At the heart of the City Renewal Precinct, the heritage listed Haig Park is a distinctive and welcoming destination for locals and visitors. It offers a cultural and passive recreation experience.
The Haig Park Place Plan has set out a long-term vision for the park to improve on its existing features to make it more attractive to users while still retaining its heritage and biodiversity values for the community. Future initiatives undertaken within the park will be consistent with these values.
Haig Park is a showcase example for the design, delivery and maintenance of the public realm. High-quality public spaces will be provided, which are people friendly, give shelter to the elements, and improve safety. Physical elements of the public realm will be well designed, durable, and complementary to the park’s existing character. Improvements to the pedestrian and cycle network will create strong linkages to surrounding areas, encouraging the use of active travel and physical activity. The park will provide for a range of uses, including temporary events and activities. This will enliven an important yet underutilised part of Canberra’s green-space network. Targets for housing, population, employment have not been set for Haig Park given its role in the precinct. Instead, it will evolve in line with the principles and initiatives set out in the Haig Park Place Plan.
The Authority, in association with the University of Canberra, Tait Network, Ainslie and Gorman Arts Centres and Dionysus, conducted the Haig Park Experiments in 2019 as a first step towards the revitalisation of this city park. Testing short-term actions recommended in the place plan, the experiments comprised 26 transformational temporary activations, events and installations between June and December 2019.
With a strong focus on community, activity and sustainability, the experiments provided new, interesting and enjoyable ways for almost 30,000 people to experience, view and understand the park. They demonstrated that Haig Park can and must be a place for people; becoming a vital space for public life that provides greater health and wellbeing outcomes for the community.
The Haig Park Experiments set out to:
Our work in Haig Park is also guided by the Haig Park Conservation Management Plan.
We acknowledge the Ngunnawal people as traditional custodians of the ACT and recognise any other people or families with connection to the lands of the ACT and region. We acknowledge and respect their continuing culture and the contribution they make to the life of this city and this region.