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Parks and Recreation Collection – Narratives

Aquatic fauna of Hotel Creek adj. Barrington Tops National Park

Updated on date by author

This charming report of 117 pages by biologist Evelyn Elfick commences with a generic explanation of aquatic systems then includes a list of some 89 aquatic invertebrates identified during a survey, with information and original drawings for each one. Hotel Creek is in the Chichester State Forest adjacent to Barrington Tops National Park in central New South Wales.

Although the title is Aquatic Insects of the Chichester State Forest, the list of fauna includes one fish (a gudgeon) and several molluscs, crustaceans and other invertebrates that are not insects.

The introductory ~20 pages could form a useful introduction to aquatic systems for secondary-level teachers as it is not site-specific.

Evelyn Elfick has supplied the following explanation by way of background:

“While studying as an undergraduate at the University of New England, I started collecting for a visiting lecturer from the USA. Her PhD was on freshwater aquatic insects and I collected ephemeroptera [mayflies] from rivers and streams from the South Coast at Bega to just north of the Hunter.

“I became so interested in the diversity of the then “unpolluted” freshwater systems that I decided to continue and chose Burra Creek as the main study area. This booklet was originally produced in A5 format to be used as a field guide for people working in the area.”

Evelyn may be contacted via elfick AT SYMBOL bigpond.com.

 

 

Review Status: Pending
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Tread Lightly!

Updated on date by author

Tread Lightly! (Australia) was a community organisation established to promote responsible use of outdoor recreation sites by users. Queensland public servant Neil Ames has assembled this narrative, based upon recollections of the late John Wood, who was president for 10 years.

The model came from the United States where Tread Lightly (US) is still very alive and functional: see https://www.treadlightly.org/. Its mission has been “Promoting responsible recreation through stewardship, education and communication. Plus, we get out there and live it.” Tread Lightly (US) originated from the US Forest Service which wanted to partner with recreational users of forests to minimise recreation-related impacts resulting from all types of outdoor activities including off-road vehicles (mountain biking, bushwalking, camping, fishing, hunting etc).

Jan and Ivan Scudamore introduced the program into Australia in the early 1990s. Jan was Executive Officer of Tread Lightly (Australia) from its inception and the driving force. Tread Lightly (Australia) had a board and three chairmen over the ~10 years of operation, namely Brian Woodward, Rob Seymore and John Wood. Jan was also a board member of Tread Lightly (USA) and acquired a quantity of educational, training, promotional, research, management and operational material from the US Forest Service and the Off Highway Vehicle Association of USA.

Eventually it was decided to close Tread Lightly (Australia) down due to lack of financial support.

After an interregnum in the offices of Sport and Recreation Queensland based in Toowoomba, the collection of physical resources was secured by PaRC and many items scanned. The materials are not saved in a single digital location in the library, as the library is based on a keyword search engine, but the items that are not copyright are now accessible to all.

 

The Tread Lightly Education Kit (67 MB) that came into PaRC’s possession consists of a folder containing a copy of the leaflet, the Teachers Guide and Data Sheets.

A leaflet sponsored by the Victorian Department of Conservation and Natural Resources and dated 1993.

John Grieg authored a 17-page paper to the 10th Annual Conference entitled Appropriate Use of the National Parks System – An Off-Road Vehicle Users Perspective, dated 1987.

 

 

Review Status: Pending
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Sustaining the Future – incl. waste and recycling

Updated on date by author

This 73-page report, the proceedings of a one-day seminar held by Australian Environmental Studies, The Institute of Applied Environmental Research, Griffith University, Queensland in December 1990 is titled Sustaining the Future and subtitled Urban Waste and Resource Strategies: Beyond 2000.

  • Waste and Resource Issues in Global Perspective – Dr Peter Brotherton
  • Sustainable Cities Beyond 2000: A planner’s perspective – Mr Phil Day
  • Effective Waste & Resources Strategies:Problems, Possibilities and Solutions – Dr Andre Krol
  • Developing Sustainable Civic Strategies Involving Business and the Community – Mr Richard Joel
  • Waste and Resource Priorities for the New Queensland Government – Hon Pat Comben, Minister for Environment & Heritage
  • A Sustainable Urban Future: Challenges and Opportunities for Government – Commonwealth Minister for Local Government Senator Hon Margaret Reynolds
  • Our Future! – Two youth perspectives – Kyle Rosenthal and Jane Power
  • The Green Revolution and the Media: Getting the Balance – Mr Peter Charlton, Associate Editor Courier Mail
  • Market Influences on the Future – Dr Ian Lowe
  • Shaping the Future: The Critical Role of Investment, Research and Development – Mr Peter McGauran, MHR Shadow Minister for
    Science and Energy.
Review Status: Pending
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Dr Philip Day, 1924-2011

Updated on date by author

Dr Phil Day was a lawyer and planner with top-level expertise in decentralisation of urban development, land valuation and land value taxation. These fields of speciality are relevant to the securing of public open space in localities where residential development is expanding. His extensive writings on land value taxation also have high-order – and contemporary – relevance to the shape of our cities. A brief account of his career appears in Wikipedia.

This page will come to include an archive of Dr Day’s writings and records of the influence he has had in planning policy. PaRC thanks his son Michael Day for making his professional papers available for scanning and PaRC team member Ron Turner for the painstaking task of scanning.

 

 

Development Control Bonuses: Why Not? Phil Day and David Perkins 1984.

Approaching High Noon? – on qualifications and education of planners. P.D. Day 1986.

Taxing Land or Incomes? – P.D. Day three articles, c.1987.

Brisbane- The Good, The Bad and the Ugly – speech to Brisbane Development Association, 28 March 1985. Optimised down to 15.4 MB to reduce size.

Planning in Crisis– a rational polemic against the Integrated Planning Act 1997. This paper is dated 17 June 2001.

Planning Instruments: Evolution of Queensland’s Planning System: Planning Instruments and Processes. Dr Day has annotated the margin that this 19 page paper was commissioned by the Department of Housing, Local Government and Planting, sometime in the 1990s.

Valuing Green Space – 2 April 2001, with a note in the margin that it was intended for journalist Phil Dickie.

The Big Party Syndrome: A Study of the Impact of Special Events and Inner Urban Change in Brisbane.

Speech notes on “People in the Cities“.

 

Miscellaneous lectures and articles, including papers on:

  • permanent caravan dwellers for an Affordable Housing seminar;
  • putting the Urban Environment Back on the Agenda (1989 Hancock Public Forum);;
  • Queensland: Analysis of Income Distribution;
  • an article on the Very Fast Train submitted to Australian Society;
  • a presentation to the Bayside Action Group in 1987;
  • a presentation to the Brisbane Development Association New Town Plan seminar in 1986; another to the  BDA Post-Expo seminar;
  • “Blackmail No! – But Wide Open to Abuse” on developer windfalls in 1977.

 

 

Review Status:
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Regional Planning and Regional Coordination

Updated on date by author

This is an important report, dated about 1973, explaining the intentions of the benchmark 1971 legislation the State and Regional Planning and Development, Public Works Organization and Environmental Control Act 1971-1973.

it is an important statement of the views of the Queensland Government of the day about regional land use planning, development planning, consultation and coordination. Published by the Office of the Coordinator-General.

Review Status: Pending
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Mt Archer Adventures – Dog-friendly park – Neurum Creek Bush Retreat

Updated on date by author

Tucked along Neurum Creek in the hinterland of Woodford, South-east Queensland, is a privately-owned park of 127 hectares and 1.5 km of creek frontage. Now known as Neurum Creek Bush Retreat, 268 Rasmussen Road, Mount Archer, Queensland, 4514, it was formerly owned and developed by the late David Marlow, a scientist and environmentalist as Mt Archer Adventures. Not to be confused with the Mt Archer National Park near Rockhampton or the Neurum Creek Park nearby, upstream within the National Park.

David, who lacked a business partner to share the workload, surrendered the property prior to completing its development. He was a dog lover (his speciality was American spaniels) and wanted to create a peaceful, open space venue for outdoor recreation without the regulatory constraints of a national park and in particular with the freedom for other dog lovers to bring their pets.

The attached extract from his website explains his vision. David’s health deteriorated until he passed away in February 2025. Vale David Marlow.

 

 

Review Status: Pending
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Melbourne’s Metropolitan Parks – 1974-1990

Updated on date by author

This Post presents a number of documents, mainly by officers of the Melbourne Metropolitan Board of Works, during the period of establishment and rapid development of that city’s metropolitan parks system.  For details about individual parks, search for their name.

First a compilation of some 13 documents (33 MB) including maps, tracing the evolution of the system “as it happened”.

Some of the documents in this compilation were written for internal purposes and are unpolished. Taken together, they explain what in the words of Denis Simsion, then Deputy Chief Planner commencing at page 41, “The Metropolitan Parks programme and policies of the Melbourne Metropolitan Board of Works are among the most enlightened and far-sighted of any metropolitan area in the world today.”

Mr Simsion is entitled to take a good deal of the credit for the system, as is Neville Wale, commencing at page 29, who provided much of the intellectual justification. All of Victoria owes a huge debt to these and the other officers and Commissioners who picked up a bright idea and turned it into practice.

The Premier Rupert (Dick) Hamer and Chairman of the Board Alan Croxford should not be forgotten. It is rumoured that the Premier instructed the Chairman that he ought to do something about open space. A figure always larger-than-life, Mr Croxford apparently presented a program to a subsequent Board meeting of more than 50 Commissioners. It is rumoured that as the Commissioners were starting to question the wisdom of making an open-ended commitment  to purchase huge acreages of land (by virtue of zoning as Proposed Public Open Space in the 1971 amendment to the  planning scheme), he cut off the discussion with a brusque command “All right gentlemen, enough debate, all those in favour-against-carried” before any of the sceptics had a chance to object. Thus was born a program of incalculable value to the people of Victoria and beyond.

PaRC Secretary Geoff Edwards writes: “In my capacity as Acting Manager of the Metropolitan Parks Branch in 1985, I was able to personally observe that this public-spirited mentality had endured when I presented a draft platform to the Board (by that time much reduced in number of members) requiring a multi-million-dollar commitment to capital works and maintenance over the forthcoming year. The Chairman, Ray Marginson, when questioned by a sceptical Commissioner about the implications for the budget, remarked “We will find the money somewhere, borrow it or raise rates or whatever”. If only today’s political leaders could take such an approach towards the fiscal naysayers!

A document entitled “Metropolitan Park Policies – Adopted 14.4.75” and dated May 1983 has survived; unclear whether it was original or a 1983 revision.

For a concise summarised overview of the metro parks journey, see the separate post by John Senior “Evolution of Melbourne’s Parks and Waterway System“.

 

 

 

 

Review Status: Pending
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