In My
Opinion

A Review of The Public National Heritage List Nomination to the new Australian Heritage Council, Canberra The Adelaide Park Lands & Colonel Light's Plan Under the new EPBC Act 1999 J.A. Roebuck - July 2004
Preamble (extracts) - 30th June, 2004 This public Nomination for NHL has been brought about by the actions of planning authorities who pose a serious threat to the people's sovereignty of the Adelaide Park Lands and Squares. Their Management Plans and 'strategies' fail to Identify, Protect, Conserve or present any Heritage Values for the Benefit of Future Generations. There is no acknowledgment of their historical origins; or, of the new EPBC Act requirements; of Heritage Management Principles required; of citizens rights or custodianship; of ongoing public involvement in the planning process; or of legal jurisdictions.
Information Deficit At the heart of our information deficit, is any knowledge of how the Park Lands of Adelaide originated, and of the universal significance of Colonel Light's Plan, or of the technical achievement of his surveying method.
The Surveyor-General's Maps and boundaries ignored There is no mention in this nomination of 'City parklands'. A preliminary primary source Chronology and Bibliography was sent but no questions have been asked of the nominator. The AHC third extended assessment period expires in June 2008.
Colonel Light's original plan of the city exhibited at the selection and sale of the town acres in March 1837, showed the city divided into two blocks--that to the south of the river comprising 700 acres, while that to the north comprised 343 acres--surrounded on all sides by a large area of vacant land, which Colonel Light, in pursuance of his instructions and with the sanction of the Resident Commissioner, the late Sir James Hurtle Fisher, described as parks, to be reserved from sale, and dedicated as Park Lands for the use and recreation of the citizens, with the exception of nine blocks of land thereon delineated, and which were stated to be reserved out of the Park Lands for various Government buildings or other purposes, the use for which each such block was reserved being in each case printed thereon. ...as may be seen on reference to the original maps of Districts A and B, and which also shows the numbers and position of the nine Government reserves.
The Adelaide City Council sent a nomination of the old RNE Historic Layout and City Plan on the 8th March, 2005, which does not include any primary source historical information about the Park Lands or Light's Plan.

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NHL
National
Heritage
List

EPBC
Environment
Protection
and
Biodiversity
Conservation
Act

AHC
Australian
Heritage
Council

RNE
Register
of the
National
Estate

Updated
1-3-2008
Nomination assessment