Evaluation

The park is a good example of a project that fulfils the PCAL design objectives for open space – namely providing public open spaces within walking distance from dwellings, and clearly defining walking and cycling routes that pass through open spaces and connect to the broader walking and cycling network.

The park encourages and enables active living by incorporating a number of the design considerations set out in the ‘open spaces’ section of Designing Places for Active Living, namely:

• Provide open space within safe, comfortable walking distance from dwellings

Heritage Park is located just off the town’s main street (Adelaide Street), within easy walking distance from local residences, shops, services and schools. Blayney is a small and relatively compact town, meaning that the majority of dwellings would be within a one kilometre walk of the park. Many are much closer – for example, houses on Adelaide and Martha Streets are immediately adjacent to the park, and residents to the south of the park can access it via the short ‘President’s Walk’ from Mitchell Street. The park is an 800 metre walk from the local high school and a one kilometre walk from Blayney Public School.

• Connect public open space to the local and regional walking and cycling network with safe pedestrian crossings leading to or near park entrances

The park is well integrated with the local town, with footpaths leading directly to, and around the Park from Adelaide Street. These paths also connect to the ‘President’s Walk’, on the other side of Martha Street. A path also runs through the park, with footbridges over the creek and ponds, and provides a pleasant route for walkers and a safe circuit for children learning to cycle. The track features signage to encourage safe use and help children to understand common ‘road rules’, and has been used for RTA Bike Week events to educate children on bicycle safety.

• Encourage active recreation through the provision of a range of well designed play and sporting facilities

The park’s ‘adventure playground’ contains a range of innovative and well-designed play equipment that offers children many opportunities for fun and stimulating play. Features including a ‘space net’ (large rope climbing pyramid), ‘flying fox’ (cable ride), ‘comet’ (spinning ride) and a ‘mouse house’ (a timber-lined cylinder, large enough to walk through, which rotates when children walk or run inside it). For younger children the park includes the more familiar slides, swings climbing frames, a toy train, and a large shaded sandpit. This variety of equipment encourages active recreation by providing for a range of activities for children of all ages. The location of the different activities in different parts of the park also encourages children to run around and explore the different areas.

The park also provides a range of nature-based play opportunities. A constructed central creek with ponds and a ‘sensory garden’ provide an interesting and diverse nature corridor. These features offer children (and adults) a range of active and exploratory experiences, with opportunities to jump across rocks, play with water, and observe native fauna. The creek and ponds feed into the adjoining wetlands and the planting of native endemic species supports water filtration and attracts birds and other wildlife.

• Create and maintain attractive and pleasant places for people to walk, cycle, train, sit, meet and talk

The park is an attractive and pleasant place for people to gather, and is used in many ways by the local community. Visitors can play chess on the giant chess board, sit and relax on one of the many conveniently placed and shaded seats, or meet to enjoy a barbeque or picnic. A carefully designed layout means children can play within sight of parents and carers. The natural setting, attractive landscaping, and the gathering areas near the creek, ponds and gardens make the park an inviting place for people to meet, sit and talk. Disabled access toilets are also provided.

The park also provides a venue for large community gatherings, with the shaded amphitheatre providing an effective area to stage local events. Blayney schools have used the wetlands and sensory garden as a safe and accessible venue for environmental education, and Council officers have also provided onsite environmental education to various groups including school and university students and Scouts.

As well as providing a high quality recreational facility for local residents, Heritage Park provides a ‘rest stop’ for travelers on the MidWestern Highway, and has also been identified by Council as a potential site for the RTA sponsored Driver Reviver Program, during holiday periods.

Blayney Shire Council and the local energy authority are considering developing a ‘summer cinema’ series, with a wall on which to project movies during summer evenings.

• Promote safety and amenity through good design, such as drought-resistant shade trees, natural surveillance from surrounding uses, seating, lighting and clear and convenient entry points

The Park features numerous drought-resistant shade trees, many of which have seating beneath them. Large shade sails are provided over the sand pit and amphitheatre areas.

A range of seating helps provide a high level of amenity in the park. This includes bench seating to view the adjacent tennis courts, seating grouped under shade trees and overlooking the children’s play areas, and picnic seating within the barbecue shelters.

The park is well lit with dedicated light poles installed, as well as light spilling from adjacent streetlights. The park has clear and convenient entry points, and surrounding uses provide good surveillance for the park – there are houses along Adelaide Street that directly overlook the western side of the park, and the Blayney District Tennis Club is immediately adjacent, overlooking the park from the north.

• Cluster compatible land uses within or at the edge of parks or open space corridors, such as cafes and restaurants, child care centres and indoor/leisure/sports centres. This helps reduce the land required for parking and improves accessibility.

In addition to the many facilities provided within the park, there is a tennis club next door, with which the park shares parking spaces. Recently a mobile café has set up at the Park on some afternoons – improving accessibility by attracting more people to the park and encouraging parents to stop for longer, perhaps sitting down for a coffee while their children play in the park.