Gosford Leagues Club Park tells Aboriginal history
The site of award winning Gosford Leagues Club Park in New South Wales is a significant one for local aboriginal clan Darkinjung.
Once an important place of trade and cultural exchange with adjoining nations such as the Gadigal, Gomeroi and Wiradjuri, Gosford was also one of the earliest European settlements. It’s now a thriving town undergoing significant revitalization, led by a number of State government initiatives including the park.
The park itself was an inauspicious cluster of underutilised playing fields on reclaimed waterfront separated from Brisbane Waters by an arterial road, Dane Drive.
Brisbane Water was once a significant fishing spot for the region's Aboriginal people. Photo credit: Guy Wilkinson Photography.
Turf Design Studio was tasked with providing a “community node”, a park and playground which connected the community to the land, the environment and to each other.
Historical surveys showed the early shoreline was located deep within the park, long buried, TDS says. And that strongly influenced the park narrative and its overall physical form.
“We saw an opportunity to not simply interpret, but also restore this lost shoreline in a kind of archaeological dig, revealing the bay floor as an estuarine wild play area, a ‘Tidal Terrace’– a place to play, to learn, to connect to nature,” the studio says.
The $10 million transformation of the parkland has delivered a world class public space including 'wild play' areas, interactive Aboriginal design elements, accessible pathways, and quality green space. Photo credit: Guy Wilkinson Photography.
Working closely with the Darkinjung Local Land Council, and other stakeholders - the Hunter Central Coast Development Corportation and the Central Coast Council - landscape architects held a series of design workshops to identify key attributes and opportunities for the project.
The Darkinjung oral history recounts this site as an important point of first contact between the Darkinjung and Europeans. When charting the Brisbane Waters in the first months of settlement, (the first governor of NSW) Captain Arthur Phillip’s exploration party found a large camp with a marina of canoes at the shoreline.
Through the design workshops TDS says it learnt the importance of “country”, both land and sea, as resource and spiritual connection to Aborigine. Elder and artist Kevin Gavi Duncan shared important local rock carvings and these were incorporated into the design.
The park’s unique Tidal Terrace brings the bay into the park via a pipe under Dane Drive. It features sandstone animal “islands” inspired by the nearby Bulgandry art site which is rich in ancient Aboriginal rock art. When the tide rises the terrace becomes a water playzone, when it falls it uncovers a sandy playspace.
Photo credit: Ange Maloney.
“A playground tells the story through play and experience,” TDS’s Mike Horne says. “Life’s never in balance, instead, you’re always trying to seek balance. In this project, there’s never a frozen moment, because the tide keeps coming in and over the landscape, so part of the story is about change, and the constant changes that are in every aspect of human experience.”
Play opportunities for all abilities and ages extend into adjoining spaces, the ‘Seed Pod’ play towers located atop the adjacent berm offer expansive views to the bay and active natural play. The ‘Fish Trap’, a communal rope structure invites immersive, imaginative play as it sways in space.
To the north of the Tidal Terrace is Ray Maher Field, an open lawn framed by mature Date Palms, capable of accommodating everything from kicking a ball to a major civic event.
To the east, Baker Street is extended as a pedestrian zone shared with slow moving vehicles, providing access to neighbouring buildings as well as key spaces, adjoining BBQs, picnic facilities, showers, amenities building and exercise area.
The park recently won the 2021 National Trust Aboriginal Heritage Award and the 2021 National Trust Judges Choice Award.
