Commonwealth Park needs a rescue mission to remain the city's green heart

Unfortunately Commonwealth Park is being overrun by grey-headed flying-foxes. Many thousands now roost seasonally in the trees and numbers have been increasing since first noticed in 2003.
Anyone who attended Floriade would have noticed the smell and noise coming from these continually denuding, defecating and screeching creatures, known to carry health risk pathogens.
Would it make sense to disperse a problem bat colony from a popular recreational and tourist area? Too difficult according to the Commonwealth Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999, the ACT Nature Conservation Strategy 2014, the 103 page National Capital Authority Commonwealth Park Grey Headed Flying-Fox Camp Management Plan (google it) and the ABS (no not that one, the Australasian Bat Society).
Once the population in Commonwealth Park reaches a certain number the colony could be classed as a “nationally important camp”. When that does happen, future “high-risk activity” events that may cause a disturbance to the resident flying-foxes could be referred to the federal environment minister or department for assessment.
So potentially – bye bye Floriade, music festivals, fireworks, 21-gun salutes and any other events that cause stress to bats.

If millions are to be spent, then the whole precinct should be re-imagined. You know half the reason Taronga Zoo in Sydney is amazing? Because it’s sited overlooking Sydney Harbour. Floriade is a tourism drawcard, but it’s held in the “back lot” of the lake precinct. The car park is sited on the best land, up on the ridge, and that, along with the grass lake verge, comprises the “spectacular” setting, which is wrongly purposed.

On the other side of Commonwealth Ave, carparks also cover the best event-amenable land, although it’s not quite as spectacular as the lakeside vista by Commonwealth Park. So: move Floriade southward onto the lakeside and ridge area, and banish the carpark, I dunno, into the back lot where Floriade is now.

I can imagine the gasps of approbrium. But see it from a tourism point of view rather than a parochial point of view: imagine the selfie with the tulips in the foreground, and High Court/ Library / fountain in the background. Now *that’s* an international money shot. That’s the photo that will ricochet on smartphones everywhere, from London to Beijing.
Ka-ching.

Excellent article. As a regular user of the Park there needs to be serious consideration given to another venue for Floriade. With a month to set up and a month to take down and reverberate it means the Park can’t be used for a walk for 3 months.

Let’s get the Catholic archbishop out of the place and open up that building to the public as an art gallery or similar

I don’t know if Sylvia Crowe ever came to Canberra, but it would be good to see an updated masterplan based on contemporary Australian climate and improved knowledge of native horticulture. The lake is surrounded by various informal and formal leisure areas so it would be important to retain a defined identity for CP, and i’d like to see better use of the water linking it better to the larger lake BG.
The park has also been pushed as a local park for the various apartments that have sprung up along Constitution Avenue, it would be good to make more of this link and get it thriving.