Safety in Centennial Park

Four our final post we were asked to expand on the topic we had chosen for our earlier post. As my posting was on Centennial Park in general I decided for this post I would focus on the safety of the park.

One potential problem for Centennial Park is that pedestrians or cyclists could be injured by the cars driving around the park. It is in the public interest that pedestrians can feel safe when walking around the park. The speed limit for cars using the park is 30 kilometers per hour. Centennial Park has put in place an interesting initiative to try and get drivers to abide by the 30 kilometer speed limit. Given the prevalence of speed cameras you would think the government would just put lots of speed cameras in and fine everyone speeding. Instead the park has a large screen which records how fast a driver is going and displays it for them on the screen. If they are travelling above the speed limit the words “SLOW DOWN” appear on the screen alongside the speed they are travelling. The idea is that people might not realize they are going too fast and so instead of fining them, this large sign brings it to their attention in the hope they will correct themselves. Perhaps the sign also works because drivers are going to be embarrassed if everyone can see that they are breaking the law and speeding. Mary Wellings, who walks around the park daily said “I usually feel safe walking around the park but the time I feel safest is during the car free day”. Cars are banned from the park on the last Sunday of every season.

The other safety issue for Centennial Park is of course attacks on people in the park. Attacks are not very common but they do happen occasionally. The park has developed a reputation as a no-go area at night. “I would never feel comfortable if I was walking around the park at night” said Jane Smith. The gates of the park lock at a certain time each night to prevent people from entering after dark. “Generally there are so many people in the park in the afternoon that I feel safe because I don’t think anyone would attack me with all these people around” said Sarah Hargreaves.

Overall the atmosphere in Centennial Park is usually one of relaxation and enjoyment. If drivers do the right thing and obey the speed limit, the park is a safe place for everyone to enjoy.

www.centennialparklands.com.au

http://www.rta.nsw.gov.au/

Centennial Park

When thinking of something to take photos of which was a point of interest in Sydney I could not go past the very impressive Centennial Park. Centennial Park is impressive in just its sheer size of 189 hectares but also in the variety of people that use it for their own enjoyment. Any given day at Centennial Park there is a wide variety of different activities going on; from the people going on a simple stroll around the park to the packs of bicycle riders tearing around the park and the people on horseback. Centennial Park has a rich history and it is important the park is kept in good condition for future generations to enjoy.




Here one of the many uses of the park can be seen. This is one of the fields which are hired by local sports teams to train on. This is also the field where many big concerts, such as the recent Jack Johnson one are held.






People walk their dogs all throughout the park. However throughout the park there are strict regulations that dogs be kept on a leash and under control. This area of the park shown above is unique because dogs are allowed off the leash and can run around and interact with other dogs. This area of the park is seen as an important one by the many dog owners who bring their dogs down here every day. Many of them only have small backyards so it is imperative they have somewhere to let their dogs stretch their legs without being on a leash. “My dog is cooped up in my small backyard all day so I really like being able to bring him down here and let him run out all his energy” said Susan Byers. A concern for the park would be that this field would become covered in dog poo however the majority of people do the right thing and bring plastic bags with them when they bring their dogs. If they do not they face fines.









This photo shows an electronic board which tells drivers how fast they are going. If they are going above the speed limit it tells them to “SLOW DOWN”.

There are interesting architectural buildings to see in the park such as this one. The park will be used for massive events such as the upcoming World Youth Festival. Centennial Park has a plethora of uses and is a very important part of Sydney which must be appreciated for its true value. “It’s really nice to come down to the park and unwind after a hard day at the office” said one park user.

http://www.centennialparklands.com.au/
www.discoversydney.com.au/parks/centennial.html

Bloging on a Sunday!

I was surprised to see that Andrew Bolt made a number of postings on his blog on a Sunday. I would have thought he would take Sunday off but then again maybe people are more likely to view blogs on a Sunday because they are not working themselves.

Most of Andrew Bolt’s posts are reasonably short. He usually has an extract of a story and comments on that story. There are links from his blog to the original site of the story. Not surprisingly the stories all come from Fairfax owned newspapers like The Age and the Sydney Morning Herald. There are no links on Andrew Bolt’s blog which will take you to a non Fairfax owned paper like the Daily Telegraph.

Bolt likes to keep it short with his postings. Today most of his postings were only a couple of sentences long. He takes a story and tries to stir up debate about it by making very strong comments about it. Andrew Bolt appears to be very prejudiced against Kevin Rudd in his postings. One posting today was about the likelihood of Malcolm Turnbull challenging Brendan Nelson for the Liberal leadership (http://blogs.news.com.au/heraldsun/andrewbolt/index.php/heraldsun/comments/gone_too_far_for_nelson_to_hang_on/). Bolt still managed to get a shot in at Rudd on this posting saying how this allowed Rudd to “cement in place some myths about his competence”. After reading Bolt’s blog for two weeks it is not very balanced when it comes to Kevin Rudd. Basically every day for two weeks there has been multiple postings where Bolt attacks Rudd. It gets a bit repetitive because no matter what the topic is you know Bolt is going to have a go at Rudd.

Andrew Bolt's Blog April 9

I have chosen to review the blog of Herald Sun columnist Andrew Bolt. He is a controversial political commentator and his blog should be interesting. The url is http://blogs.news.com.au/heraldsun/andrewbolt/.

Andrew Bolt posts on his blog very frequently. His postings concern currents events and his comments on the breaking news of the day. The vast majority of his posts relate to political news. On Wednesday 9 April Andrew Bolt made 15 separate postings on his blog, spaced throughout the day from 5:00 am to 6 pm. All of his posts drew comments from readers. Today’s postings covered a number of issues with the controversy surrounding the Olympic torch relay being a major focal point.

Of particular interest was Bolt’s posting regarding the 60 minutes story from Sunday night. The story involved a father and daughter who have been found guilty of incest. It has emerged that 60 minutes paid the father and daughter for their interview. Bolt’s criticism of this was strong and he drew strong support from his readers. I agree with his assertion that it “stinks” that these two people should benefit from breaking the law. Profiting from crime is immoral and illegal and 60 minutes should not have paid them for their interview. If they wanted to do a story on a murderer would they pay him for his interview as well? It is difficult to tell where 60 minutes would draw the line after a story like this.