In January 1971 John Turner wrote a feature article for the Newcastle Morning Herald (NMH). The headline read: "Birdwood Park seems doomed". These words proved to be prophetic. The land for Birdwood Park had been given to the people of Newcastle by the A.A. Company in 1888 and so has had a long history.
In 1945 Council told the Town Clerk to "negotiate" for resumption of land with the frontage to King Street for an extension to Birdwood Park. It was anticipated that "…removal of air raid shelters from the park and the acquisition of the land would provide a reasonable breathing space for the city and would permit erection of a children's playground".
Shortly after, however, plans to accommodate the ever-increasing flow of traffic into and out of the city were drawn up. These involved widening King Street and building a highway through Birdwood Park. The issue did not attract much public attention until 1971, by which time the park was in a very sorry state. John Turner wrote: "in preparation for its fate, it has been allowed to deteriorate into a derelict paddock. But it could and should be an outstanding aesthetic feature in the middle of our ever increasing acres of tar and cement". He went on to say: "Birdwood Park is not an isolated example of the alienation of public parks for roads". Examples of this were the widening of King Street in 1968 and the extension of the scenic highway through Jefferson Park in Merewether. It is obvious, he wrote, "…that the main criteria for determining the course of new roads, or for selecting existing roads for widening, has been the availability of parklands. By siting main roads in our parks, the State Government fulfils its road-building obligations at a minimum cost". Turner also referred to Newcastle's "…long tradition of apathy towards public parks". While this statement was justified, the large protest in response to proposals to dissect Blackbutt Reserve in the 1960's had seen the wakening of a new attitude.
By 1971 environmental issues were becoming more important to a growing number of people. Jobs in rural areas were declining, while the number of jobs in cities grew rapidly. With increasing population and rising affluence, the number of cars in cities increased rapidly. This translated into a need for bigger and better roads and highways. Parklands, along with some houses, disappeared as the process of turning two lane roads into six-lane freeways gathered momentum. The car had become king as most people abandoned public transport and purchased their own car.
In 1971 the Department of Main Roads (DMR) announced that a six lane road would go through Birdwood Park. One of the first groups to come out in opposition to the plan was the Newcastle division of the Australian Institute of Architects who "…appealed for strenuous investigations into every possible way of retaining Birdwood Park in its entirety". The chairman, Mr Brian Suters, said his division "…supported the protest meeting. The proposal is a classic example of the amenities of the park being sacrificed for the needs of the car. We must recognise the value of the parks and open space. The destruction of parks for roadways has accelerated in the Newcastle area. We must take stock now or it will be too late…the issue of Birdwood Park is symptomatic of the immense problems facing all cities.
Apparently many Novocastrians agreed with these sentiments as 150 people turned up at the protest meeting with banners and postcards reading: "Find another way for the Motorway", "Keep the Woods in Birdwood" and "By pass Birdwood for a better road plan".
Organisers were aware realised that it would take more than one protest meeting to stop the motorway. Another meeting was organised for nine days later. At this meeting "more than 120 people attended to protest about the resumption of two-thirds of the park for a roadway". The meeting was organised by the Northern Parks and Playground Movement (NPPM). Mr J Sheilds said, "they had to fight the apathy of some aldermen who allowed the filching of open space for roadway. It was sad that some elected representatives had failed to do their duty. "He stated that the A.A. Company gave the 2½ acres of land to the Newcastle people in 1888 on condition it was used for recreation.
The protests continued in one form or another. A petition was circulated and letters sent to the editor of the Herald. By mid July the Lord Mayor, Ald. McDougall, was distancing himself from the planned roadway. It was reported that at the next council meeting he would "protest about the plan for building the highway through the park. Parkland in this vicinity is at a premium and I feel that the largest possible area of Birdwood Park should be preserved and intensively beautified".
Following the council meeting the Herald reported that the fate of Birdwood Park remained undecided. After a debate of more than an hour and a half, council decided that the matter should be referred to the works committee for further consideration.
The city engineer Mr Baddeley came in for criticism from some aldermen. In his defence, he pointed out "that when the arterial road plan for the area was drawn up in 1945, the council had not objected to it. The plan was submitted to the council in 1968 and was adopted unanimously at the time". The works committee were asked to re-examine the issue and two weeks later they reported back to council. They were unanimous in recommending that the highway go ahead as no satisfactory alternatives could be found to accommodate the expected increase in traffic over the next few decades. The following day the full council approved the recommendation of the works committee and there the matter rested for over a year.
It is important to note that in mid 1971 the issue of Blackbutt Reserve had also resurfaced. A meeting was called by the Northern Parks and Playground Movement in response to NMH reports that Newcastle Council was considering building an express way through part of the reserve. This meeting attracted 800 people whereas the meeting held the previous month, also called by the NPPM, had only attracted 120 people.
Birdwood Park 1972 prior to the roadworks.
While the conservationists focused on the future of Blackbutt Reserve, it appears that the threat to Birdwood Park was put aside until December 1972 when a small article in the Herald said "Newcastle City Council plans to build a road through Birdwood Park early next year". The plan also involved the widening of Stewart Avenue, which meant the removal of a row of trees. This announcement galvanised people. In January 1973 about 65 local residents met and formed the Stewart Avenue Preservation Society (SAPS), with Norm Barnwell as secretary. Speaking to a reporter, he said they objected to "the removal of trees which acted as a wind and noise break, helped reduce pollution, and beautified the environment". The meeting also decided to seek a deputation to see local aldermen and relevant members of State and Federal Parliaments.
Three days later passers-by found that "nearly 90 trees in Stewart Avenue and Birdwood park were bedecked with signs reading 'Save this tree' and 'Don't axe me'. The signs were erected by members of SAPS".
The Lord Mayor, Ald McDougal told a deputation that "[P]lans for roadworks would involve no great transformation of Stewart Avenue". The next day Norm Barnwell told the Herald: that "[i]t was difficult to understand why the Lord Mayor and the Divisional Engineer for the Department of Main Roads (DMR) had both denied a plan had been discussed at the December 12 meeting of the Works Committee of council because it had been mentioned in the precis given to aldermen".
Traditionally most Novocastrians had, even if they were unaware of it, been members of the 'Mushroom Club'. There was a perception that bureaucrats and local politicians had 'fed them on bullshit and kept them in the dark for decades'. As long as only a small minority objected, the system continued to function in the interests of those with power and influence. This time, however, there was a substantial number of articulate people who were prepared to challenge the wishes of the powers that be. Ald McDougall assured the Herald readers that "nothing had been officially approved and various plans for Stewart Avenue had been talked about for years". Two days later the City Engineer told a deputation "there was no suggestion of removing trees from Stewart Avenue at this stage" and that the Works Committee was simply "considering the undertrimming of trees for road safety".
SAPS responded by engaging "a consulting engineer, Mr Heyworth, to design a plan that would leave Birdwood Park as it is. It would mean rerouting some traffic but would leave intact plans for the high level industrial route at Stewart Avenue".
A week later this alternative plan, contained in a ten-page report, was ready to present to the Works Committee of council. "All the aldermen say they are not in favour of chopping down trees in Stewart Avenue", said Mr Barnwell, "and so we hope people will discuss our plan".
By early February, however, there had been no reprieve for the park and SAPS announced that they planned to chain people to trees if the highway went ahead. "All we want is for our plan to be given some consideration and a trial period of about three months" , a spokesman said. The Lord Mayor said that he did not know when work on the project would begin. He had put forward an alternate plan but it was not accepted. The problem with SAPS' plan is that it takes the traffic into quiet residential streets, crosses existing lanes of heavy traffic and diverts traffic into Hunter Street which is reaching saturation point".
On 5 February about 20 cars were parked next to trees in the park by SAPS members who expected work on the highway to start soon. The protest was supported by the NPPM and the Newcastle Resident Action Committee.
On February 14 it was reported that the Works Committee of Council had deferred their plan so that consideration could be given to an alternative plan. A week later SAPS announced they had begun a "campaign to keep the birds in Birdwood Park". Three days later a public meeting was held in the park which attracted about 250 people. They were asked to volunteer to chain themselves to trees if the bulldozers moved into the park. Norm Barnwell also called on the crowd "to attend the council meeting tomorrow night and do all they could to embarrass the Works Committee. Mr St John, a former member of Parliament, came from Sydney to address the meeting. He said it was not the council which was at fault but the DMR who, he said, "think they can do what they like in Newcastle". By now the issue had become front page news and many people who had never protested publicly about anything found themselves painting banners, taking round petitions, writing letters to the editor, attending meetings, and generally getting involved.
When the council met it had one of the biggest, and quietest, galleries in attendance to hear the Works Committee reject the traffic plan to save Birdwood Park. About 120 people crowded into the council chambers. A petition with "a great many signatures" was tabled, but it was all to no avail. Ald Palmer failed to get a seconder when he moved the matter be deferred. The City Engineer said he had conferred with Inspector Wightley of the Traffic Branch, "who was unhappy about the long list of one-way streets" in the alternative plan. Ald Edwards said the protesters were engaged in "a belligerent attempt to embarrass people who are doing their best for the city" and added that the park had only been "used by five people or circuses".
The next day council officers finalised their plans in secret but Norm Barnwell received an anonymous phone call telling him the work would begin the next morning. At 6am, about 20 protesters were already in the park when three council trucks and a car arrived. A bulldozer arrived soon afterwards on a low loader escorted by police. Protesters "asked the workmen to reconsider what they were about to do. More than a dozen police arrived "and removed cars that had been parked next to the trees".
Workmen, with chainsaws, began felling the trees while protesters leant against the trees. Others jumped on the bulldozer. Police asked them to move and those who refused were removed by force. Norm Barnwell was arrested and charged with obstruction. He was taken to the Hunter Street lock-up, finger printed and a few hours later released on $500 bail. This money was put up by Nick Raftos. (At the time Norm Barnwell was a teacher and could have lost his job if found guilty. But the authorities did not want to make a martyr of him and he was later found 'not guilty' on a technicality.)
Julia Hayes and two other women had taken small tree branches to the Lord Mayor's office and City Hall and left them there. Three months later Julia Hayes "pleaded not guilty in Newcastle Court to a summons that she entered the private chambers of the Lord Mayor without reasonable cause on March 1. Julia said she "…went to see the Mayor because she was much concerned over the public's safety in the park at the time. She believed the Mayor would be in his office and hoped he would intervene in the situation. She took the branches as evidence of what was happening at Birdwood".
The magistrate found NCC "failed to prove that Mrs Hayes entered the Lord Mayor's private chambers without reasonable cause" and dismissed the case. He found that she had expected to see the Lord Mayor in his office the morning she entered it".
Work begins on the new roadway February 3 1973.
"Ald Cummings arrived in the park about 7.30am and was in tears when interviewed. She said she was deeply ashamed at being an alderman of the council". When the Lord Mayor arrived on the scene soon after 8am he said he had known nothing of the plan to remove 17 trees. By 9am it was all over, 'bar the shouting', as workmen began sawing up the fallen trees and began removing them.
One of the protesters, Doug Lithgow, "said it was appalling that work should have gone ahead before the decisions of last Sunday's public meeting had been considered by the council. This was a wilful act of premeditated vandalism". Even the Newcastle branch of the Liberal party got involved with the secretary calling on "those responsible for the destruction of Birdwood Park to resign".
The editor of the Herald observed that, "Newcastle has rarely felt the official boot-heel across the cheek of its good conscience as it did in Birdwood Park yesterday. The council's mechanised invasion of the park was high-handed, provocative and disgraceful". There were lessons to be drawn form this fiasco, suggested the editor.
The following day it was revealed that the Minister for Environmental Control, Mr Beale, had asked Newcastle Council "to explain why an environmental impact report was not made before tree-clearing started in Birdwood Park, in terms of a regulation that came into force in 1972". Another public meeting was also called, "to discuss Birdwood Park and Blackbutt Reserve".
Now that the demise of Birdwood Park was a 'fait accompli' the council "confirmed the action of the City Engineer in starting work on a roadway and removing trees in Birdwood Park. A gallery of about 230 people heard the council formally reject an alternative plan submitted by SAPS".
The debate was gagged after only seven of the 20 aldermen present had spoken on the motion, which was carried by 16 votes to four. "Ald Rich, moving the question be put, said it was almost impossible to have a reasonable debate because of the stupidity and hysteria of a section of the gallery". Ald Cummings moved that work cease immediately on the new road but failed to get a seconder. There were then "shouts from the gallery of 'shame', 'resign', and 'cowards'. After the meeting a laurel wreath was left lying on the floor of the council chambers".
Ald Purdue said later "the extension of King Street through the park was essential if there were to be a free traffic flow and a reduction in accidents. The road was included in the Northumberland County Plan 15 years ago and exhibited for six months".
In hindsight it now appears that Ald Purdue was, to an extent, correct. The real alternative to bigger and better roads was for people to stop buying cars and go back to using bicycles and public transport. The protesters, however, have also been proved, in some respects, to be correct. Peter Morris, Federal member for Shortland, said in his maiden speech to Parliament, "Local government and other authorities had for too long accepted the principle of pinching pieces of public park as the most economic course for so-called progress. The public is not prepared to sit back and take whatever is dished out to them in the name of progress". Referring to Birdwood Park and Blackbutt Reserve he added: "So strong was the opposition 'in staid old Newcastle' that people were coming together spontaneously to protect natural beauty".
While there was a groundswell of people, much organising went on behind the scenes. It didn't happen spontaneously. As well as SAPS, Newcastle Trades Hall Council (NTHC) lent its support and the Newcastle Resident Action Group also played a key role. Its secretary, Julia Hayes, was, according to Norm Barnwell, a brilliant organiser and very efficient. In fact, nearly all of the most active people were women. While many husbands were supportive, they didn't want to do anything too radical and jeopardise their careers. Their wives were the ones who stood next to trees when the chainsaws started up, while others jumped on the bulldozer and tried to drag the driver off it. Wendy Saalfield, Erma Cleaver, Anne Von Bertouch, Doug Lithgow and Jack Shields were some of the names recalled by Norm Barnwell. He added that there were many others who also played a significant role.
The Birdwood Park fiasco was the beginning of the end for the old 'pro-development at any cost' council. Many lost their seats at the next council election in 1974, leading to a shake-up in the ALP. Most ALP councillors, such as "…Ross Edwards and Albert Henderson were hopeless. Trying to get sense out of them was a waste of time", according to Norm Barnwell. The new council brought Joy Cummings to power as Mayor in 1974 and, with her, a more enlightened view of conservation issues. Plans to convert King Street to four lanes through to Darby Street, meant cutting a substantial slice off Civic Park. These plans were hastily abandoned as the DMR and Newcastle Council became much more cautious in their plans for road widening.
Sixteen Years later the issue of the development of Green Point arose. The Newcastle Herald editor, drawing on memories from 1973, noted that "the death of Birdwood Park opposed by a small band of protesters who tried to stop the bulldozers, helped awaken the consciousness of Novocastrians to the need to preserve the areas of green around the city.
Birdwood Park 2001.
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