Mobara Park
Mawson Lakes Boulevard and Garden Terrace (Car park off Mawson Lakes Boulevard)
Mawson Lakes SA 5095
Bus Route
Stop 34, Zone B on University Parade, Routes 222, 224, 225, 225F, 225M, 411, 565, N224, T501
See nearby bus stops and routes on Google Maps
Officially opened on 20 October 2004 and located at Mawson Lakes, Mobara Park is named in honour of the City of Salisbury's Sister City Mobara City located in Chiba Prefecture, Japan.
In 2002, the City of Salisbury signed an agreement with the City of Mobara to promote a mutual understanding and build a strong and lasting friendship.
The agreement establishes formal ties of friendship, promotes mutual understanding and good will and encourages exchanges between the citizens of both cities in a wide range of fields, including education, culture, business and sports.
The sculpture, Balancing Act, by South Australian Artist Marijana Tadic heralds the entrance to the park.
Landscape Design Rationale
Mobara Park has been designed by landscape architectural firm Taylor Cullity Lethlean, a company experienced in Japanese garden design having previously designed the garden for the Australian Consul General's Residence in Kobe, Japan.
To download a PDF document of Taylor Cullity Lethlean's design rationale for Mobara Park, click here (190 kB).
To download this document, you will require Adobe Acrobat Reader which can be downloaded by clicking here.
Mobara Park consists of the following three garden designs:
Garden of Shifting Skies
The Garden of Shifting Skies is a garden to accentuate the broad horizontal skies and flat topography of Salisbury. This space is composed of a plane of indigenous and mown grasses, their changing colour and growth marking the different seasons.
A lone spreading eucalypt provides shade and acts as a counterpoint to this otherwise symmetrical space.
Reclining lounge seats and low concrete walls invite visitors to pause and contemplate the heavens as well as viewing the channel of water as it falls into a circular sunken space.
Stepping stones, a treatment often used in Japan allows the body of water to be crossed.
Garden of Fields
The Garden of Fields is a garden to emphasise the city of Mobara's agricultural heritage.
A diagonal field of colourful iris and cosmos, mown grass and gravel refers to the human patterning of the landscape.
A timber deck traverses the field and marking the entrance to the third garden is a cluster of bright red poles, a colour often associated with Japan.
A bronze figurative sculpture titled Nakayoshi, meaning close friend, generously donated by the City of Mobara, is located in this garden.
Garden of Blossoms
The Garden of Blossoms is an entrance garden with rows of ornamental pears creating a threshold space at the main park entry. The trees create a semi-transparent veil that opens up as one walks further into the park. The blossom and leaf colour accentuate seasonal change.
Large gently mounded circles of grass randomly punctuate the lines of trees, their whimsical forms inviting play.
Circular paving of fractured and cut stone provides a gathering space with the detail of the stone work reinforcing the importance of the park.
Circular seats refer to the wholeness of the circle and its use in Japanese temple landscapes, while also relating to the wheel or cog and its role in the more recently industrialised Mobara.
With time, the three gardens will be more fully experienced as three separate spaces, visually divided and surrounded by hedging, trees and other plantings.
This park is available for hire.
If you would like to hire this park please fill in the Reserve Hire Application Form.
Please check availabllity and then
visit the application form page.