alexandra avenue & prescott terrace, rose park, cultural landscape study

85 Pages·2010·41.8 MB·English

ALEXANDRA AVENUE & PRESCOTT TERRACE, ROSE PARK,
CULTURAL LANDSCAPE STUDY

Associate Professor David Jones,
Xanthorrhoea Consulting
January 2010

1 Alexandra Avenue & Prescott Terrace, Rose Park, Cultural Landscape Study
REPORT INFORMATION: ALEXANDRA AVENUE & PRESCOTT TERRACE, ROSE PARK,

CULTURAL LANDSCAPE STUDY

Author:
Associate Professor David Jones
Xanthorrhoea Consulting
PO Box 669 Stirling SA 5152
[email protected]

January 2010

© Report: Dr David Jones
© Images: City of Burnside collection where cited.
© Images: Dr David Jones where cited.

Figure
Memorial statue in 1979. Source: Lane 1979, np.

Dr David Jones
Xanthorrhoea Consulting
January 2010
2 Alexandra Avenue & Prescott Terrace, Rose Park, Cultural Landscape Study
Executive Summary This report was commissioned by the City of Burnside Council as a sub-
consultancy to assist the Council in their deliberations as to the future
Alexandra Avenue and Prescott Terrace in Rose Park represent an unusual management and curatorship of the Alexandra Avenue and Prescott Terrace
cultural landscape in the physical manifestation of the Council of the City of plantations and road reserves.
Burnside.
More particularly, the report demonstrates the Council’s commitment to the
Nowhere else in the municipality has a treed war memorial avenue been spirit and intent of understanding and conserving it’s cultural heritage.
planted and curated as symbol and mark of respect of past fallen.
The report has been prepared using the same intellectual framework used in
As a treed war memorial avenue, it is one of several in South Australia, and the preparation of the Adelaide Park Lands & Squares Cultural Landscape
certainly the more prominently known and recognised in the wider South Assessment Study (2007) as commissioned by the Corporation of the City of
Australian community. Adelaide Council to service their Community Land Management planning
processes for the Adelaide Park Lands and Squares. Such Study (2007) has
In Victoria such cultural patterns are more commonplace, typified by the regard to Australia ICOMOS’s Burra Charter, and the wider set of chapters
Greater City of Ballaarat Council’s English Elm (Ulmus procera) tree Avenue of including the Florence Charter (year) devised through ICOMOS internationally
Honour on the western side of that regional centre. for which Australia is an active participant within. Accordingly, the content,
findings and recommendations are benchmarked in content, information and
As a cultural heritage component in the wider collection of South Australian significance against the findings and recommendations of this Study (2007) for
memoriam places it is significant and unique, but in the national context it is an consistency but also the recent Adelaide Botanic Garden Conservation Study
exemplar of the extensive suite of treed Avenues of Honour that exist in (2006) and the University of Adelaide (North Terrace Campus) Cultural
Australia today. Landscape Assessment Study (2008).

The horticultural condition of this plantation is symptomatic of many treed
Avenues of Honour around Australia that were planted in the 1914-1920
period, often with English Elm (Ulmus procera) or English Oak (Quercus robur),
that are now displaying extensive evidence of horticultural decay and
senescence. In this stance, two rows of English Elms (Ulmus procera were
established along the central plantations in 1919-1920 and a parallel line of
English Oak (Quercus robur) was established along the outer flanks of this
plantation along the outer roadscape nature strips.

This report examines this physical space, its historical and design evolution,
and quantifies the extant evidence of this evolution. For the Council, it clearly
articulates the cultural evolution of place’s physical landscape. It unravels the
place’s cultural landscape features, attributes and qualities. It also raises some
major issues as to the future management of the place, and proposes several
recommendations as to the future curatorship of the place at a local and state
level.
3 Alexandra Avenue & Prescott Terrace, Rose Park, Cultural Landscape Study
TABLE OF CONTENTS 4 4.0 CULTURAL ASSESSMENT 39
4.1 INTRODUCTION 40
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY 3 4.2 EXISTING PLANNING / DEVELOPMENT PLAN CONTEXT 40
TABLE OF CONTENTS 4 4.3 SIGNIFICANT COMPONENTS AND PLACES 44
4.3.1 Overall Spatial Patterns 45
1.0 INTRODUCTION 5 4.3.2 Land Use 46
1.1 INTRODUCTION 6 4.3.3 Natural Features Responsiveness 46
1.1.1 Project Brief 6 4.3.4 Circulation Networks 47
1.1.2 Authorship 6 4.3.5 Boundary Demarcations 49
1.1.3 Study Area 7 4.3.6 Vegetation 49
1.1.4 Acknowledgements 8 4.3.7 Spatial Arrangements 50
1.2 METHODOLOGY 8 4.3.8 Structures 51
1.2.1 Terminology 8 4.3.9 Small Scale Elements 52
1.2.2 Understanding the place 9 4.3.10 Historical Views and Aesthetic Qualities 64
1.2.3 Methodology framework 10 4.4 Cultural Landscape Heritage Significance Evaluation 67
1.2.4 Study brief 13
1.2.5 Report structure 15 5.0 ASSESSMENT OF CULTURAL SIGNIFICANCE 71
1.2.6 Assessment framework 15 5.1 KAURNA / ABORIGINAL VALUES 72
1.2.7 Rankings of cultural significance 17 5.2 AESTHETIC VALUE 72
1.2.8 Chronology 18 5.3 HISTORIC VALUES 72
5.4 SOCIAL AND SPIRITUAL VALUES 73
2.0 CULTURAL PATTERNS 20 5.5 SCIENTIFIC VALUES 73
2.1 INTRODUCTION 21 5.6 STATEMENT OF CULTURAL SIGNIFICANCE 73
2.2 PRE-1900 PATTERNS 21
2.3 AVENUES OF HONOUR 21 6.0 BIBLIOGRAPHY 75

3.0 HISTORICAL REVIEW 25 7.0 APPENDICES 79
3.1 INTRODUCTION 26 7.1 Diamond Jubilee (1979) pamphlet by Lane 80
3.2 HISTORICAL OVERVIEW: SITE CONTEXT 26 7.2 City of Burnside Engineering Plans for the Plantation 83
3.3 HISTORICAL OVERVIEW: ABORIGINAL ASSOCIATIONS 27

3.4 HISTORICAL OVERVIEW: POST-CONTACT ASSOCIATIONS 28

4 Alexandra Avenue & Prescott Terrace, Rose Park, Cultural Landscape Study
1.0 INTRODUCTION

Figure
Alexandra Avenue plantation looking west towards the Adelaide Park Lands. Source: author
5 Alexandra Avenue & Prescott Terrace, Rose Park, Cultural Landscape Study
1.0 INTRODUCTION
1.1.2 Authorship

1.1.1 Project brief
Overall management of the Alexandra Avenue & Prescott Terrace, Rose Park,
This Alexandra Avenue & Prescott Terrace, Rose Park, Cultural Landscape
Cultural Landscape Study (2009) has been undertaken by Dr David Jones,
Study (2009) was commissioned by the City fo Burnside Council to assist in
Micomos, MPIA CPP, AAILA Regd LandArch, through Xanthorrhoea
deliberations as to the future hortcultural and cultural heritage
Consulting.
management and curatorship of this place.

Isobel Paton of Paton et al acted as a sub-consultant.
The project brief has regard to the project brief used for the Corporation of

the City of Adelaide in respect of the Adelaide Park Lands & Squares Cultural

Landscape Assessment Study (2007) to enable consistency.

Accordingly, this Study (2009) principally has regard to the provisions of the
Development Act 1993, Historic Places Act 1993, Local Government Act 1999,
and thereafter any local, state and national cultural heritage provisions.

This is important to state, because while the scope and methodological
approach of this Study (2009) was understood and agreed, the outcomes,
rigour and depth of inquiry together with the available information was
unclear.

Therefore, this Study (2009) has been framed having regard to the fact that
the place is immediately adjacent to and may contribute to the wider City
of Adelaide and City of Burnside cultural landscape.

Coincidentially, during the 2001-09 period five major and partially related
conservation studies were undertaken for tracts of land within and adjacent
to the Adelaide Park Lands, and because the author of this Study (2009)
was also involved in these studies a degree of common thought,
consistency of inquiry, and merging of insights has been possible. These
studies comprise the Adelaide Park Lands & Squares Cultural Landscape
Assessment Study (2007), the Adelaide Botanic Garden Conservation Study
(2006), the City East Campus Heritage Landscape Assessment Study (2001)
for the City East Campus of the University of South Australia, the University
of Adelaide (North Terrace Campus) Cultural Landscape Study (2008), and
the Government House Grounds, Adelaide, Landscape Conservation Study
(2004).
6 Alexandra Avenue & Prescott Terrace, Rose Park, Cultural Landscape Study
1.1.3 Study Area

The study area embraces the plantation and road reserves of Alexandra
Avenue and Prescott Terrace in Rose Park, but has regard to the adjacent
residential and community properties.

Figure
Figure
Extract aerial photograph of the City of Burnside 2009 depicting nomenclature and
Extract aerial photograph of the City of Burnside 2009, with Alexandra Avenue
property boundaries. Source: Google Earth.
within the red rectangle and Prescott Terrace located within the blue rectangle.
. Source: abridged Google Earth.

7 Alexandra Avenue & Prescott Terrace, Rose Park, Cultural Landscape Study
1.1.4 Acknowledgements 1.2 METHODOLOGY

Over the course of this Study (2009) several people directly and indirectly 1.2.1 Terminology
provided information to and informed the process. Numerous people prior to

this Study (2009) also provided invaluable information that was used in the
This Study (2009) uses terms which are widely accepted to those preparing
Adelaide Park Lands & Squares Cultural Landscape Assessment Study (2007)
conservation studies, but which may be unfamiliar to those involved with the
that has associative relevance to this place.
heritage places and their management, as well as the general public. These

terms are defined here and then used throughout the report without further
Special thanks should be given to staff at the City of Burnside Library
explanation:
historical collection including Alexander Ward, and to the staff of the

Corporation of the City of Adelaide Council especially the Park & Gardens
• Place means site, area, building or other work, group of buildings
Department under Simon Bradley, including John Draper, and Andrew
or other works together with associated contents and
Crompton.
surroundings.

• Cultural significance means aesthetic, historic, scientific or social
Thanks to staff at the Heritage Branch of the Department of Environment &
value for past, present or future generations.
Heritage including Hamish Angas, and Chris Giovannucci who provided
• Fabric means all the physical material of the place.
access to Heritage SA files.
• Conservation means all the processes of looking after a place so

as to retain its cultural significance. It includes maintenance and
Thanks to staff at the National Trust of South Australia including Graham
may according to circumstance include preservation,
Hancock and Glenn Williams who provided access to the Trust’s files.
restoration, reconstruction and adaptation and will be

commonly a combination of more than one of these.
Thanks also to Sarah Cockerell, a doctoral student under my care at the
• Maintenance means the continuous protective care of the fabric
University of Adelaide, whom is researching the larger realm of Avenues of
and setting of a place, and is to be distinguished from repair.
Honour in Australia and issues associated with their future horticultural
Repair involves restoration or reconstruction.
management and cultural heritage curatorship.
• Preservation means maintaining the fabric of a place and

retarding deterioration.
• Restoration means returning the existing fabric of a place to a
known earlier state by removing accretions or by reassembling
existing components without the introduction of new material.
• Reconstruction means returning a place to a known earlier state
and is distinguished from restoration by the introduction of new
material into the fabric.
• Adaptation means modifying a place to suit proposed compatible
uses.
8 Alexandra Avenue & Prescott Terrace, Rose Park, Cultural Landscape Study
• Compatible use means a use that involves no change to the
culturally significant fabric, changes that are substantially 1.2.2 Understanding the Place
reversible, or changes which require minimum impact.
Sections 1.0 to 5.0 of this Study (2009) comprise an understanding of
These definitions do not necessarily treat scientific or botanical significance Alexandra Avenue and Prescott Terrace, Rose Park, through an assessment
in the same light as a scientist or botanist may approach the subject, but of the cultural significance of the place.
reflect the emphasis of this report on an assessment of cultural significance.
The following information is typically collected in the assessment of cultural
significance:

• Development sequence of the place and its relationship to the
surviving fabric;
• Existence and nature of lost or obliterated fabric;
• Rarity and/or technical interest of all or any part of the place;
• Functions of the place and its parts;
• Relationship of the place and its parts with its setting;
• Cultural influences which have affected the form and fabric of
the place;
• Significance of the place to people who use or have used the
place, or descendants of such people;
• Historical content of the place with particular reference to the
ways in which its fabric has been influenced by historical
forces or has itself influenced the course of history;
• Scientific or research potential of the place;
• Relationship of the place to other places, for example in respect
of design, technology, use, locality or origin;
• Any other outstanding factor relevant to an understanding of the
place.

9 Alexandra Avenue & Prescott Terrace, Rose Park, Cultural Landscape Study
1.2.3 Methodological framework • building clusters,
• paddock boundaries,
Conservation is a process which entails stewardship and management to • deliberate plantings,
retain historic character and integrity but acknowledges that change, • stockyards,
sympathetic development and adaptation may be desirable. • circulation routes,
• and so on, and
The international ethos of heritage conservation is expressed in the • natural elements, and where there is a close interrelationship between
International Charter for the Conservation and Restoration of Monuments and the two.
Sites (Venice Charter) (1964) under the International Council on Monuments
and Sites (ICOMOS), as further expanded in terms of “historic gardens” at an Californian academic geographer Carl Sauer first devised the concept of a
international level in the Florence Charter (Historic Gardens) (1981) and inter ‘cultural landscape’ in 1925. To Sauer, a “cultural landscape … is fashioned
alia in the Charter for the Conservation of Historic Towns and Urban Areas out of a natural landscape by a culture group.” Thus, a landscape is a
(1987) and the Nara Document on Authenticity (1994). representation of various factors that evolve through time resulting in the
creating of various forms and manifestation on a tract of land. Accordingly,
Australian conservation practice draws philosophy and practice reference and natural factors may include climate and vegetation as evidenced in
standards from Australia ICOMOS’s Charter for the Conservation of Places of topography, forests, agricultural estates, seashores, and watercourses.
Cultural Significance (The Burra Charter) (1999). The Burra Charter defines Culture is also deemed a factor in this landscape as it is brought to bear by a
conservation as: body of knowledge and ideas to create tangible human manifestations of
human actions and beliefs. Thus, a cultural group is an agent of change and
… the process of looking after a place to retain its cultural significance. It crafts cycles of cultural landscape development.
includes maintenance and may … include preservation, restoration,
reconstruction and adaptation … English cultural historian Professor David Lowenthal has provided a more
evocative definition:
This Study (2009) treats Alexandra Avenue and Prescott Terrace, Rose Park,
as a cultural landscape. This is a concept recognised with the original It is the landscape as a whole – that largely man-made tapestry, in
Australian Heritage Commission’s criterion for listing on the Register of the which all our other activities are embedded … which gives them their
National Estate, more recently incorporated with the criteria for the National sense of place.
Heritage List for Australia, and is a long-standing concept recognised by
international ICOMOS in its consideration of applications for listing in their In late 2009 the author was approached by the City of Burnside to undertake
World Heritage Register. It is also a concept recognized by the state Heritage a cultural landscape assessment of Alexandra Avenue and Prescott Terrace,
Places Act 1993. Rose Park, using the same framework applied in the Adelaide Park Lands &
Squares Cultural Landscape Assessment Study (2007) for the Corporation of
A cultural landscape is a geographic area, whether urban or rural, that has the City of Adelaide Council.
been modified by human use and action. More specifically, in a non-urban
setting, a cultural landscape is an area that includes cultural elements such The purpose of the latter assessment was to provide a comprehensive
as: historical appreciation of the Adelaide Park Lands and Squares to identify
10 Alexandra Avenue & Prescott Terrace, Rose Park, Cultural Landscape Study