Gungahlin Linear Park

It’s a long skinny park in the centre strip of the side road at Gungahlin shops.
(LIke the pointless grass strips in PHillip, only they put a park and play equipment in.)

They then almost immediately ripped out the park and associated paving etc, and put up a fence and bulldozed the ground. They then built a park in the other e3nd of the block (which used to have just paving, which they ripped up.)

It seems like they had a plan – then they got another plan, and now they are trying to think of their next plan….

Oh, and PS – I blame global warming for the delay.

Call me stupid (I know you want to), but what’s a ‘Linear’ park?

And why wasn’t the option of a logarithmic park aired during the consultation process?

The whole planning process is obviously flawed, I suggest a large group of concerned residents start a website loaded with unverified heresay and sensationalist propoganda (DIRTY linear and TOXIC fumes etc) and then lobby Deb Foskey and Steve Pratt to have this rectified.

I am really wishing I’d gone there now.

Are there any other gems out in Gungahlin main street that I’m missing? I’d rather support an independent shop than Gloria Jeans etc.

My Bone was only partly affected by the construction as to selling (it DID affect business revenue)… the lovely owner told me over coffee a little while back that she was selling because her parents were migrating out here from HK and did not want to live in canberra. They will be settling up business again in Sydney or Melbourne. Lets hope the newbies do as well.

Dammit I found a discount voucher for My Bone today and we were planning on heading out there to check it out. Next time maybe. The delays on this one are just another good example of the planning or lack of that seems to run rife throughout Canberra.

Believe me, the uniqueness of My Bone Cafe – adjacent to the still yet to be opened Gungahlin Linear Park – wasn’t so much the dogs, as the menu and the prices!! Very unusual range of menu items, and very cheap. It remained one of Gungahlin’s and Canberra’s best kept secrets – too much so I dare say (hence its closure).

And yes, parks without grass – even enivornmentally-friendly synthetic grass – are a little sad. And sadly, the Gungahlin Linear Park will have precious little of the green stuff (natural or otherwise).

I spoke to a contractor working on the site last week. Apparently TAMS have made numerous ongoing changes which caused delays. There have also been problems in sourcing fittings and material (such as the original well publicised delay on the street lights).

As of Wednesday the contractor mentioned that there was still the glass to lay in the artificial water feature. I believe that the spheres which are part of the artificial water feature may constitute a tripping hazard (a lawsuit looking to happen) – something that TAMS should have picked up in the design phase. We will see once it is finished.

Down the southern end of the park (the other side of Hibberson) the paving has already started to subside.

For once, I agree with Sepi re the toddlers running on the road in seconds. Also, the sphere shaped playground structure at the East end of the park is not very toddler friendly at all. Great for older kids but nothing for the younger ones.

I agree. How long can it take to build a park for Heaven’s sake?

Oh, and the beautiful green trees shown on the park design board … pfft, maybe in 30 years from now …

Nice day for a stroll in the park today? I think not.

I LIKE gungahlin shops where you get to walk along the street, instead of just inside malls. But they do need to divert the thru traffic out of the main street, and fix up those parks – one was built, then demolished and rebuilt as a very similar thing -in the block up from My bone cafe.

And i WIsh they would fence those parks. they are long and narrow with cars right there. You can’t relax if the toddlers can get straight to the road in seconds.

and My Bone Cafe wasn’t unique. You could sit your dog outside at any of the 1000 other cafes in the town centre.

All the money, all the time and all the planning that was available for this linear park, a chance for a decent focal point for the town centre, and what we have is an absolute piece of shit.