Haig Park Experiments: a creative placemaking approach

The CRA committed $1 million to trialling the community’s aspirations for the park through a six-month program known as Haig Park Experiments. The program aimed to design and deliver temporary installations and activities – ‘Experiments’ – in response to community aspirations for the park, and then monitor and evaluate these experiments to inform longer term renewal in Haig Park.

A team from the Faculty of Arts and Design at the University of Canberra, with experience in creative placemaking and community engagement, formed and led the Haig Park Experiments Consortium. This local cross-sector consortium included landscape architecture and placemaking firm Tait Network, arts organisation Ainslie and Gorman Arts Centres, and cultural development company Dionysus. 

The key goals of Haig Park Experiments were:

1. Improve community perception of Haig Park 
   Haig Park Haig had a widely held negative reputation, with women identifying the park as the most unsafe park in Canberra.
2. Improve the number, diversity and dwell time of users of Haig Park 
   The 2017 Haig Park Utilisation Study found that almost two-thirds of park visitors were male adults aged 25- 45. The Study also showed that the park was mostly used as a thoroughfare, with visitors spending minimal time there. 
3. Improve community custodianship of, and capacity to use the Park  
   Poor community perception and a lack of infrastructure in Haig Park limited community use and sense of ownership of the park. 

From June to December 2019, the Consortium delivered a program of 26 Experiments in the form of events and temporary infrastructure, as well as more fine-grained interventions to create a program of regular activity and foster a sense of safety, vibrancy and belonging in the park.

Seven experiments and many activities were specifically designed to attract children and families, including: 

• Nature Play installation
• Pump Track
• Hay Maze
• Winter Play Outside Day
• Fairy Gardens 
• Pop bubble festival
• Tree climbing
• 22 local pre-school and primary school activities

The Experiments also used an asset-based community development approach by leveraging the existing Haig Park asset that was the dog-walking community.  The ‘Haig Park Paws Party’ Experiment became a monthly feature of the 2019 program, attracting hundreds of dog owners to get to know each other through their ‘best friends’. These events were supported by the temporary installation of a dog obstacle course. Haig Park Paws Parties still run on the first Sunday of every month. 

Haig Park Experiments was delivered in partnership with community.  The program involved 26 community organisations, 230 local creatives, 80 small businesses, six government departments, and eight educational institutions. 

Impact

The program was highly successful, transforming Haig Park from a thoroughfare to a destination, and from an unsafe place to a loved and well used community hub. 

• Over 30,000 people visited Haig Park Experiment events
• 69% increase in daily visitation
• 277% increase in dwell time in park
• 614% increase in daily use by children
• 3,000% increase in play 
• 91% improved community perception of the park

Importantly, Haig Park Experiments transformed Haig Park into a safer place. Between the end of 2019 and 2024, Haig Park has only been identified once as an unsafe space on the Canberra Women’s Safety map. This transformation led  Centre for Women’s Health Matters ACT CEO in 2023 to call Haig Park “the perfect example” of “using data” to inform renewal of public space that makes safer places for women. 

The increased use, dwell time and diversity of users remained at this level or higher 4 years on (2023 user audit). 

Since 2019, the park has also seen significant increases in use, dwell time and diversity of users, with a popular weekly Village Market and a program of community events attracting thousands of people. The 19 recommendations from Haig Park Experiments have resulted in over $3 million investment in infrastructure in Haig Park. This includes improved safety and amenity upgrades with more paths and lighting, and the Salthouse Community Centre in honour of local disability advocate Sue Salthouse

The park’s transformation into a welcoming community hub has increased social participation in the inner-city public realm, reduced social inequality for women, children and older adults who now feel safer in the park, and contributed to community wellbeing by providing a vibrant green space that is now ‘everyone’s backyard’.