New supports to be installed on Cavenagh Street shade structure to help vines
New supports will be added to the Cavenagh Street shade structure to help vines grow and realise their true potential, but their cost isn’t known.
Northern Territory
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MAINTENANCE crews will install more support to help vines cover the canopy of the troubled shade structure of Cavenagh St.
Infrastructure Minister Eva Lawler revealed the efforts in NT Estimates on Thursday, but didn’t have any information at hand about the cost.
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There was also no price tag on the shade structure’s annual maintenance budget.
The $2.7m Cavenagh St shade structure was completed in 2018, but vines that were supposed to grow across the whole canopy have struggled.
The NT News visited the site on Thursday, with vines beginning to grow across the structure.
Ms Lawler said the canopy had been a worthwhile investment in cooling the streetscape of Darwin’s CBD.
“Those vines are growing well and they are flowing over,” she said.
“But we do need to make sure they are supported, so there will be some additional support to make sure that they continue to cover over the shade structure.”
Ms Lawler however rejected the idea of pulling down the vines to replace it with an artificial shade.
“The aesthetics of that I don’t think would be ideal.”
When asked by opposition infrastructure spokesman Gerard Maley what the cost of these additional supports was, Ms Lawler said she would have her department get back with a response. She also didn’t have a cost for the annual maintenance of the structure at hand.
The shade structure along Cavenagh St has come under fire since it was installed, with the vines’ stubbornly slow growth frustrating the government.
In September last year, the government blamed “overzealous pruning” and a lacklustre wet season for the plants not yet being able to completely cover the roof, almost two years on from being completed.
When the structure was first completed, it was estimated the vines would grow to “full size” within 12 to 18 months of planting.
The vines were planted in October 2018.
The decision of plant was also likened as “a bit like expecting a Toyota Corolla to go where you need a Toyota LandCruiser” by one expert.
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