Australian Institute of Landscape Architects (AILA) Parks Forum
23 February 2021
Melanie West, AILA QLD Chapter Manage
On a typical hot and humid February morning, 60 AILA and Parks and Leisure Australia members and friends joined us for a picnic breakfast and a ‘behind the scenes’ tour discussing 29 years of operation for Brisbane’s popular South Bank Parklands. AILA CEO, Ben Stockwin, kicked off the morning with Shaun Walsh, AILA Parks forum founder and former CEO of City Parklands leading the tour, starting at River Quay Green. The River Quay Green Lawn is an area over 2,000sqm of flexible open space grass area for events and everyday activities like kicking a ball or having a picnic.
The talk focused on transitioning award-winning design since its opening in 2012 into operational reality and managing the huge public demand for green lawn under large shady established trees. It is also important to consider in parklands such as this, that the existing plans for trees and plants need also consider growth. The conditions experienced in 10 years’ time, will differ to that of today, and the turf selection needed to take this important factor into consideration.
Southbank Parklands has utilised new and improved turf varieties across many areas of the site in order to address turf issues that existed with previous varieties. Issues such as shade and high levels of wear were ongoing problems that were leading to continual returfing requirements and intensive maintenance practices.AILA Through the use of grasses like TifTuf Hybrid Bermuda in high wear areas and Sir Grange Zoysia in areas of high shade, the parklands have found solutions that have eliminated the need for turf replacement.
The next stop on the tour was the extremely popular River Green Playground, which is arguably the most intensively used playground in Australia. Here, Shaun and Ben Urban explored the topic of playgrounds designed to perform and talked about maintenance & how it has stood up over time. The final stop on the tour examined the newly completed Riverside Green space and Dan Kallis from Hassell was on hand to discuss the design and construction of the newest addition to South Bank Parklands. This project has been entered into the 2021 Queensland Landscape Architecture Awards.
It was a great opportunity for members to network and walk through the parklands and was thoroughly enjoyed by all who attended. Thank you to our event partner, Eureka Landscapes for supporting the event and our AILA corporate partners, such as Lawn Solutions Australia, for attending.
