Manning Park Masterplan
A framework to guide future design moves at a much-loved regional parkland in Perth’s south. The Manning Park Masterplan provides a clear way forward for the City of Cockburn, community and stakeholders to move forward with key works at this important community place.
Manning Park includes a community parkland, wetland and portions of the Beeliar Regional Park, as well as sites of both Whadjuk Noongar and non-Aboriginal heritage significance.
Central to a design solution for this park was understanding the complex heritage and ecological layers at the site. Running through Manning Park is the Spearwood Ridgeline and associated Whadjuk Noongar heritage significance. After colonisation, this site was occupied as farming land, with evidence of this use on site in a number of heritage listed buildings and ruins.
Today, as a park, the site holds a number of community, heritage and ecological functions including both formal and informal walking, mountain biking and horseriding trails along the Spearwood Ridgeline.
Five key design moves proposed for Manning Park as part of the masterplanning process.
Central to our plan for this place was working together with the many community and stakeholder groups who speak for and work within the boundaries of this parkland, in a multi-staged co-design process in which we shared our understanding of site.
Manning Park and Azelia Ley Homestead in the 1950s, before the homestead was opened as museum in the 1980s.
We engaged with heritage groups, community reference groups, the local community, the City of Cockburn’s Aboriginal Reference Group and other site users in intense one-on-one sessions, as well as designing a broader community engagement process with drop-on sessions at the park, letterbox drops, and online surveys.
Details:
Client: City of Cockburn
Aboriginal Country: Whadjuk Noongar Country
Location: Spearwood, WA
Dates: 2019
Landscape Architect: UDLA
Collaborators: Community and stakeholders of Cockburn, City of Cockburn Aboriginal Reference Group
