The Adelaide Park Lands
Our Inheritance - Our Birthright

"Having thus described the various sites reserved out of the Park lands for Government purposes, and shown how far the original plan of Colonel Light has or has not been adhered to, it appears to me desirable to point out the various instances in which the Government have encroached on the Park Lands without first seeking authority to do so, leaving it with the public to consider how far it may be advisable to condone the irrecoverable past, or to take such steps as may from time to time be necessary to guard against the right of the citizens being again encroached on."
- G. S. Kingston, Speaker of the House 1877

CITIZENS! Have-a-care! Piece by piece....here a little and there a little--a barrack--a hospital--a police station--a gaol enclosure--an exhibition building--a printing office--a market--this, that, and the other; a public railway station, and now a private railway station--acre after acre taken up and fenced in and off--landscapes blocked out of sight--fresh air befouled--the lungs of the city deteriorated--the play grounds of the citizens swallowed up. Surely if the park lands are not verdant their should-be protectors are, and by-and-by 'vested interests' will be too powerful to be gain-said, and precedents will be paraded as a reason for further aggression on our rights. Here's food for thought. Be wise in time, 'tis madness to defer!
- David Gall, Editor of The Comet 1st February, 1869

..."in this stopping up of Morphett-street they (the government) were inflicting a further injury on the residents of that part of the city: that they were setting aside the plans of Colonel Light, and ignoring all the claims of the citizens to direct communication with the river from Morphett-street, which had existed for forty-two years (Hear, hear.)"
- Sir George Kingston,
deputation to the Commissioner of Public Works November, 1878

"Permit me, sir, ...to protest against any such misappropriation of our parks, which as the city and suburbs become built over, become increasingly valuable as places of recreation where any may go without let or hindrance. We do not object to recreation or to the temporary use of portions for special purposes; but that the public should be shut out from their own grounds by any speculator, or any association whatever, is opposed to the spirit of
the original grant of our splendid parks, the glory of Adelaide"
...David Gall, July 1878