James Stevens (Sturt, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise this evening to talk about the important history and even more important future of the River Torrens and Linear Park. The river runs from Mount Pleasant in the Adelaide Hills down through my electorate of Sturt, right through the CBD—it separates the CBD from North Adelaide—and out to the coast at Gulf St Vincent in Adelaide. It's the iconic river of the city. When Colonel William Light designed modern Adelaide, he embraced the river as the essential geometric proportion calibration of the planned city that is Adelaide. My electorate of Sturt is essentially everything east of the now Adelaide CBD into the hills face and foothills of the Adelaide Hills. So the River Torrens is very important to me and very important to my community.

Since European settlement, we haven't really treated it as well as we should have. As was invariably the case in the 19th century, rivers essentially were the sewer system of settlements. Certainly, initially, the river was not something to be embraced in the early time of settlement of Adelaide. It was, as I said, essentially, a sewer system for the city and something to be avoided. Nonetheless, in the 20th century, some of the significant public buildings started to embrace the river. The Adelaide Zoo sits on the river, and thankfully, through most of my electorate, more importantly, a lot of things weren't built anywhere near the river. We have what we call Linear Park, which doesn't quite run the full length of the River Torrens from the ocean into the hills, but it certainly runs the entirety of the Torrens stretch, through my electorate from the east of the city up until the foothills.

It is an unbelievable natural asset. It's an unbelievable recreational asset for local families. It's also something that can be a lot more than what it currently is. Certainly, in my first term in the parliament, I was very focused on securing investments to some of the initial opportunities to improve Linear Park and the River Torrens. I'm grateful to the previous government that we succeeded in achieving an important investment in the Second Creek, which flows into the River Torrens. It is a gross pollutant trap, which stops a lot of the European deciduous foliage in particular that flows into our creek system and can cause algae blooms and a lot of pollution in the River Torrens. We also have started the process of investing in footpaths, particularly upgrading footpaths, so that they can be more suited to modern recreation, which of course these days includes sharing. There's a lot more than just walking and running and even bike riding that now goes on, from a recreational-pursuit point of view. But the job is very much in its infancy. To me, there is an enormous opportunity for us to be investing much more significantly in the River Torrens Linear Park, all the way from the beach to the hills, to make it achieve its full potential, not only as a natural asset but also as a recreational asset for the City of Adelaide. In particular, I'm interested in the welfare of my constituents within that catchment.

As a key part of that, the Torrens runs through the Adelaide Parklands. The Adelaide Parklands are iconic, but there are certainly concerning elements. Every five or 10 years, we tend to have some kind of proposal to do a little bit of development in the Adelaide Parklands. The development itself has always got individual merit, but of course, a bit like slicing salami, project after project, we are at risk of having the Parklands become jeopardised by good individual ideas that, in the sum, start to erode that asset. So essential to a vision for the Torrens and Linear Park is indeed pursuing a UNESCO World Heritage listing for the Adelaide Parklands. I think there's a lot of merit in that protection. I think it would certainly meet the thresholds required by UNESCO. Obviously, there's a process to be gone through, and I'm very passionate about being a part of initiating that process. It would provide a new and enhanced level of protection for the Adelaide Park Lands in particular. As we know, once there is an international obligation or agreement in place, some Commonwealth protections are triggered that will make it a lot more impossible, frankly—as opposed to a lot more difficult, as it already is—to undertake developments on the Adelaide Park Lands.

The Labor government at the moment are demolishing a heritage police barracks on the park lands to build a new women's and children's hospital. I'm all for the hospital. I'm wondering whether the site that they've chosen was absolutely necessary or the one that is saving the most money. But we're going to lose a very significant part of the history of South Australia and of Adelaide, and that's very regrettable. It is an example of other projects that have been proposed, that are occurring or that may be proposed in the future that I would like to not be made possible through that UNESCO listing. I, as a Commonwealth politician, can be a part of providing protection—not seeking to cop out and blame state and local governments when we can't stop these things from going ahead, but getting a Commonwealth protection in place for the park lands.

They are not strictly in my electorate. The boundary of my electorate is the Adelaide Park Lands, and the park lands themselves fall within the seat of Adelaide. But I can tell you: the people of my electorate of Sturt are very passionate about them. They use the park lands as part of the Linear Park precinct. So UNESCO World Heritage listing is a key part of that vision.

Another is investing in the recreational infrastructure along Linear Park. The vision has to include being able to go continuously all the way from the coast to the source of the Torrens and back again, and, certainly, that would provide an unbelievable opportunity for those seeking recreation and quality time with family in undertaking various outdoor pursuits.

We want to reintroduce the platypus into the River Torrens. It was a habitat for the platypus until European settlement. Not surprisingly, but very regrettably, that habitat was destroyed in the early days of European settlement of the South Australian colonies. So reintroducing the platypus into what was its native habitat, the Torrens, is another really important part of that vision. So is ensuring that we're undertaking those environmental upgrades to the Torrens proper and to the catchment, which is, of course, suburban Adelaide, which has its own unique challenge. But there are a lot of things we can do to dramatically improve the creeks that flow into the Torrens with the spread of tree canopy; the planting of more natives; the removal of pests, both flora and fauna; and ensuring that we have a really healthy biodiversity throughout the Torrens and throughout Linear Park.

It's an opportunity to work at all levels of government and for the community to come together. I've got some fantastic Landcare groups in my electorate that work on different sections of Linear Park and different sections of the creeks that flow into the Torrens. They all do fantastic work. We all know how vital volunteers are and the sorts of transformations that only they can achieve at the community and local level. But, to me, we also want that Commonwealth leadership. I went to the last election with a focus on Linear Park, and I will again be going to the next election talking about the next things we can do to enhance that natural asset for our community: UNESCO World Heritage listing for the Adelaide Park Lands; reintroducing the platypus into its native habitat; creating the safety of that habitat again in the Torrens; investing in recreational upgrades, to make sure that everyone can get maximum value; and, of course, also ensuring that we're investing in environmental projects so that we're protecting and enhancing that catchment and that river system as an ecosystem.

It's something of great pride to everyone in Adelaide. It's a great asset, the Torrens. It can be even better for us. As a local member, these are exactly the sorts of things that are priorities for me: identifying local things to work towards, bringing the community together, investing in it together and achieving something to pass on to future generations.