Adelaide City Council to unveil Victoria Park masterplan

Motorsport fans will be the biggest winners from an Adelaide City Council makeover of Victoria Park with more shade trees and better facilities.

Shane van Gisbergen celebrates at the VALO Adelaide 500. Fans will get better shade and more facilities at future events. Picture: Mark Horsburgh

V8 fans will be the biggest winners from an Adelaide City Council makeover of Victoria Park with more shade trees and better facilities.

The masterplan will be presented to council today for the first time with Councillors to decide on the project within weeks, including upgrades that would address regular complaints from Supercars fans who attend the park for the annual Adelaide 500.

Lord Mayor Jane Lomax-Smith said if accepted and funded in the future, the 50-page masterplan would help keep the park up-to-date for all users well into the future.

“The Draft Victoria Park Master Plan is an important first step in extra greening and investment in this vital and much-used part of Parklands,” she said.

“This Master Plan will enhance our city’s tree canopy, which is vital if we want to keep our city cool, reduce airborne particles and improve respiratory health.

“The Master Plan will go onto Council for a final vote in the next few weeks.”

There will be more shade and more activities at future Supercars races at Victoria Park under a council redevelopment plan. Picture: Adelaide City Council.

Problems identified with the 72 acre park, and needing updating were;

LACK of trees and shade.

HEAT pockets needing more landscaping.

CELEBRATING Indigenous heritage at the park.

IMPROVING plant and animal habitats.

BETTER pedestrian and cycle access.

BETTER vehicle movement and carparking.

BETTER sports, and recreation facilities.

There will be more shade and more activities at future Supercars races at Victoria Park under a council redevelopment plan. Picture: Adelaide City Council.

The annual Supercars race on the Adelaide street circuit is the biggest one-off user of Victoria Park, attracting around 250,000 people over four days.

But toilets, shade and movement around the Victoria Park section of the circuit is an annual problem irking race fans.

Other main users are Polo in the City, the Australian International 3 Day Event, the Pedal Prix and weekly Park Run.

And more motor sports could be on the way with a World Solar Challenge and Formula E event being lobbied for by the State Government.

The plan shows Victoria Park has one of the largest areas without trees in the Parklands, because of a long history of horse racing.

“There is a strong correlation between urban heat and lack of greening. Urban heat in the city has proven to impact on peoples’ health and wellbeing as well as activity levels,” the masterplan states.

The masterplan acknowledges the history of sporting events at the “People’s Park”, stating: “The park has a rich history of land use as a cultural event place, firstly as a venue for horse racing, established in the 1840s and since the early 1990s, for motor sports”.

Future paths should be better built than the mainly gravel and bitumen walkways.

Future vehicle access improvements were needed at bottlenecks.

Sporting fields at the site need to be better lit and a large number of sporting activities often overlap.

There is also scope for an outdoor classroom for students to learn about the wetlands at the far South of the park.