The dry zone across the city square, established in 2001 by Lord Mayor Michael Harbison, has pushed people into the Parklands. The older homeless men in the parklands are generally happy drunks and the poodles like hanging about with them. Similarly with the aborigines in the parklands, but that is because there is ofen junk food lying around on the ground.
Aboriginal people camped–sleeping rough– in the Parklands is a controversial issue. The Yuendumu people are currently camped in the South Parklands (near St Andrew’s Hospital) and both the Rann state government and the Adelaide City Council want them to return to Yuendumu in the Northern Territory.
They are sleeping rough because the state government has not provided permanent transitional accommodation –it has been promising to do so since 2007 after having been given commonwealth money to build short term accommodation.