A record of field trips and other explorations of a particular urban design element - the internal reserve - a 'pocket park' surrounded on all sides by residential housing but accessible by pedestrian pathways from the street. They are exclusive, secluded, sometimes neglected, sometimes celebrated, suburban spaces. This blog welcomes contributions: comments, images, memorabilia. Please email nicholsd@unimelb.edu.au
Saturday, December 6, 2025
Reserve bounded by Cedar St/Laver Grove, Mayfield, Tasmania
Friday, December 5, 2025
Unnamed reserve bounded by Jasmine Ct, Lila Dr, Nanette Ct, Prospect, Tas
Yesterday I posted about a reserve close to this one - probably less than a ten-minute walk, depending how long you wait to cross Westbury Road. It is similar in shape to Ingamells Reserve but in all other ways radically different. It's possible that Ingamells is too rocky to be properly maintained (i.e. mown to within an inch of its life) unlike this one, which is featureless, but I have to ask what on earth this space is ever used for - if anything - and whether it is valued at all by local residents (of course the only evidence I have that Ingamells is valued is that it has a worn walking path through it).
Thursday, December 4, 2025
Ingamells Reserve, Prospect, Tas
It's been 2 and a half years since I last posted on this site, and in between the last post and this one our book Community Green has been published, including a lot of material from this blog. You'd think the book would finally scratch the itch but no, and a few Launceston examples from this week have cried out to be recorded.
Launceston has a lot of IRs, for reasons not thoroughly obvious to me, although its general hilliness might go some way to explaining - leads to (1) topographically-sensitive road patterns (2) space in residential areas unsuitable for building. I have yet to find any outright overt discussion by Launceston parks or governance people expressing a particular preference in this regard. But there clearly is one and I would say of the many, many cities around the world I have visited looking at IRs, per capita Launceston wins.
Here are some images from the Ingamells Reserve which can be viewed here though I note the map this links to actually doesn't show the reserve at all! It is a bushland reserve with what look to me like some pretty decisive desire lines from one end to the other, though if they're on a map, maybe they were actually designated as such by original designers - don't know.
Signposted entrance at Summer Rise.Reserve bounded by Cedar St/Laver Grove, Mayfield, Tasmania
I have not been able to find out anything at all about the estate surrounding this IR but I am going to suggest it is a subdivision of land ...
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Comparison between the above from a relatively new UBD street directory and the current Google Map shows some disparity in the shape of t...
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A search on something else entirely led me to the June 1927 issue of one of Florence Taylor's publications, Construction and Local Go...
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Now for something different: the industrial internal reserve. Two examples of this lie within the northern portion of Griffin’s Milleara Est...