1Most of us are familiar with a local park.
2We spend time there, play there, and have some of our best memories in these places.
3But what is a park?
4Basically, it can be defined as a natural, or at least semi-natural, piece of land,
5planted with a variety of trees, bushes, and flowers,
6protected and reserved for the enjoyment of all citizens.
7There are usually regulations about the sorts of behaviour that can take place within.
8And sometimes there are facilities such as children's playgrounds,
9or fields for ball games and other sorts of activities.
10For this reason, if there is grass, it is kept short,
11and this also discourages the breeding of insect pests.
12A well-maintained park actually needs a lot of people to look after it,
13and more so if the park showcases special plants,
14flowers, or trees, in which case it is called a 'botanic garden'.
15In complete contrast, if the park is big and remote enough,
16it is sometimes designated as a wilderness park,
17to be left completely alone and untouched,
18protected from all development in order to allow wild species,
19both plant and animal, to live undisturbed.
20But it is the urban park - the sort of park that most people are familiar with,
21that I want to talk about now.
22These preserve natural landscapes for the pleasure of the urban population,
23most commonly just for passive recreation
24in other words, allowing people just to observe the trees, and lie in the grass,
25and such passive recreation is certainly needed.
26Continuing on the subject of parks,
27it might surprise you to know that once there were none.
28A thousand years ago, there was no need,
29since there were already extensive open spaces,
30forests, and wilderness surrounding most cities and towns - for example, in Europe.
31These dark dank forests were large and even dangerous,
32full of wild animals and with the potentially fatal result of getting lost.
33Hence, fairy tales evolved about witches living in these areas,
34and the wolves and bears, which could threaten young children.
35However, with the rapidly increasing human population,
36the original wilderness and natural open spaces were intruded upon.
37Forests were cut down as populations spread,
38and with them, urban pollution and further deforestation.
39But it was only with the advent of the Industrial Revolution
40that people realised natural areas needed to be preserved,
41to give the populace access to the sort of nature that was fast disappearing
42due to the uncontrolled development and demand for resources.
43The first park, expressly designed for that purpose,
44is usually considered to be Princes Park in Liverpool.
45This was in 1841, on land donated to the public by a rich iron merchant.
46With such a generous donation (worth about £50,000),
47the council decided to invest £5,000 of its own money in making it look good.
48Consequently, they hired a landscape designer, Joseph Paxton,
49who designed twisting turning pathways among shade-giving trees,
50all based around a central lake.
51In many ways, it became the prototype for all later large parks,
52including the famous Central Park in New York.
53But, if we were to pick the park that most people are familiar with,
54it would be the much smaller neighbourhood park.
55These can be tiny, but, by being in the midst of extensive development and dense populations,
56they are increasingly seen as a refuge,
57where one can get a glimpse of true nature.
58Many psychologists now maintain that this glimpse is necessary,
59for ultimately, as a species, we have an innate affinity for nature,
60and the concrete urban zoo clashes with our inner being.
61This has seen the rejuvenation of many urban parks that were once left to decay,
62for example, in New York or London,
63and indeed, some cities, such as Melbourne,
64are known all over the world for their abundance of carefully maintained parks,
65including a world famous botanic garden.