![]() Roma Street Parkland’s popularity is attested to by its team of over one hundred volunteers, including forty guides, thirty-eight gardeners and nearly thirty drivers and conductors for the trackless train. ![]() All exist in dramatic contrast to a backdrop of the surrounding city. There are promenades, lookouts, gully retreats and nooks, and broad lawns. They can be seen at all times of the day, running, strolling, picnicking, simply looking, not only at the spaces and the water, but at the plants in all their variety and profusion. This, ultimately, is what visitors come for. Subtropical plants have been chosen for the parklands, many from forgotten ecosystems While earlier evaluations of the design suggested a somewhat awkward coexistence between its many diverse elements, the scale and profusion of a well-thought-out planting design now dominates the overall composition, and happily so. The massive scale of the built elements – the walls, buildings, steps and pavements, essential because of the intensity of use and challenging topography, and with their formal references to the site’s industrial past – is now softened and framed by this rich palette of vegetation. The rainforest gardens include fern gullies, palm groves and an “Angiopteris ravine.” It is these plantings, both in their established and developing forms, that now provide the core character of the Parkland and unique experiences for users. Groves of pandanus and bottle tree, crescents of Queensland maples and paperbark forests coexist with the more traditionally laid out but equally interesting avenues of hoop pine and themed display gardens (there are over fifty of them). Its design challenged and extended, for the first time, the local tradition of exotic display planting, incorporating plants not only from the world’s subtropics but from many of Queensland’s forgotten or ignored ecosystems. The Parkland provides sixteen hectares of recreational space for the north of the CBD and provided the impetus for the recently developed surrounding commercial and residential precincts. While the designers (a consortium including Gillespies Australia, Landplan Studio, DEM Design and Civitas Urban Design, and familiar names such as Mark Fuller, the current Queensland Government Architect Malcolm Middleton and Lawrie Smith) might bemoan the fact that certain aspects of the project did not come to fruition in the rush for its completion, Roma Street Parkland has made a significant contribution to urban character, connectivity and recreational life in the city. Until the parkland was established, with its associated pedestrian connectors to its surroundings, these wastelands divided the city and prevented the development of nearby land for successful residential and commercial development. It was inaccessible and, even more significantly, spatially divisive. Roma Street Parkland was constructed in an important part of the central city that was occupied by old railyards and cuttings. The amphitheatre is used for community events and festivals. How this is to happen is yet to be detailed, but it raises some important questions about the future of these open spaces, both of which have been so important for the development of Brisbane over the last two decades that is, to its identity as a city with a definable and vibrant cultural heart to complement its cluster of suburban centres. ![]() Shortly after the election, as one of his first pronouncements on change in the state, the premier (and former lord mayor of Brisbane), Campbell Newman, announced that the parklands at Roma Street and South Bank would be handed over to the care of Brisbane City Council. ![]() First planned in the mid 1990s and opened in 2001 as a state government project, Roma Street Parkland remained in state, rather than local, government care and management until the change of government in Queensland in March 2012. We are grateful for this and strive to continue exceeding our clients’ expectations because we know our success is measured by your satisfaction.Roma Street Parkland was one of the first parks to challenge the norm, following on from South Bank Parklands, where more recent projects have reworked the Expo ’88 fabric, introducing contemporary recreation settings such as streets, restaurant precincts, waterfront lawns and playgrounds to complement the more traditional swimming pools and barbecues. This has allowed us to build strong and long-lasting relations with our clients, who keep choosing us as their primary provider of landscaping, hardscaping, and lawn care services one job after another. Our highly-skilled team of landscaping professionals has earned a solid reputation for their fine attention to detail and delivering superior quality results. At C&S Lawn and Landscaping, we take pride in being the leading provider of lawn care and landscaping services for residential and commercial property owners in Bloomington, IN, and the surrounding areas. ![]()
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