West Australian (Perth, WA : 1879 - 1954), Tuesday 1 August 1939, page 15


f, KING'S PARK. MR. D. L. DAVIDSON CRITICAL State Commission Advocated. The creation of a State Parks Commission to control all parks and beauty spots in Western Australia was advocated by the Town Planning Commissioner (Mr. D. L. Davidson) yesterday, when referring to recent proposals for and discussion of improvement of King's Park and its environs. He strongly criticised various development works undertaken at the park and made suggestions for its future development. "The major development of King's Park and its environs is long overdue." lhe said. "The King's Park Board has very little money available, and it is rather difficult for the two local authorities concerned to justify the large expenditure on what would be an extension of a main road along Thomas-street and an ornamental Winthrop-avenue from Thomasstreet to Stirling-highway. "The problem is one which justifies the creation of a State Parks Commission to develop and link up all the tourist beauty spots and parks throughout the State on the lines of the Westchester County Park Conmmission in the State of New York. At the present time local authorities are finding it increasingly difficult to finance improvements which generally serve influxes of visitors and tourists, and the various boards, like the King's Park Board, the State Gardens Board and the Nornalup Park Board, have very little funds to maintain and recreate the attractiveness which should prove a greater source of revenue from tourist traffic. From a purely health point of view some Statewide authority is essential, quite apart from the maintenance and development of State assets. Organised Sport in Parks. "In the past 25 years there has been a marked and growing confusion in the terminology applied to parks. The word 'park' has been applied to squares, ovals, triangles, places, monument sites, promenades, boulevards and public gardens, sports grounds and other areas which Snctlionally are the direct opposite to 'peaceful enjoyment of an idealised rural landscape.' There have been many instances where natural parks have been transformed from places where 'town dwellers could secure genuine recreation coming from the peaceful enjoyment of an idealised landscape' to active recreation grounds for organised sport, the controy of which is developing into just as big a vested interest as any commercial monopoly. The King's Park Board deserves every commendation in its endeavours to maintain its thousand-acre nature park and prevent further intrusion of organised sport and petty ambition into the area which it holds in trust for all the people of the State for all time, keepAg before it the dominant ideal of 'peaceVul enjoyment amid peaceful surroundings of a naturalistic kind.' "Unfortunately, in its endeavours to preserve King's Park, the board has failed to take effective measures to maintain the natural flora of the park, and to establish a plan of development whereby contingencies could be foreseen and expenditure have a cumulative value. Only just completed is a red brick room adjoining the attractive stone lodge at the main entrance, and this brick room only lacks tuckpointing to establish a standard of park furniture found nowhere else. How such suburban backyard architecture came to be inflicted on King's Park is a. mystery that has yet to be solved. "The concrete post cum waterpipe complex is also evident. This might be attributed to a survival of the fear that cowbell days will come again. If the waterpipe is necessary for servicing the park for watering and fire control then the pipe can be accommodated six inches under the surface and the concrete posts omitted, thereby incorporating the park as part of the surrounding boulevards. Any further fencing on Thomas-street and Winthrop-avenue should be omitted and the existing fencing on Bellevueterrace and King's Park-road removed. "It has been noted by many people that the veldt grass, together with an munbalanced growth of the least attractive scrub, has contributed to the increasing fierceness of the fires in King's Park, with the result that, instead of the park being maintained as a natural forest carpeted with peerless wild flowers it is becoming a necropolis of dying or dead trees with patches of impenetrable thicket. It is not generally realised that to maintain a park in a natural attractive state requires closer attention and higher skill than to maintain the lawns and flowerbeds of public gardens and that nature's charm is not static. Every school child k-gws that a domestic garden, run wild, permits the violets and the roses to kill off almost every other flower, and there is distinct evidence that two or three species of natural plants and shrubs in the park are gradually encroaching upon and covering areas where attractive wild flowers once grew. If the board does not undertake a comprehensive maintenance policy it will be only a few years before the hovea, kangaroo paws, ground orchids and other delightful flora will completely disappear. "Due for a General Clean-Up." "rhere seems to be no attempt at the preservation or development of the Mount's Bay-road frontage of the Dark between the brewery and the baths, where castor oil trees and running sand are taking charge of what could be most attractlve hanging gardens. This part ofthe park is due for a general clean-up and planting of flowering shrubs and trees in the Interstices of the weathered cliffs and the encouragement of natural flora to ppld up the talus slopes. There is also a necessity for hidden fencing on the escar.ment or just below it to prevent the public breaking down the natural slopes and preventing erosion by wind and water,. The park entrance reminds one only of the gates to a small town cemetery instead of the portal to one of the noblest parks in the world. "Winthrop-avenue, with its 126 feet of width, gives opportunity to establish one of the few true vistas possible in Perth -a vista of the main University building at the end of a boulevard equal to anything in Paris. The building of Thomasstreet and Winthrop-avenue is long overdue for utilitarian reasons quite apart from the aesthetic. At the present time Thomas-street between King's Park-road and Hampden-road, with its uneven irregular surfacing, contributes unduly to traffic hazards, especially in wet weather, and an extension of the boulevard treatment established by the City Council in King's Park-road would complete the framework of King's Park on three sides with Mount's Bay-road development to follow."