A master plan for Callan

‘More to do but heading in the right direction.’ It’s a slogan certain Labor figures would prefer to forget, but ironically, it sums up the largely positive response to the release of the draft options for the Callan Park Master Plan.

The project, the result of a half-million-dollar investment by Leichhardt Council and the largest of its kind in the country, is the result of six months’ consultation with the community. “We’ve endeavoured to listen very carefully to the community’s expectations and deliver a plan that, with some equity, delivers on all the requests we’ve had,” said Adrian McGregor, Managing Director of McGregor Coxall, who were contracted to draw up the plan. “The idea of a ‘wellness sanctuary’ has overwhelmingly come from the community, and that’s the guiding vision for the project.”

The notion of a wellness sanctuary is perhaps most obvious in the updated idea of a ‘therapeutic landscape’, harking back to Callan Park’s origins as a centre for treating mental health patients. “The park will address important gaps in mental health service provision, offering education, health and sense of community on the one site,” said mental health consultant Professor Vaughan Carr, of the Schizophrenia Research Institute at UNSW. “Traditionally, mental health services have not paid sufficient attention to recovery-focused approaches to care that maximise social recovery. It is expected that Callan Park will do this through an emphasis on wellness, healthy living, social engagement and participation in the community at multiple levels.”

Meanwhile, on a practical level, the plan encompasses an extremely high degree of adaptive reuse of existing buildings, returning open space to the community where possible. Other features included in the plan are new playing fields, sustainable energy initiatives, a ‘Museum of the Mind’ to detail the site’s mental health heritage, and a new orchard facing Balmain Road.