Coogee to Bondi Coastal Walk, Sydney

On Thursday the 25^th of October while in Sydney, the class took a coastal walk spanning from Coogee to Bondi, with a focus on urbanizing nature, what it means to have green spaces, and the ‘white’ Australian identity. We began our morning with a talk on a large spot of grass right alongside the beach, trying to debunk the meaning of this space, along with other parks made in Sydney, and that were created are for. The creation of green spaces and ‘nature’ in urban settings are often done so with political, economic and cultural agendas. As the first reading by Catherine Evens suggest, landscapes are historical products of human-nature interactions (Evans, 2015). Before reading and taking the time to think about what urban landscapes actually were, I understood them to be places for people to gather and enjoy themselves outside of the city life and find some peace and quiet or a place to play while surrounded by trees and flowers.

In New York City, we have Central Park, and I have always seen that as a nature location to leave the hustle and busy city life to find relaxation. I never thought about how it was perfectly sculpted and planned to match an idealized version of what people thought nature was and how it has to match a perfect aesthetic to be accepted by the people. After reading Catherine Evans case study of Sydney Park and understanding the history behind the park, being built on a previous landfill, had I only thought about the history of Central Park and what stood in its place before. Evans makes the point of mentioning ‘cultural amnesia’ and how the silence of history is seen as a missed opportunity to educate the public, residents, and visitors of what the space was before the transformation. Thinking about it now, I think it should be a topic of conversation among the people of Sydney to understand the effects of dumping toxic materials and reduce waste and how it is still currently taking a toll on the park now.

Thinking of nature as a social construct, as the second reading by Olaf Kuhne describes, society has a view of nature being wild and rugged yet at the same time accept these confined and maintained green spaces and parks as nature as well (Kuhne, 2012). It would come down to the difference between a pretty, domesticated, and tamed version of nature compared to the pathless and ‘less explored’ woods and uncontrollable trees and plants. These ideas of what nature are determining what is accepted and how the culture of a community would then affect the design and layout of a park, making sure it fits their standards. The idea of beauty and the control/ power that is taken in the formation of designs, is driving the creation of parks to ultimately keep humans separate and above nature while still being able to interact with it but at a distance. The thought of ownership of the land and space also keeps driving humans away from forming an equal relationship with it. Because the parks are being altered and privatized, and in many places restrictive access, there comes the idea of possessing the land that connects with the history of colonization.

Evans, C. (2015) Urbanising Nature: a political ecology case study of Sydney Park. Paper Presented in State of Australian Cities Conference, 2015

Kuhne, O. (2012) Urban Nature Between Modern and Postmodern Aesthetics: Reflections Based on the Social Constructivist Approach. In Quaestiones Geographicae 31(2), 2012