Turnbull Thomson Park is a public park located in

Invercargill Invercargill ( , ) is the southernmost and westernmost list of cities in New Zealand, city in New Zealand, and one of the Southernmost settlements, southernmost cities in the world. It is the commercial centre of the Southland Region, Southlan ...

, Southland,

South Island The South Island ( , 'the waters of Pounamu, Greenstone') is the largest of the three major islands of New Zealand by surface area, the others being the smaller but more populous North Island and Stewart Island. It is bordered to the north by ...

, New Zealand. It is within the region of

Southland Plains The Southland Plains is a general name given to several areas of low-lying land in the South Island of New Zealand, separated by the rise of the Hokonui Hills in the north. It forms a sizeable area of Southland region and encompasses its two p ...

, covered with grass on low flatland with some trees around the large open space. The park is mainly used for sports and recreation purposes. As a natural reserve, it also has unique environmental and scenic value to the city.

Turnbull Thomson Park today

The park is a sports venue and a tourist attraction surrounded by local residential areas. On the south west corner is Rugby Park Stadium, a privately operated sports ground. To its northwest are Otakaro Park and Queen's Park. The Main South railway line and Otepuni Stream bisect the reserve in the middle. A band of industrial segment on Otepuni Avenue separates the two eastern parts of the park. On the corner of Lindisfarne Street and Otepuni Avenue sits a sewerage pumping station, part of the Invercargill city cleaning system set up by

John Turnbull Thomson John Turnbull Thomson (10 August 1821 – 16 October 1884) was a British civil engineer and artist who played an instrumental role in the development of the early infrastructure of nineteenth-century Colonial Singapore, Singapore and New Zealan ...

. Environment Southland manages two pieces of land in and adjacent to the reserve. One is in the center next to the railway line and another in the northwest borders the reserve.Invercargill (N.Z.). City Council. ''Parks Administration, Turnbull Thomson Park: Management Plan : March 2008'', Invercargill City Council, 2008.

Maintenance

The park is maintained by the

city council. The Parks Division is responsible for the development, maintenance and general management of the park, including control over eradication of weeds. Each club is responsible for its own building and car park maintenance. The stop bank is maintained by Environment Southland. The Roading Division of the Invercargill City Council is responsible for the maintenance of the walking/cycling track. Children's playground equipments receive routine checks by the city council to meet the New Zealand Safety Standard for Playgrounds.

Landscaping and facilities

The main entrance to the park is off Lindisfarne Street. The park is divided by Lindisfarne street and the railway line into four sections. The park hosts the headquarters of a number of indoor sporting and recreational organisations and provides signed car parks. A walking and cycling track runs through it. In 2010, a new tigerturf football pitch partly filled with rubber and sand was added to better handle the wet weather. Funding was from the council, ILT Foundation, the Invercargill Licensing Trust (ILT) and the Community Trust of Southland. The upgrade included development of a full football field, Southland Football pavilion refurbishment and a training area. There are some adjoining areas with the residential, private and industrial communities. Apart from holding sports events as its formal usage, the park provided green areas for the city and entertainment for the citizens, such as firework display. The park has many children's playground areas and is also a 'Dog Exercise Area' as defined by the Dog Control Policy, which means dogs can run off lead but under the control of the owner. The council is also expecting to further develop soccer and hockey fields. Residential Clubs List The park roughly has four quadrants, and each quadrant has its own unique characteristics. They all have club or association buildings on site; some parts provide casual play areas and shelters to keep visitors from the wind and rain. South East Quadrant *Collegiate Rugby Football Club - RUGBY South West Quadrant *Marist Old Boys' Rugby Club - RUGBY *Marist Cricket Club - CRICKET *Southland Table Tennis Association - TABLE TENNIS *Southland Dog Obedience Club - DOG OBEDIENCE North East Quadrant *Bowls Southland - BOWLS *Southland Football''Southland Football future proof with a TigerTurf Soccer Real 60 Synthetic Pitch''
Tigerturfworld.com, Retrieved 20 September 2012 - FOOTBALL *He Tauaa Rugby League Club - RUGBY LEAGUE *Casual Use - GOLF *Casual Use - PLAYGROUND North West Quadrant *Metropolitan Cricket Club - CRICKET *Eastern Hawks Rugby Club - RUGBY *Southland Touch Association - TOUCH *Invercargill Smallbore Rifle Association - SMALLBORE RIFLE *Invercargill Poultry and Pigeon Club - POULTRY AND PIGEON CLUB *Southland Darts Association - DARTS *Invercargill Contract Bridge Club - BRIDGE *Invercargill Caledonian Pipe Band - PIPE BAND *Casual Use - SKATEBOARDING

History

Around 70% of the park was given to Invercargill city as a gift together with further monetary donations in 1933 by daughters of

, who was the first Surveyor General of New Zealand. The money was used to buy trees and shrubs for the park. Turnbull Thomson Park was used for growing crops during

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

. The cultivation of the land helped to improve the condition of the soil. Over the years, other areas and facilities were added to the main area by the council, such as land, shelters, clubrooms and bridges. In 1965 the Turnbull Thomson Pavilion was built and managed by Turnbull Thomson Management Committee since. During the 1960s and 1970s a tree nursery was added for growing shelter trees for the city's reserves. During roughly the same time period, most sports buildings were built for team activities. In the 90s, a

skateboard park A skatepark, or skate park, is a purpose-built recreational environment made for skateboarding, BMX, scootering, and aggressive inline skating. A skatepark may contain half-pipes, handrails, funboxes, vert ramps, stairsets, quarter pipes, ...

was built by Environment Southland when the stop banks were being constructed. In the late 90s, some professional

mural A mural is any piece of Graphic arts, graphic artwork that is painted or applied directly to a wall, ceiling or other permanent substrate. Mural techniques include fresco, mosaic, graffiti and marouflage. Word mural in art The word ''mural'' ...

s were created to beautify the buildings by the collaborative effort of several associations to help combat problems with

graffiti Graffiti (singular ''graffiti'', or ''graffito'' only in graffiti archeology) is writing or drawings made on a wall or other surface, usually without permission and within public view. Graffiti ranges from simple written "monikers" to elabor ...

. A walking and cycling track running from Inglewood Road to Elles Road was added in 2003. It was maintained by the Invercargill City Council Roading Division and funded by the Land Transport Funding Programme.

Activities

The main usage of the park include sports, passive recreations, commercial promotions, festival activities, circuses, competitions, public demonstrations and ceremonies. *Sports Football teams Southland Spirit FC and Queens Park A.F.C. are based in the park. Rugby team Southland Stags Team also train on the new pitch.''Southland Stags Team''
Rugby Southland, Retrieved 20 September 2012 *Recreations The park has a grass field and walking lanes for walking, running and cycling. Children's playgrounds are safe and regularly maintained. Dog walking is allowed under the supervision of the pet owner. *Entertainment Firework displays sometimes are arranged in the park, but open fires outside a BBQ gas container are not allowed. *Club activities Many clubs host their group activities in the park.

Environment

The park is subject to the south oceanic and local microclimate of Invercargill and often has inclement weather. Before humans arrived, this area was covered by forest. However, much of it was burnt down by

Polynesians Polynesians are an ethnolinguistic group comprising closely related ethnic groups native to Polynesia, which encompasses the islands within the Polynesian Triangle in the Pacific Ocean. They trace their early prehistoric origins to Island Sout ...

around 1250–1300 AD. European settlers have planted grass since 1850.''Southland Region''
Teara, Retrieved 10 September 2012

Miscellaneous

The trees in the park tend to produce dead leaves scattering around the field and sometimes get blown to the residential areas, which is considered as inconvenient. There are also people in the park collecting firewood, pine cones and twigs. Graffiti seems to be a persistent problem.

References

External links

Turnbull Thomson Park
at the Invercargill City Council {{Invercargill, state=collapsed Sports venues in Invercargill Parks in Invercargill