Page 3870 - Week 12 - Thursday, 23 November 2006
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particularly in the areas affected by the 2003 bushfires, has been recognised with the awarding of a most significant new national award, the inaugural Todd prize, a national award instituted by the Australian Institute of Landscape Architects. It is a real sign that the ACT government, in its attempts to ensure that we respond to the devastation that the fire caused, whether it be to those individual Canberrans who in the first instance were tragically affected by the loss of lives or through the loss of properties and indeed the parks, road verges and other areas, has sought to respond well in relation to all aspects of the devastation of the fire, including, of course, the urban environment.
It is a great credit, most particularly in this instance, to the Department of Territory and Municipal Services, who are the recipients of this inaugural award of the Australian Institute of Landscape Architects, that the regreening response, the revegetation response, of the ACT government to areas affected by the fire has now been recognised through the inaugural award of this very significant major national prize of the Australian Institute of Landscape Architects. I acknowledge and congratulate most particularly the Department of Territory and Municipal Services on achieving this very significant award.
The regreening initiative that was specifically identified and acknowledged through this award was a response to the planting refurbishment strategy that was developed by the department in association with Harris Hobbs Landscapes for the use of trees and revegetation in an urban environment. The award relates to 130,000 square metres of regrassing; 600 replacement trees provided in road corridors, open spaces and parks, most particularly in areas of Weston Creek and on road verges to the south of the ACT; replacement of 1,000 street trees in residential verges; and the planting of 15,000 other shrubs and accent plants, most specifically throughout Weston Creek.
The extent to which this revegetation or vegetation work and restorative work was undertaken, in very close consultation with property owners, affected neighbourhoods, community groups and ACT government services and utility providers, essentially underpins the fact that the results were so outstanding—outstanding to the point of being recognised by the Australian Institute of Architects as the best revegetation program in Australia for the year.
I am very pleased and proud to be associated with the acknowledgment of some of the restoration and recovery work that has been undertaken by the ACT government and its recognition through this award. The trees that have been utilised are a combination of indigenous species and exotics. This does and did involve a real consideration of some of the bushfire-abatement issues that are very much part of our planning and thinking now in relation to all the work that we do in bushfire-prone areas or the urban areas of the ACT that are potentially vulnerable to fire. Areas of Streeton Drive, Cotter Road, Waramanga Avenue, Dixon Drive and Eucumbene Drive were very much a focus of the judges’ attention in relation to this award.
I might just say by way of conclusion that this work is over and above the significant other plantings that have been undertaken by the ACT government over the last four years. I think I have mentioned in passing that this is just one aspect or one component of the significant revegetation work that the ACT government has undertaken which has resulted in just over 4½ million trees being planted in both
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