Patricia Gill, Denmark Bulletin

A plan to ‘rationalise’ historically-named parks in Denmark has drawn outrage from residents.

A stream of letters to the editor in the [Denmark ]Bulletin supports leaving the parks intact citing community wellbeing and environmental reasons.

But in the 2024 Local Planning Strategy the Denmark Shire Council has targeted six such parks which are deemed too small, in a ‘poor’ location, costly to maintain, closer to better public open space sites, and therefore suitable for a land swap, or are too steep.

Some have also been deemed of limited recreational or environmental value.

Already Fyfe Park in Brazier Street, has been handed over to the Department of Communities for senior housing in a land swap to be amalgamated into McLean Park.

During 2024 and 2025 in talks with the Department of Communities, Fyfe Park, Lake View Dairy Park and Nellie Saw Reserve were identified as suitable for residential development.

But as shire president Aaron Wiggins says, though Nellie Saw Reserve and Lake View Dairy Park have been considered this does not automatically mean that the land will change purpose.

The Shire could not ‘bank’ land for future purposes but needed to guarantee something specific would be done with it.

“The Department of Communities was only interested in one lot so we gave them Fyfe Park,” Councillor Wiggins said.

The six parks under scrutiny had been set aside under previous planning policies which had tended to create smaller, more isolated housing areas and they no longer fulfilled their purpose.

For example, what would once have worked as a useful thoroughfare did not match the way the town had evolved given a more ‘wholistic’ approach to POS.

Denmark Historical Society chair Bev McGuinness said maintenance was a ‘pathetic excuse’ for the change of purpose parks which had been in situ for decades.

“All green areas in the townsite should be preserved and our stance is the historical aspect,” Mrs McGuinness said.

In March, the Shire called for an expression of interest in No. 5 Research Station Road on Scotsdale Road, which is now part of Kwoorabup Park, and to freehold Nockolds Park on Zimmermann Street for residential development.

The EOIs are being considered for the lease or sale of the land as a project of benefit to the community and the result will be known at the July or August Denmark Shire Council meeting.

Talks with the Nockolds family will include ‘alternative park naming options’ to commemorate the family.

Noted in the March 31 council minutes, was the Shire’s ‘large and diverse’ portfolio of POS, much of which had been created through historic subdivision patterns rather than contemporary planning patterns.

Cr Wiggins said in the case of a park or street no longer existing, the Shire always kept that name ‘at the top of the list’ to be used elsewhere. Mrs McGuinness said Nellie Saw Reserve was a memorial to a World War I nurse who died soon after her return home.

The Tysoe brothers, Fred and Harry, after whom another park on the list of six is named, both died while serving.

Nockolds were early settlers as were Randalls – Randall Park is deemed unsuitable for recreation – and Lake View Dairy Park is attributed to the Barrett family and like the Fyfe family were early settlers.

A Shire spokesperson said analysis for the LPS had indicated that some residential areas were overserviced with POS, and that some existing parks are underutilised due to their size, location, lack of services, and/or other constraints.

POS that is poorly designed and under-utilised can detract from the amenity of a neighbourhood.

The LPS supports consolidating POS into larger sites to support a wider range of uses.

In most instances 10 per cent of a developed area, or the equivalent cash in lieu, should be POS. 

This article appeared in Denmark Bulletin, 2 July 2026.