Brunswick Street Oval Precinct project

Issue:

This petition of residents in Victoria draws to the attention of the Legislative Assembly that the Brunswick Street Oval Precinct project proposes to expand the Fitzroy Tennis Club from six to eight courts by extending into Edinburgh Gardens parkland. This would destroy three elm trees, close a popular public walkway, and permanently shrink the open space available to the public. Edinburgh Gardens is Yarra's most popular and most visited park. It is a heritage landscape whose distinctive nineteenth-century "gardenesque" character (including an 1884 elm avenue planted by curator Nicholas Bickford) deserves protection, not destruction This expansion is unnecessary. The project's legitimate goals - improved accessibility and facilities for women's sport - can be achieved without encroaching on parkland. Existing demand for courts at Fitzroy Tennis Club does not justify this specific expansion. We call on the City of Yarra to remove the Edinburgh Gardens court expansion from the Brunswick Street Oval Precinct project and to pursue its remaining goals within the existing lease boundary.

Action:

The petitioners therefore request that the Legislative Assembly ensures that the Brunswick Street Oval Precinct project scope is limited to the number of tennis courts that can fit within the existing club footprint, mandate the retention of the 1884 elm avenue and its associated paths and defer all further grants and permits until a comprehensive Heritage Impact Assessment is conducted that specifically addresses the impacts on the local HO213 Heritage Overlay.