Adelaide Park Lands and City Layout

The 1837 Adelaide Plan and its physical expression are recognised as a significant example of early colonial planning and a masterwork of urban design. The pattern and form of the 1837 design remain legible today. The Park Lands are fundamental to the character, identity and public experience of Adelaide. They are valued for their generous expanses of public open space, including gardens, public facilities, diverse opportunities for passive and active recreation, and range of civic and cultural assets and institutions.

GML Heritage was engaged by the Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water (DCCEEW) to provide strategic planning advice on the Adelaide Park Lands and City Layout National Heritage place. This involved clarifying the nature and expression of its National Heritage values on the ground, identifying challenges for the management of these values, and providing a framework for future decision-making to help avoid and mitigate cumulative impacts on the values.

Conducting a close analysis of the National Heritage values, GML surveyed all parks and squares of the Adelaide Park Lands to understand how the high-level heritage values are expressed through the plantings, landscapes, amenities and other features. GML analysed the conservation pressures affecting the site, particularly the cumulative impacts of change, and provided strategic heritage principles, controls and recommendations to help manage these pressures in the context of improved understanding of the heritage values for place managers.

GML’s work enabled DCCEEW and the City of Adelaide to develop a clearer understanding of how the National Heritage values of this multilayered, large-scale heritage place are expressed on the ground. This information will form the baseline for heritage impact assessments, allowing for a more accurate assessment of how projects in specific areas of the Park Lands could impact the values of the National Heritage place as a whole.