A park which will play an important role in unlocking Lot Fourteen for local workers, visitors and city residents to enjoy was opened this week.
Kuri Kurru is a new meeting place that features technology, a water play zone, open-air stage, gathering circle and lawn area, with a bookable outdoor meeting pod for Lot Fourteen businesses.
With strong significance to the Kainka Wirra (Forest Gum Place) Country on which the park sits, Kuri Kurru tells the cultural, spiritual and ecological stories of the Kaurna Meyunna people through design, materials and native planting.
At the heart of the park is Kumangka Kuri, a central meeting place centred on the spirit dreaming song of Tarndanyangga – the Dreaming Place of the Red Kangaroo. The kangaroo graphic is set into the circular paving, with seating surrounding the space.
Spiralling out from the meeting place is a tear-drop shaped lawn and native plants and trees which include Kurrajong. Wodliparri (the Milky Way) is incorporated into glass graphic patterning and the tables are shaped like kurru (Aboriginal carrying vessels), while tree gratings and local stone feature etchings of land, water movement and possum markings.
The new park can be accessed via Frome Rd and North Tce and offers a place where communities and businesses can intertwine, relax and re-energise, while integrating with Adelaide Botanic Garden, the East End and the city centre.
Kuri Kurru was co-designed by senior man Karl Winda Telfer of the Mullawirra Meyunna – Dry Forest people of the Kaurna Nation and artists Jakirah Telfer, Tikana Telfer and landscape architects Oxigen, with consultant services by KBR and construction delivered by CATCON.
When development at Lot Fourteen is fully completed, 70 per cent of the 7ha former hospital site will have been returned to public space.
Lot Fourteen State Project Lead Diane Dixon said Lot Fourteen continued "to preserve heritage and improve tree canopy and open spaces in the heart of Adelaide for all to enjoy".
"We’re excited to unveil our new park, as we continue to transform the former Royal Adelaide Hospital site into a vibrant and exciting place for the community, workers, students and visitors through activation, arts, culture and placemaking," Ms Dixon said.
"We hope our innovative organisations here will make the most of the space with break-out meeting areas, a bookable meeting pod and events spaces for collaboration."
Karl Winda Telfer said Kuri Kurru was a place of cultural education.
"Our stories are as ancient as the rock itself," he said.
"We are placing the tracks and traces back on the ground, so we can tell the old stories from the past today."
