What is Public Open Space?

Public open space (POS) is generally described as land set aside for the purpose of public enjoyment and protection of unique, environmental, social and cultural values for existing and future generations. 

Public Open Space (POS) provides many essential benefits including enhancing local neighbourhoods, people’s lifestyles and improving health outcomes. POS takes many forms and serves a range of functions but are typically identified as a park.

Public open space (POS) describes land that is freely accessible by the community, for a variety of purposes. Most typically, public open space is used to describe parks.

We have a number of public open spaces, including but not limited to: parks, reserves, sporting grounds, foreshore and bushland.

The purpose of open space is to encourage a range of activities including walking, cycling, dog walking, social activities, informal sporting activity, play spaces, structured sport, bushland and events.

The most common use of POS is for recreational purposes, whether that be for active use, such as sport, informal play or events or more passive activities like walking, picnics or bird watching. POS can also be used to house community buildings or for other community purposes like bushland conservation and stormwater drainage.

Why do we need a public open strategy?

The purpose of the Public Open Space Strategy is to provide strategic direction and a framework to guide the management of open space. A strategy will help us manage where, when and how public space is made available to the community.

The Town has a Public Open Space Strategy that was prepared in 2019. Since then, the planning system has changed enough that this document is now out of date. We need to update this to reflect these changes, and are making the most of this opportunity to review the strategy as a whole and include a street tree plan into the strategy.

What does a Public Open Space Strategy Consider?

What does a Public Open Space Strategy Consider?

It involves assessing the existing public open space network, current use issues and limitations, and understanding community values. It includes planning ahead for the provision and design of public open space to meet the needs of our growing community to assist us to deliver a cohesive, linked and well-managed system that meet a range of current and future needs.

Key considerations include:

• Ensuring equitable access to open space for residents, workers and visitors to the Town
• Meeting often-competing community demands for public open space
• The importance public open space plays in urban environments to sustain and improve both mental and physical health and well-being and provide opportunities for social interaction and cohesion
• The impacts of climate change, urban heat island effect and extreme weather conditions as well as resilience and adaptation strategies to mitigate their effects.

It is expected that a Public Open Space Strategy will provide recommendations and guidance on:

• Addressing gaps in access to open space and in provision for particular types and functions of public open space
• Levels of maintenance, servicing and infrastructure (weighing up likely usage and potential costs to the rate payer
• Funding mechanisms for future public open space works.
• Prioritising public open space works across the municipality.

What is the vision of the strategy?

Shaped by community feedback, we have developed the draft Strategy with the following vision:

“Hedland is a place people want to live, where nature is a priority and the public open spaces enrich the lives of its community.

The objectives of the strategy can be found on the Strategy on a Page

How was the strategy prepared?

The Town conducted a detailed evaluation of the current POS provision that balances current State legislative requirements with the specific needs of the local community. The assessment was built three around key components including:

• POS audit (Refer to Appendix D) - A detailed evaluation of the quality and amenity of existing open spaces, focusing on aesthetics, functionality, safety, and supporting infrastructure.
• Walkable catchment analysis - assessing how easily residents can access open space from surrounding neighbourhoods
• POS provision analysis - A comparison of POS provision against benchmarks from other Pilbara towns, legislated percentage of POS assessment, and a contextualised assessment that reflects how open space is actually used

In addition to the technical analysis, community engagement was undertaken to understand local preferences across a range of key themes, including shade, safety, accessibility, recreational facilities, and community identity. Through these discussions, several consistent priorities emerged, revealing a strong desire for safe, accessible, and sustainable public spaces that cater to all ages, foster social connection, and showcase the unique natural beauty of Port Hedland.

All of these inputs were collated and guided the decision to apply the Hub and Spoke model to the draft strategy. The Hub and Spoke model provides a practical and strategic framework for guiding future investment in public open space and enables the Town to allocate resources where they are needed most.

There is a lot of information here, where do I start?

To ensure the draft strategy can be read and understood easily, we have divided the document into clear sections:

For a quick snapshot of the actions that are proposed, the Implementation Framework can be found in Part 06. Our Future Green Network (page 107) of the draft Strategy.

If you are interested in digging a little deeper, the full draft Strategy outlines the POS framework, an analysis of existing supply in Port and South Hedland, and the proposed approach to a future green network; and Appendix D contains the consolidated assessments for each piece of public open space and site specific recommendations.

What did the evaluation of the Town's Public Open Space reveal?

A summary of the POS assessments is below. For a full overview of the evaluation please see Part 05. Precinct Assessments of the draft Strategy.

Port Hedland

• Walkable catchment - Contextual analysis shows some gaps.
• Community infrastructure audit - Port Hedland is generally well supplied. The only identified shortfall is one additional junior AFL field.
• Overall provision of POS - 9% of the gross subdivisible area (not including Wilson St reserve) exceeding standard requirements. Note that majority of this is McGregor St reserve.
• Canopy cover - Ranges between 0–15%, with only minor exceptions.

South Hedland

• Walkable catchments - Contextual analysis shows notable gaps.
• Community infrastructure audit - Clear shortfall in open space-related community infrastructure.
• Overall provision of POS - 4.46% of the gross subdivisible area (not including the Golf Course) which is below the standard requirements.
• Canopy cover - Ranges between 0–20%, with limited exceptions.