Caroline Le Couteur gets on the Green Square grass

FFS, it’s a small patch of grass that needs watering now and then. What is wrong with this government?

My thoughts precisely Thumper!

And Tom Tom, I think it’s good that a Molonglo MLA is paying some attention to a Molonglo issue. It’s important and high profile for a lot of people. Are you suggesting Caroline should only bother with “big issues”?

Elected reps can’t win in this town. They focus on big stuff, or have the temerity to pass comment on a global issue, they’re told to stick to the roads/rates/rubbish stuff and remember they’re just an overgrown council. They speak up about piss poor maintenance of a public square and they’re told to stick to big issues…

God forbid any of them should dare speak up about the disgusting chipseal bitumen that is rapidly taking over all of our suburban streets!

Walk…chew gum…same time.

Gobsmacked. My neighbour mows and maintains a government-owned piece of turf about 20 times the size of Green Square. We all maintain our naturestrips. For gawwsakes, one half of a nature-strip equivalent between about a dozen businesses. Water the damn thing out of dregs from clients’ water bottles or something.

I lived in the area and would hate to see Green Square’s grass go but this

Kramer said :

If the tenants / owners of the green square buildings were so concerned with their precious patch of turf, you would think they would water it themselves – or even better divert the stormwater from the rooftop onto the grass.

is exactly what we were saying watching the story on the news.

heinous said :

The solution here is so obvious. Get some rain water tanks.

So how much of your own money would you like to spend on something the government might choose to tear up tomorrow?

The solution here is so obvious. Get some rain water tanks.

I agree with Sepi here, but I can also see the counter argument. Given that it is such a small area, why not go the ‘AIS’ route and install that new breed of fantastic artificial grass that looks real, feels real but requires no maintenance (and is far less itchy). The stuff at the AIS athletic field is great and plenty of people choose to sit on it and have their lunch etc… No weeds or brown patches either. Okay – not quite the same as the real thing, but better than both a big ugly dust bowl and wasting water in these dry times.

Well if it comes to that, then just leave it to go dustbowl like the sporting grounds, and it can regrow when we get some rain, or the shop-owners can bucket water or whatever.

Honestly, it is not a huge area, but it is well used by all sorts of people – workers during lunchtime and after work weekdays, families on weekends, and clubbers by night.

Once it goes to ‘landscaping’ it becomes useless. Look but don’t touch.

good to see the greens tackling the big issues, although i suppose we should be thankful they havent turned their attention to schools or hospitals yet.

seriously though we are in a long term drought and we are going to face water restrictions for quite some time, maybe, just maybe ms le couteur and some people here need to accept the realities of this. yes it would be nice is this particular patch of grass was kept green, but not at the expense of water we could use for something more useful.

I had a vague idea that the businesses wanted to use grey water to do the watering, but the government wouldn’t let them.

Good on the Greens for having a go.

I think we should be watering sporting grounds too.

It is bizarre to me how govvie advice on keeping your house cool still mentions use of green spaces and mature shade trees, yet watering plants outside is now soooooo evil.

Green Square is tiny, and extremely well patronised. I liked the grass before I had kids also – it is lovely to sit there under the large trees having a sushi lunch, or a pint and a pie.

I’m with the Greens all the way. If we can’t have grass in our own backyards, at least we should have some tiny areas of public grass.

Jon may as well make the arboretum a watered green grass area – soon we’ll be paying admission to show the kiddies what green grass is.

Or they could just paint it green like Bruce Stadium.

We live in times of drought, times that have caused the closure of numerous sporting grounds throughout the city. I’ve got nothing against Green Square…but if we can’t water sporting grounds to the point where it has been touch & go whether a junior cricket comp was even going to be possible for the past few years…then, well, stuff Green Square. Personally I can’t believe that The Greens have taken this approach.

Yep I say save the grass as well just install some pop up sprinklers that come on at say 5am 2 or 3 nights a week not that hard really.

Doesn’t watering grass cause global warming????

ebony57 said :

There surely has to be a better argument for the restoration of the grass in green square than the old “oh but the kiddies need somewhere to play” line. It’s pathetically weak when you have Telopea Park so close – extreme green, good play-grounds, and public picnic facilities to boot.

Oh no, no, no! How can Mumsey and Dadsey enjoy their coffee in peace if little Fitzgerald and Prudence can’t play on the lawn?

And Telopea Park is just oh so common…….

It’s not about who waters it – the govt wants to replace the grass with tanbark and those awful native grasses that look like weeds all in a row.

Save the grass I say. It is great to go there for a coffee and let the kids actually run around a bit.

hmmm, diverting water off rooftop for another purpose……development application?…..time….consultataion…..time…. the drought will end before then!

If the gubmint can have tankers driving round watering street trees – although they seem to have missed the new ones they planted down Chewing Street in Page which are now all dead – they could water a bit of grass in Green Square surely

If the tenants / owners of the green square buildings were so concerned with their precious patch of turf, you would think they would water it themselves – or even better divert the stormwater from the rooftop onto the grass.

There surely has to be a better argument for the restoration of the grass in green square than the old “oh but the kiddies need somewhere to play” line. It’s pathetically weak when you have Telopea Park so close – extreme green, good play-grounds, and public picnic facilities to boot.

Given the age of the major plantings, and the historical significance of the Kingston shopping precinct to Canberra, I’m surprised it’s not under some form of hertiage order (okay, it might be – I haven’t looked that up yet).

I do find it interesting that there’s political support for the lawn now – wonder if it has anything to do with the redevelopment of the Fraser Court site?