BRISBANE'S PARKS GIVE NEW JOYS TO INDONESIANS

by Rahmad Nasution

An Indonesian couple with their one-year-old boy was among a dozen people in Guyatt Park last Saturday afternoon. Sunandar and her wife passed a walkway of the park with their little Rian, who was on a pram, before stopping at a bench near a big tree.

Some other visitors, mostly Australian parents, were seen preparing for barbecue parties. Two young children were riding bicycles and several others were at the playground of the park, which can be accessed through Bryce and Macquarie Streets or Sir Fred Schonell Drive.

Not far from the playground, some people walked in a hurry towards the City Cat (ferry) terminal. Across the Brisbane River, dozens of people were seen sitting on the grass of West End Park.

Sunandar's wife, Rina, said they had visited the Guyatt Park three times since their arrival in Brisbane last March. "I train my son to walk as I relax in the park," she said.

For Indonesians, a quiet stroll in a park is a rare opportunity because the parks in Indonesia are busy with beggars, newspaper sellers and food vendors.

Aryana Satrya, a husband of a Phd student of the University of Queensland (UQ) who lives in Highland Terrace, St.Lucia, said visiting parks around Brisbane was an activity that he rarely did in Indonesia.

In Jakarta, for instance, it was difficult to find parks or city gardens in which workers could enjoy food during lunch time, parents could relax with their children, or community members could socialize anytime without being disturbed by street vendors and beggars, he said.

In the Indonesian capital city, due to the scarcity of parks and city gardens, it was also common to find children and youths playing in public cemeteries. They even played soccer on busy streets, the father of two children said.

In Jakarta, a park which relatively has similar facilities to those in Brisbane is only created inside a housing complex for the rich, he said.

Therefore, it is a common thing for Indonesian children to play in their house yards. Australian kids do not because they do it in the parks, said Aryana, who lived in Jakarta for 11 years before coming to Brisbane in 2003.

Since his arrival in the city which has more than 140 parks and gardens, Aryana said it was a good surprise because, for many Indonesians, parks were not only a place to relax but also a place to have a social gathering.

Ratih Dwiyani Adiputeri, another Indonesian, said this cultural change was good for anybody thanks to Brisbane City Council's program, called "the living in Brisbane 2010 active and healthy strategy."

"I have been here for more than a year. I see many Indonesian children have become healthier because they breathe unpolluted air in the parks," a mother of one, who is currently finishing her masters in international studies at UQ, said.

The existence of "healthy" parks in Brisbane could be a good lesson for Indonesia because local government and local community showed their cooperation in creating parks, Ratih said.

Guyatt Park, which was named after Allen David Guyatt and Sofia Australia Guyatt, a couple who settled on the land in 1905, was a living example of this cooperation, she said.

As it read in the name board, the Brisbane City Council acquired the property from valued members of the St Lucia community in 1951 and redeveloped it as a park, said the Jakarta resident, who came to Brisbane with her husband, Ruly.

"When would we have a people-oriented government like here, where even parks can become an issue for an election campaign for a city mayor?" Ratih said.

*) tulisan ini disiarkan ANTARA pada 27 Mei 2004