run around. Now this is money well spent.

Journalist – unidentified

Where else in the Hobart City and surrounds would you like to see similar developments come up?

Andrew Wilkie

I think it’s fair to say that throughout the greater Hobart area there’s a number of parks and green spaces that have been sorely neglected. And I was very pleased to see during the federal election campaign that the Labor Party did promise a considerable investment to refurbish parks in the northern suburbs. I’ll certainly be on the lookout for more federal investment throughout the electorate, including here in the city of Hobart because these spaces are just too precious to leave to leave neglected.

Con Bailis

My name is Con Bailis, I own Born in Brunswick cafe next door to the park.

Journalist – unidentified

I’ve been there myself, it’s always popular, always booming. How great is it going be to have a space where people are lining (inaudible)

Con Bailis

It’d be amazing, not just for us as a business. But I think for the community, we see a lot of, you know, young mums, young families coming in. And I think a space for those guys to just hang out and have their own time is going to be really, really nice. And like Andrew said, I think these inner city, like green areas, is so important in our community. It’s just for, you know, I’m a parent as well these days. So I know when I take my kids out, I want somewhere that I can just sit in and have my own space and keep an eye on them and just feel safe, I suppose. So. I think from a business point of view, it’s going to be absolutely amazing. Like yeah, somewhere for people to chill out and coffee and yeah, really, really good community vibe.

Jeff Savage

Jeff Savage, Minister here at Hobart North Uniting Church,

Journalist – unidentified

I guess, what were the motivations behind giving this space of land to the City of Hobart for this development?

Jeff Savage

The land’s actually been leased to the council since – a dollar a year since roundabout 2000 – so it’s over 20 years it’s been leased there. And I think part of the tightness of use of land in the area, many people would like to see car parks, people would like to see development on there. But I think holding it for the community in that way – it’s the land that belongs to the muwinina people on which we’ve met I think since 1903 or something or other – but being able to use that within the community and give it back into that space, I think is really essential rather than turning it into parking or something else in that way. So so the church goes a fair bit in that sort of way, but also values what it means to be in the community in that way. Yeah.

Journalist – unidentified

Swings and roundabouts as well, it probably benefits the church as well to have a public space next door?

Jeff Savage

Absolutely, absolutely. Always great to have green space, kids. The church was really keen to push that we have a fenced area so that parents can actually sit safely and have coffee and do those sorts of things without, when you got roads on three sides of a park how you maintain the safety is really key. So we really appreciate that the government funding and the council funding that some that’s made that possible and I’m sure the church will entrust that to the community and continue to value it in that way into the future.

L to R: Marti Zucco, Andrew Wilkie, Jeff Briscoe, Helen Burnet, Con Bailis, Jeff Savage.