11 January 2007

Ovals saved

| johnboy
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Yesterday Andrew Barr made the welcome announcement that the developers have all the land they can use for now and so some ovals will get watered and reprieved from destruction. (I might have paraphrased a bit there).

The proposed turning off of irrigation at grounds at Hall, Curtin-South, Pearce, Deakin-Mint, Downer; Kaleen North and Duffy, will not go ahead

The bad news is they’ll be sowing more couch grass to reduce the water needs of the ovals.

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Yet those at the coalface are amazing, stalwart, the essence and fabric of the school.

Ta for info, emd. I should have expected that the govt would pass the buck to the schools somehow. I should be unshockable by now, after all the recent school dramas, but my god so much still sucks about the entire system!

miz: not all the ovals are maintained by Urban Services.

Some, like Chifley, were maintained by the schools with a budget provided by the ACT Govt. However, the budget was barely enough to keep the mowing done. Certainly not enough to do regular large jobs like maintaining the watering system.

eg Gilmore, reno was pulled due to (wrongly) being on the closure list – now they habe seen sense, when’s the reno they promised and budgeted for?

Anyone know about public school oval watering? Seems to vary from school to school – some seem to be getting renovated and are a lush green, while others are tussock-ridden dustbowls. Are they now allowed to water minimally for safety reasons? Is there any ruling from the relevant powers that be?

It is only allegedly safe(ish) to play futsal on a block of concrete, Maelinar. Certainly nobody in Canberra has seen it done.

Except perhaps, not being the bane of gardeners and weeders alike…

We could all take up futsal. Apparently you can play that with a degree of safety on a concrete block.

Aha. We had Blue Couch when I was a kid, which is apparently a whole different thing… On the upside, Couch Proper is drought and frost resistant, and a hardy and agressive grower. Can’t really ask for much more I suppose!

Growling Ferret1:38 pm 11 Jan 07

But its better than no playing surface at all. And a much better option on knees and ankles than Kikiyu…

I believe couch (pronouced cooch) grass is the bane of gardeners and spreads like widfire and is very very hard to get rid of.

barking toad1:32 pm 11 Jan 07

couch is good – I lie on mine and watch the cricket and drink beer

I have trouble sometimes keeping up with the various things RA stands opposed to… remind me again what we have against couch?

Growling Ferret11:45 am 11 Jan 07

This is far better than the original situation – the email from ACT Grounds in December went

“Budget implications
Overall approximately $2.3 million has been cut from sport. In regards to the implications on grounds/fields, repairs and maintenance will need to be looked at on a case by case basis.
Perhaps the decision which may have the biggest impact on sport is that the government has agreed to reduce the amount of permanent diesel marking on grounds. They will still be doing the following:
Athletics fields (Banks, Calwell 2, Kambah 3, Chapman, Cook, Dickson, Charnwood 1 and Amaroo.
All Australian Rules fields boundary lines
All enclosed grounds will continue to receive the first mark of the season in white paint as has occurred in the past.
All sideline try/goal line corners will be marked to a length of 1 metre.
Whilst this is something we have been pushing for a long time, the decision is not entirely in our favour as any further marking to what has been outlined above will be done by sports, effective immediately. Recreation Services has put together a paper which outlines the guidelines for marking and that is attached.
Water Restrictions
Level 3 water restrictions began on 16 December which means an extra 10% water savings on top of Level 2. For sport this means reducing water to another 25 hectares of grounds. The government will continue to try and water Nicholls, Jerrabomberra and Page ovals. However, the following ovals will close – Pearce, South Curtin, Duffy, Downer, Hall Showgrounds, the Mint and Kaleen North. Please be ware of these grounds as the closing may affect your sport.
All of this information is perhaps not a welcome Christmas gift or message, but something that we thought you should be informed about. We will be discussing the implications of these decisions with sports in the New Year.”

Its a shame that many of the ovals are now so far past it that they won’t be safe for kiddies winter sports, or even their current summer ones.

Once the water restrictions end, whenever that it, it will cost a fortune to bring those ovals back to anywhere near what they were….but maybe that’s the plan, don’t bring them back

It will soon be infested with D9T’s (See Wikipedia)

I wonder what will happen to Chifley oval? It was being looked after by Melrose Primary School (now closed).

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