Franklin Square Master Plan

Franklin Square Master Plan DRAFT DECEMBER 2013 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS The Franklin Square Master Plan has been prepared by a diverse group of officers from the City of Hobart. A large number of community members, visitors and other stakeholders have also contributed their thoughts, ideas and aspirations for Franklin Square. Thank you to everyone who has assisted with Figure 1 A special thanks to Atlas cafe for their this Master Plan, we trust you can see impromptu 'paper bag poll' on Franklin Square [Atlas something of your input in the work Café]. presented. Figure 2 (Cover photo credits) 1 Collin Denison. 2 Newspix/Photographers Mercury. 3 Newspix/Kim Eiszele. 4 Collin Denison. 5 Richard Jupe. 6 City of Hobart. 7 Richard Jupe. 8 Newspix/Sam Roswarne. 9 Newspix/Leigh Winburn. 10 'Digital Odyssey', Craig Walsh, Franklin Square, Hobart, Ten Days on the Island 2011 – Image: Alistair Bett, f8 Photography© Courtesy of Ten Days on the Island. 11 Crowther Library AUTAS00112292217112. 13 Richard Jupe. 14 Ricahrd Jupe. 15 Kim Eiszele. 16 City of Hobart. 17 Raoul Kochanowskis. 18 Richard Jupe. CONTENTS 1. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY....................................................................................................................................... I 2. INTRODUCTION ................................................................................................................................................. 1 3. VISION ................................................................................................................................................................ 7 4. THE PARK WITHIN THE CITY ............................................................................................................................. 9 5. CULTURAL SIGNIFICANCE ............................................................................................................................... 17 6. SOFT LANDSCAPE ............................................................................................................................................ 25 7. HARD LANDSCAPE ........................................................................................................................................... 29 8. ACTIVITY ........................................................................................................................................................... 37 9. CONCEPT PLAN ................................................................................................................................................ 43 APPENDIX 1 REVISED STATEMENT OF SIGNIFICANCE .......................................................................................... 45 REFERENCES ............................................................................................................................................................ 47 “I think the Park is great as it is. Why change what isn’t broken...” 1. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY Franklin Square is the City of Hobart’s most central park, and one of its most popular.1 It is listed on the Tasmanian heritage Register because its townscape and social associations are regarded as important to the community’s sense of place. It is also of historic heritage significance due to its ability to demonstrate the principal characteristics of a Victorian inner city park Figure 3 Franklin Square has been an important and it has the potential to yield important destination for everyday activities within central Hobart information, of an archaeological nature, that since its establishment in the mid-19th Century [Hobart may contribute to a greater understanding of City Council]. Tasmania’s history. The Franklin Square Master Plan sets out the However, there is little preparatory work in Vision for the park, this being: place addressing park management and Franklin Square is Hobart’s civic park; a refurbishment. dignified place that tells of Hobart; its people and their heritage. In light of its prominent location, heritage values and high usage, Franklin Square It is a beautiful green refuge for use by deserves a well-considered approach to all: a place to pass through; a management. Furthermore, a significant destination to gather, relax and play; a number of built assets within the Park are soon venue for cultural expression and due for replacement. It is important that any activity. future works promote the values of Franklin Based on background research and the Square, and contribute to its ongoing findings of the initial community engagement, popularity. a suite of Objectives have been developed to Recognising this, the City of Hobart has guide the Master Plan: prepared a new master plan for Franklin To provide safe and accessible spaces Square. within the Park for use by people of all ages – including youth, children and older people. Franklin Square Master Plan Page | i To promote activation of the Park. including the Macquarie Street pergola, To conserve the Park’s cultural significance Wishing Well and Speakers Lectern. – and that of its environs – and to Providing variety in planting through integrate it with contemporary use. feature borders, low shrub beds and To celebrate and interpret the Park’s greater diversity along the Davey Street cultural significance, including the co- boundary. existence of differing perceptions of Redevelopment of the Elizabeth Street cultural significance. amenities roof area and adjoining pathway To define the civic character of the Park to improve access, provide additional through the use of quality materials, seating, shelter, and services for its use for finishes and management. small-to-medium performances and To strengthen the landscape values of the events. Park through carefully designed soft Potential redevelopment of the lower half landscape treatment and horticultural of the Elizabeth Street amenities building practices. for uses that provide greater activation, To review and progress key policies passive surveillance and guardianship of contained in the draft Franklin Square that area. Conservation Plan. Replacement of ageing furniture such as To integrate the recommendations of lighting, interpretive signage and seating Hobart 2010 and subsequent initiatives as with a new furniture suite consistent with they relate to Franklin Square and its the park’s civic character and cultural environs. significance. This Master Plan provides the context, analysis Following its installation in January 1865, the of key issues, and broad recommendations to statue of Sir John Franklin was never properly achieve the Vision, including: unveiled; the canvas cover that cloaked Sir Replacement of existing pavement and John Franklin eventually just blowing away retaining walls with materials to during a Hobart storm. complement the Macquarie Street Civic As both the park’s namesake, and the very Ridge. reason for the creation of this park, the statue Partial restoration of the Victorian era deserves a warmer welcome to Hobart. layout through relocation of the Chess With an endorsed Master Plan to guide the Board, removal of the Elizabeth Street axial refurbishment of Franklin Square, it would nice path extension, and referencing the to hope that Hobart can mark the 150th original layout through landscaping and anniversary with an official celebration – the pavement detailing. opening party – that it never quite received in Removal of built elements that detract 1865. from the park’s cultural significance Page | ii Franklin Square Master Plan ‘…in the eve the natives made a fire near where we slep’ 2. INTRODUCTION 2.1 Franklin Square In response, Parliament resolved that the When Lieutenant Governor David Collins’ party monument should be located on the site of the landed in Sullivans Cove in February 1804, a recently demolished Old Government House, gang of convicts was immediately committed from where Franklin had administered the 7 to clear vegetation from the ridge above the Colony. Cove for the Lieutenant’s quarters, and those Franklin Square was then developed in the of his senior officers. mid-1860s as an inner city public park to house Little is recorded of how Aborigines used the the bronze statue of Sir John Franklin. ridge above Sullivans Cove. However, Franklin Square has also been a center of Reverend Knopwood’s diary of those first Hobart’s civil life; including a place to muster nights, reveals Aborigines were familiar with the population, protest against government the site, whereby ‘in the eve the natives made actions, or simply to gather and retreat from 2 a fire near where we slep’. the City around them. The park was even Therefore, just like many other areas of the reconfigured to provide shelter from possible Derwent estuary, the area’s proximity to a air raids during World War II. sheltered embayment and the many resources it yielded, suggest it is likely that it was often utilised.3 Within three weeks, Collins was able to move from his tent into a basic hut, the first Government House on the site,4 and for many decades the site was the centre of administration for the Van Diemens Land colony. 5 Sir John Franklin was Governor of Van Diemens Land between 1837 and 1843. He died in 1847 Figure 4 - Franklin Square in the late 1860s following installation of the Sir John Franklin Statue in 1865 while charting the final section of the Arctic’s [Samuel Clifford Crowther Library. North West Passage. AUTAS001122922171]. In 1860 the Parliament of Tasmania passed a resolution dedicating funds for the creation of a monument to Sir John Franklin.6 During the

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