Children from Marrickville Public School in Sydney took up shovels with Lucy Turnbull AO and federal MP Anthony Albanese, to break through the infamous asphalt that helped to win the school a $100,000 playground makeover.
Street Furniture Australia is proudly contributing Escola Platforms, Benches and Slim Benches to the new playground, with eco-certified Jarrah battens and powder coated frames in bright Sensation Orange, as an official My Park Rules sponsor.
The My Park Rules competition, run by 202020 Vision and AILA, searched nationwide in 2016 for the most creative pitches to green up local play spaces. The Marrickville students submitted a video entry showing the hard, hot expanses of asphalt in their yard and how they’d like to see it transformed.
“This fantastic team of students and school put in a video entry that had an outstanding number of public votes. This area was in dire need of a greener future,” said Shahana McKenzie, CEO of AILA.
With no green sods in sight to turn, the students tackled the asphalt with the dignitaries to begin construction on their new, greener, play space, first imagined last year and soon to be a reality.
“It became a research project that was part of our science unit, to come up with a playground proposal by researching design, safety standards and nature play. The students interviewed the other kids at the school to find out their needs,” said a teacher at the ceremony.
“On winning the state competition we were awarded with our very own landscape architect, Julie Lee from Tract. The kids worked with Julie to further their designs for the national competition. She really went above and beyond in the support she gave.”
Lee says the winning project is now underway and should emerge in the next two to three weeks, under the management of contractor Landscape Solutions.
“This is a culmination of quite a long period of initial research, winning the national competition, developing the design and bringing on board our sponsors and donations. We have been working very closely with the students and Landscape Solutions,” says Lee.
“To me, the most important part of this project is that we are greening a very urban, inner city area, and the students are going to be in touch with nature once again.”
Guest of honour Lucy Turnbull, who was also on the jury for the competition, said it was fantastic “for the kids to get involved as future community members and, who knows, great construction leaders and designers and landscape architects.
“This is an incredible result of collaboration and action, to improve the quality of the open space in this school, which I’m told by Mr Albanese is one of the oldest in New South Wales. It’s great to bring the students’ ideas of what makes a good schoolyard and great design to an old building with a lot of heritage and collective memories.
“The kids are the great imaginers and innovators of how this space could be. It is wonderful that the young people of tomorrow are building a public park here and a great schoolyard.”
Anthony Albanese, Federal Member for Grayndler, added, “We are the most urbanised country on the planet, and we need to make sure that we green up our cities.
“This project is an exciting collaboration of local and national businesses, to realise a vision that’s come from these young people to make their school a better place. It will benefit the kids who come through this school for generations to come.”
In March, Torrens Primary School in Canberra became the first to complete a green playground transformation as a pilot project for My Park Rules.
Jess Miller from 202020 Vision, and an Independent Councillor for the Clover Moore Team at the City of Sydney, says the two flagship projects are intended to inspire a raft of improvements for schools and the community nationwide.
“In the past couple of years we’ve spoken with hundreds of schools across the country, engaged with landscape architects, kids and parents to share insights into how to make green space happen in their own urban areas with the best practice design principles.
“We need to get more plants and trees into our communities. Targeting schools, parents and children in particular, to highlight all of the brilliant benefits of green space, builds capacity to make that happen across the community.”
Sponsors and partners for the Marrickville project include Andreasens Green, Austral Bricks, Austral Masonry, Australian Council of State Schools, Benedict Industries, Fleetwood Urban, Gosford Quarries, Greenline, Hills Bark Blower, Inner West Council, Landscape Solutions, Sam the Paving Man, SESL Soil Testing, Soilbond, Street Furniture Australia, Sydney Airport and Tract Consultants.
With the students and dignitaries at a safe distance, the Landscape Solutions bulldozer set to work on the asphalt, making way for that hard-earned green.
Hand sketch of Escola social seating configuration, by Julie Lee from Tract Consultants.
Escola Slim Benches: brightly coloured.
Winning design entry for Marrickville Public School by Tract Consultants.
