The City Renewal Authority has unveiled plans to revitalise Haig Park in the city’s inner north with a number of potential improvements, activities and events over the next six months.
The Authority has appointed a University of Canberra-led consortium, which includes Tait Network, Ainslie and Gorman Arts Centres and Dionysus, to implement a range of events, activities and light-touch park improvements that could be made permanent if successful.
Chief Executive of the Authority, Malcolm Snow said the $945,000Haig Park Experiments project was consistent with the Haig Park Place Plan, which was developed in consultation with the community.
“The place planning process showed us that people valued Haig Park highly, but it also revealed how much better they wanted this valuable green space to be,” Mr Snow said.
“The appointment of this consortium to start implementing some of the actions in the place plan is an exciting first step in making Haig Park more vibrant, attractive, safe and accessible.”
He said the aim was to change people’s perception of this public asset and invite the Canberra community back in to enjoy what was an under-utilised inner-city park.
“The Haig Park Experiments will take place in three stages across a six-month period starting in mid-2019,” Mr Snow said.
He said the first phase, ‘Welcome’, would be to invite people back into the park by refreshing key areas of its infrastructure, supported by small-scale public activities.
The next stage ‘Discovery’, would be to encourage new types of participation through larger-scale infrastructure like a temporary pavilion, nature play, running tracks, and events that rediscovered the seasonal beauty of winter.
The final phase, ‘Celebration’, would continue the testing of the first two phases and build to deliver larger events that tested the potential of the park in warmer weather.
“We have tasked this consortium with trialling ways that we can make the park safer and more attractive to spend time in, while recognising its important heritage values,” Mr Snow said.
