From the Marian Street Park Preservation Group (1996-2000)
The Marian Street Park Preservation Group
A Park in Peril — Marian Street Park Redfern
DEMOGRAPHY
Redfern is a traditional, inner-city, working class, industrial/residential suburb.
Cradle of Australian industry at the time of Federation, the Redfern area is now experiencing rapid structural change. With its position adjacent to the CBD, its excellent transportation links and its undeveloped and underdeveloped land, growth and evolution are inevitable.
Nowhere is this more evident than in the area south of Redfern Railway Station.
The creative use of large tracts of surplus railway property transmogrified into the Australian Technology Park is a prime example of this trend. The area surrounding Marian Street Park is zoned as mixed use.
A small integrated residential/business and light industrial estate has developed in the area bound by Gibbons, Rosehill and Cornwallis Streets. During the past decade or so, in excess of 300 apartments have been built in Marian, Gibbons and Wyndham Streets and approximately 200 more are in the process of being built or awaiting planning approval.
Casual observation reveals that on weekdays between 70 and 100 area employees and CityRail commuters park their cars in the vicinity of Marian Street Park. Given the pressure to repopulate the inner city, proximity to transport links, the airport, CBD, the Australian Technology Park, Universities, etc., further mixed use residential development can be expected.
TRAFFIC
The Road Transport Authority’s conversion of Regent and Gibbons Streets into a segment of the southern arterial one-way system has substantially increased heavy road traffic to and from the airport, the southern industrial suburbs and Port Botany. This is referred to on page 7 of South Sydney City Council’s Lawson Square Streetscape Improvement Project:- “…a large degree of through traffic providing noise, pollution and danger for pedestrians…” and ibid page 11 “…Noise from traffic is a major negative aspect of the environment of the site…” Positioned directly central to all this change and activity is MARIAN STREET PARK.
DESCRIPTION
Marian Street Park is a parcel of wedge-shaped land approximately 157 metres in length and 40 metres at its widest (northern) end and having an area of 3,140 m2 (0.3 hectares or 0.8 acres).
LOCATION
The park is situated directly south of Redfern Railway Station, bounded by Gibbons Street to the east and Rosehill Street to the west. Marian Street Park provides the major pedestrian and cycle access between Gibbons Street and the Australian Technology Park.
OWNERSHIP
All the land that makes up Marian Street Park is owned by the State Rail Authority of NSW (or the Commissioner for Railways), with the exception of the area south of Margaret Street, which is owned by the Commissioner for Main Roads.
NEED FOR PRESERVATION
Redfern Railway Station, Eveleigh Precinct, the Southern Arterial Road, industrial estate, apartment blocks and roadside commuter parking are all circumjacent to Marian Street Park.
Driven by the perceived short term requirements of the Department of Railways and the Department of Main Roads, creation of the park was very likely a pragmatic management solution by the Department of Transport to rid itself of a public eyesore, by creating a low maintenance area warehoused against possible future needs at ratepayers expense. Whatever the rationale for the existence and past history of Marian Street Park, the major concern should now be focused on its preservation.
Since the early 1970s when controversy arose over the ultimately thwarted attempt to destroy Kellys Bush (a bushland pocket in the inner north shore suburb of Hunters Hill), public awareness has matured in relation to the invaluable social importance of urban green space.
Marian Street Park exemplifies the classic profile of such green space providing:
- a breathing green lung of mature trees within an urban environment É a buffer between the noise and pollution of traffic and people
- an opportunity for a multiplicity of casual recreational activities
- the visual pleasure of natural surroundings and wildlife spiritual renewal
The value of Marian Street Park depends on maintaining its integrity.
BRIEF HISTORY
The land that has become Marian Street Park started to be acquired in 1940 by the then department of main roads in connection with a road-widening scheme, which was subsequently abandoned in the 1980s.
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