The public parks, gardens, bushland and open spaces of Melbourne are central to the cultural, recreational and sporting traditions of our city. They belong to the community.
The parklands are vital assets and adequate resources must be devoted to maintaining them. They provide the essential balance against the environmental impact of continuing urban growth.
There must be legal safeguards against commercial interests and state and local government projects that threaten them.
Any proposal that would alter existing forms of recreational use or diminish or degrade parklands must be subject to full and open community consultation and objective assesment.
Positive environmental and social outcomes must be demonstrated before any changes are made and there must be an undertaking that any open spaces lost are replaced with areas equal in size and quality.
Melbourne has inherited a world class system of open spaces of which it has long been proud. Our parks, gardens, bushland and open spaces must be preserved.
On the site of former parkland and sporting ovals, six pit buildings have been erected to suit the needs of Formula One racing teams and the Australian Grand Prix Corporation. Longer than a city block and equal to 3.5 stories high, these monstrous buildings are part of a network of underpasses, pit lanes and a 30 metre wide main straight which now dominates the western side of Albert Park.
To many Victorians the pit buildings are as representative of the desecration of Albert Park as the felling of more than 1000 mature trees. In a broader sense, however, the pit buildings represent much more. They are a potent symbol of a government which is sacrificing parkland for commercial enterprise, which is destroying natural bushland for freeway construction and which is placing our urban environment at risk for the sake of development.
All over Victoria, community groups are campaigning to halt the environmental destruction being wrought by the State Government in the name of progress. A number of them have collaborated to write this Parklands Code ...
Acland Street Residents' Association
Australian Conservation Foundation
Blackburn and District Tree Preservation Society
Brunswick Community History Group
Coalition Against Freeway Extensions
Coalition of Residents Against Ministerial Planning
Environmental Education in Early Childhood
Environment Victoria
Friends of Merri Creek
Friends of Organ Pipes National Park
Friends of Sherbrooke Forest
Friends of Wattle Park
Friends of Williamstown Wetlands
Friends of the Yarra
Greenlink Camberwell
Greenlink Oakleigh
Hillcrest Association
Householders' Option to Protect the Environment
Koonung Mullum Forestway Association
Melbourne Women's Walking Club
Mt Evelyn Environment Protection and Progress
North Carlton Association
North Melbourne Coalition for Local Democracy
Pascoe Vale Naturalists' Club
Peoples' Committee for Melbourne
Port Phillip Conservation Council
Prahran Residents' Association
Princes Park Protection Association
Public Transport Users' Association
Rainbow Alliance
Save Albert Park
Save Belmont Common
Save the Dandenongs League
Save Princes Park
South Parkville Precinct Environmental Group
Town and Country Planning Association (Victoria)
Upper Yarra & Dandenongs Environmental Council
Uniting Church - Victorian Synod
Upwey Regional Action Group for the Environment
Victorian National Parks Association
Yarra Bend Protection Group
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