Echo Point Park, East Roseville NSW
Heritage Assessment Report and Draft Plan of Management
Project: Echo Point Park is one of Ku-ring-gai Council’s most important and culturally significant open space areas, and its only district park with water frontage, a beach, remnant bushland, mangroves and saltmarsh. In addition to its natural and scenic values, its cultural significance includes numerous Aboriginal middens, the site of Middle Harbour’s first farm, limited remains of Roseville Baths and the old Roseville Bridge; and extensive stone walking tracks, steps, walls and terraced gardens constructed during the 1930s Depression.
The park has been popular since the 1920s for passive recreational activities. It is well, though not heavily, used and highly valued by local residents for its beauty and cultural history, its naturalness and informality, and a “secret place” quality conferred by its discrete location.
The Heritage Assessment Report detailed the following:
- Natural environment – landform, climate, flora, fauna
- Analysis of bush and parkland condition, access, views etc
- Cultural heritage – indigenous and non-indigenous
- Heritage significance, interpretation and management issues
- Proposed conservation works – site improvements plan, sketch details, project program and budget estimate
The Draft Plan of Management detailed the following:
- Council’s obligations for “community land” management in compliance with the amended Local Government Act 1993, and consistent with the principles of crown land management in the Crown Lands Act 1989 (s 11)
- Land ownership and “categorisation” – natural areas (bushland and foreshore), areas of cultural significance (indigenous and non-indigenous) and park – to determine core management objectives, performance targets and practical means of their achievement and assessment
- Management guidelines for protection and interpretation of the park’s natural and cultural heritage values
- Recommendations for future use and development of the land, showing scale and intensity of permitted uses, within a framework which recognises the park’s opportunities and constraints and preserves its landscape character
Client: Ku-ring-gai Municipal Council
Date: 2002
(Project undertaken while employed by Knox & Partners, Sydney NSW. The indigenous heritage section was undertaken by specialist sub-consultant Helen Brayshaw).
