I would like to suggest that the Princes Wharf precinct, that is currently being earmarked for development should be transformed into an open lawn area. suitable for various kinds of events.
This precinct is already the most utilised space in Tasmania. A people's park that's both comfortable for small family groups and for major events.
Not private real estate that will facilitate one entrepreneur but a space that will allow all kinds of enterprise on a uniquely Tasmanian scale.
Not an Oceanport or a Marine Board Building or a Sheraton or any other edifice, but a lawn. So when the the cruise ship docks , the passengers disembark not into some under utilised mausoleum built to accommodate the current real estate bubble, but an open area where we are playing with our kids with a row of Georgian sandstone warehouses as a backdrop.
Does that sound feasible? It's what we already have, but for an apple shed that has far outgrown its use-by date and the courage of a Goverment to ignore the developers thirst for more real estate in Sullivans Cove.
As Tasmanians ... we are isolationists, that's what we like about living here. What we need is to be able to assemble in a large open area like Salamanca, then disappear back into our own self sufficiency.
The Princes Wharf faces Parliament and sits next to Salamanca Place. It's position is important. the New Wharf as governor Arthur called it. It was the vision of Arthur's, that Tasmania could be something other than a prison. Storehouses for industry. He chose the Salamanca area because it was protected from the cold south westerlies. A cosy north-eastern facing cove, rather than the bleak exposed Hunter Island.
His choice of Salamanca is the same one thousands of Tasmanians do for the same reason. The weather. Nestled behind the hill at Battery Point close to the water.
And this area I suggest, should be named Neilson Park ... after the former Premier who had the foresight to save the area from the developer's grip in the 1960s. His grandfather arrived here from Brisbane with George Adams of Tattersalls fame. His father was the postmaster at Bellerive. He was the youngest man elected to an Australian parliament in 1949, canvassing votes from his bicycle on the Eastern Shore.
His inherited love of the classics knew no shame, renowned for breaking out in song at any opportunity. He held the education portfolio for the majority of his long period in the Tasmanian Parliament, the future through our kids' education was his motif. He held this ministry through the baby-boomer generation, that huge group to move through history.
He led The Labor Party to victory here in January 1976, just six weeks after Whitlam was decimated in the poll after his sacking by Kerr - when Tasmania went from having five Federal Labor seats to none. A true believer and champion of a fair go. He was also Premier when the bridge collapsed in 1975 and awarded the contract to Bob Clifford to ferry Eastern Shore residents across the Derwent. Wasn't that really the "leg-up" that enabled Clifford to start Incat?
On advice from people like Claudio Alcorso, Kenneth Brooks and his sister Shirley, he gave seven warehouses, which were formerly Education Department stores, to the arts community. This became the Salamanca Arts Centre. They started the Salamanca market and it has housed some of our best talent over the past 25 years.
The artists were the first to really inhabit the place since the apple industry collapsed there in the 1950s. Eventually everyone sat around thinking Salamanca is good but it's not groovy; you can't buy coffee in a glass. Bill and Kay turned that around with the Retro in 1990. People were queuing out the door for coffee in a glass.
More and More Cafes sprung up. Suddenly a real estate agent put two and two together. Artists, galleries, coffee in a glass....wouldn't be a bad place to live! Better than sitting out in the suburbs waiting for "meals on wheels" to turn up. Apartments came next.
The growth in the use of this part of Hobart has been phenominal. If you stood at the corner of Salamanca Place and Davey St looking east and you wanted to calculate the amount of financial turnover in this area in the past 12 months it would be many millions. This has been because of its versatility, a market one day, a food festival the next.
If we want to congregate and the weather is great, but the sea breeze has sprung up.....where do you go?
What I am suggesting is a clever park that allows access to a variety of uses.and works in concert with the way the area has developed of its own accord.
If we maintain the area as a neutral grassed and paved zone, it can be used for the Taste of Tasmania as well as a host of other events. We also get the added benefit that if we make "the Taste" a free-standing one ie, a series of marquees, there is nothing stoppng us from mounting the event at Darling Harbor in Sydney or Station pier in Melbourne; with Tourism Tasmania and the new ferries.
"How about you come to Darling Harbour this weekend and have a taste of Tasmania, and if you like it ....Get on Board!!!!!!
An area in the heart of Sullivan's Cove that we already own gives us the facility to test-drive this idea.
What we don't need is another failed edifice that the Government is forced to buy because of its non-viability e.g. The Antarctic Centre.
We need something that is human in its scale. That can house large outdoor events. But for those other months when there is not many people about can revert to just a simple lawn area.
If this idea is instigated I can envisage the space being used in all sorts of ways as well as the Taste of Tasmania, sculpture by the sea, wine shows, music events, the possibilities are limited only by our imagination.
To build a park is social policy, it's not something that an architect or a developer will advise you to do.
It's a statesman who will build a park on this site, and dedicate it to an overlooked champion of Labor.
We as a community have elected this as ours, it's going to be a developer's nightmare trying to please all the forces and interest groups that will be involved; only someone grossly insensitive is going to attempt it.
Make us proud and build a park.
James Williamson is ... a bio is on its way.
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Thursday, November 20, 2003