Page 1035 - Week 04 - Wednesday, 20 April 1994
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I should indicate that we as a government remain very committed to the policy of planting street trees in newly developed suburbs. The benefits of such plantings cannot be overestimated. This is truly the city in a park, the bush capital. Ms Ellis indicated that it is good - and we are doing this - to plant as early as possible in a suburb's development and to require the use of trees that are as well developed as possible. Given that our soils are not always the best and the climate not always encouraging, I think it is important to get as good and as early a start in our planting as possible.
The planting of street trees is just one part of a coordinated landscape policy for newly developed suburbs. I think that in the nature of this debate it is important that we understand the context of street tree planting. The broad landscape policy for new areas is established prior to development and includes consideration of a number of functional and aesthetic criteria. These include landscape design themes, wildlife corridors, wildlife habitat and future maintenance costs, to name just a few. It is also important that there is a consistency in the street planting. If you travel through Canberra and look at the trees in the streets, they do have a strong consistency. I refer Mr Humphries and others to a book, Trees and Shrubs in Canberra, by Pryor and Banks, where they will get a very good understanding of the distinguished history of tree plantings in the ACT. One of the appendices has helped me identify the trees in my street and in other places where I see trees of particular interest. I refer members to the book because it gives a background, a context, that is so important. Trees are not planted at random and they are not organised late in the piece.
Further to this context, the landscape principles are developed during the early planning phase for new suburbs. For example, the Gungahlin environmental impact statement, which was released in mid-1988 and finalised in 1989, contained the landscape principles for Gungahlin. There was certainly a stage of consultation there, although I would not expect in that circumstance that many of the people who subsequently purchased in Gungahlin took up the opportunity to comment on the plantings or the broad principles.
Prior to the release of land for development, landscape principles are further developed at the draft outline planning stage. Following land release, a developer, whether private enterprise or government, produces a landscape master plan for each estate. The selection of street tree species for each street is then made within the context of the landscape master plan. The species selection at this stage must also take account of local factors such as soil conditions and nature strip width. Some of our suburbs with higher densities - the higher densities people are wanting to buy - mean that we cannot always plant some of those large eucalypts that are a feature in Forrest and other places.
In this careful process, the selection of species for nature strip plantings is a final detail that must fit into the overall landscape context that has been set in the earlier planning stages. In order to coordinate with other aspects of planning for a new estate and to be prepared for landscape construction as early as practicable in the life of the estate, the landscape policy must be developed well before householders take up residence. In fact, it would be unreasonable to expect new residents to forgo the benefits of immediate landscape construction in order for them to participate in the development of landscape policy. I am sure that new residents appreciate the amenity of that more developed landscaping, and that more developed landscaping is something we are increasingly urging on ourselves and private developers.
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