Sydneysiders love their parks and gardens. If you have been to your favourite park in the last year you are in good company with almost 97% of us.
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Harbour
& Bridge: One of many faces of Sydney Harbour National Park
– surrounding the harbour from North Head to The Gap and Nielsen
Park it includes the islands as well as Fort Denison. |
But what do we know really know about the locals who visit Sydney’s parks and gardens? Who visits, for how long, what do they do on their visit, and what do they value about the parks and gardens they visit?
Late in 2004 Taverner Research decided to find out in a survey for the SUPER (Sydney Urban Parks Education & Research) Group, which represents the major government land managers in Sydney.
Here are some of the results.
Do you know your parks?
‘Name as many parks and gardens in the Sydney area as you can...’
In this section, the Royal National Park and the Royal Botanic Gardens Sydney both came to mind with 40% of people surveyed. Local council parks were not far behind at 38%. Other national parks mentioned were Ku-ring-gai Chase (31%), Lane Cove (18%), Blue Mountains (18%), Sydney Harbour (11%), Botany Bay (4%), Bouddi (2%) and Brisbane Water (2%).
5% of people had never heard of Blue Mountains NP. For other national parks the figures were: Ku-ring-gai Chase (12%), Lane Cove (13%), Royal (14%), Botany Bay (27%), Brisbane Water (48%), Rouse Hill Regional Park (70%) and Western Sydney Regional Park (77%). Interestingly 27% percent of people did not know of the existence of Sydney Harbour National Park, even though many had been to places that are part of the park such as Nielsen Park, Middle Head and North Head.
Where people go
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| A
little further away, World Heritage listed Blue Mountains National
Park awaits visitors with crisp clean air and splendid views over
ancient landscapes. |
According to the survey a staggering 97% of us have visited a Sydney park in the last year. While 23% of us visited on our own, parks and gardens are great social venues with 33% of us visiting with our spouse or partner, 31% with the kids, and 28% with friends.
More people than ever visited their local council parks (44% during the week before the survey alone), and it’s usually the children who make the decision.
The percentage of people who had never gone to Blue Mountains NP was some 17%, followed by Royal (31%), Lane Cove (36%), Ku-ring-gai Chase (38%), Sydney Harbour (45%), Botany Bay (55%), Brisbane Water (70%), Rouse Hill RP (89%) and Western Sydney RP (89%).
A long drive for a walk
The survey found that our preferred method of ‘going bush’ depends on the location of the park and on our age. Car, foot or public transport are still the most popular ways of getting there.
Most of us reach our bush destination in less than 15 minutes, but visitors to some of the most popular national parks accept a longer journey. 55% of visitors to Royal, 48% of visitors to Ku-ring-gai Chase and 44% of visitors to Sydney Harbour travelled for more than 30 minutes. 29% of Ku-ring-gai visitors spent over one hour to get there. 39% of visitors to the Blue Mountains were prepared to travel for more than half an hour and 27% spent even more than one hour to reach the park.
While people are willing to travel long distances to get out and about, the actual time spent in the parks and gardens is limited. Two-thirds of people stay less than two hours. What’s more, the survey shows that the percentage of people staying for more than four hours has dropped from 13% in 1998 to 9% in 2004, perhaps reflecting our lack of free time.
Once we arrive at our favourite park, most of us go walking (66%), relax (61%) or enjoy the natural environment (58%). Going walking has become more popular with 28% of visitors saying that was what they spent most of their visit doing.
But it’s worth it
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Ku-ring-gai
Chase National Park in the North of Sydney is one of the best places
to go to admire the rock engravings of the Guringai people. More
than 800 Aboriginal sites have been recorded in the park. |
Some 99% of us who get out to our parks and gardens rate their visit as enjoyable!
We love the surroundings, including peace and tranquillity (25%), trees and greenery (25%), the views (23%), and being with friends or family (23%).
We appreciate parks and gardens as places to relax (93%), places to appreciate the beauty of nature (88%), places to enjoy the landscape (84%), places to spend time with other people (81%), places to get some physical exercise (75%), and places for community gatherings (69%).
What can spoil the experience for some of us is a lack of amenities (8%), insects, flies and mosquitoes (9%), rubbish and unkept gardens (7%). Insect and mosquito concerns more than doubled from 2001. Concerns about litter, vandalism and graffiti (6%) tripled. But nearly half of the people surveyed (48%) couldn’t think of anything they enjoyed least on their visit.
On top of the visitors’ wishlist are better amenities such as toilets, bins, seats, benches and bubblers (21%) and better park maintenance (10%). A third of people had no suggestions for improvements.
Keep Body & Mind in shape
If busy city-life has long stopped you from visiting your park, think again. People who visit parks and gardens tended to rate both their physical and mental health more highly than those who visited less often. People are simply more likely to undertake walking exercise in a park.
This is what SUPER’s Healthy Parks Healthy People (HPHP) program is all about. To reduce health costs to the community, the program encourages us to visits our parks and gardens more often, to do some exercise or just chill out and to boost our physical shape and our mental and social well-being. Give it a try – this issue’s feature park ‘Bouddi National Park is only a stone’s throw away.
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