THE BUREAU OF EDI GARDENS: A WEATHER FORECAST LIKE NO OTHER
By Charlie Gill
In the mid 20th century, Edinburgh Gardens began its metamorphosis from a neglected wasteland to the resplendent green paradise it is today. This was thanks to the efforts of activists who protected Brunswick Street Oval from the hands of developers, correctly believing that the park had the potential to become a beloved community asset.
It's possible that those determined locals might’ve also imagined a future for Edinburgh
Gardens as a cultural icon, written about in song and mythologised in community newspapers. But one thing they surely could not have predicted is that, come the year 2026, the park they'd saved would have its own hyper-specific meteorological service—perhaps the first of its kind in the world.
Last month, the nascent local organisation known as the Bureau of Edinburgh Gardens (BoEG) launched a publicly-accessible computational model providing its users with the ‘Park Day Index’: a detailed analysis on the picnic-spot merits of every single square metre in the gardens.
The model considers elements including but (certainly) not limited to: sun, tree cover, wildlife, human behaviour and game theory, factoring them together to give each spot a rating out of 10. It is the brainchild of an imaginative local who—curious to determine where the sun lasts longest in the park during winter—decided to use skills from their computational modelling degree that have never been relevant to their actual career.
“I was like: okay, the park stationary, that's not moving,” the Director of BOEG explained to The Rotunda. “Every day, the angle of the sun in the sky changes slightly, but we can figure that out with formulas and stuff. And so needed the trees, and there's a whole bunch of information that the City of Yarra and Data Victoria have online. So then it was just like: okay, I’ll create this insanely computationally heavy-model that I can run on my overpowered work laptop.”
The model considers elements including but (certainly) not limited to: sun, tree cover, wildlife, human behaviour and game theory.
As winter ended, the factors determining the park’s best spot began to change. Hay fever started to catch on, cricketers began training on the oval and kids were having outdoor birthday parties on sunny weekends. The only option, of course, was for the model to in adjust the model and and recommend spots accordingly.
“In the 2021 census, the number of children between one to nine in surrounding suburbs was something like 9000,” explains the Director. “So if a birthday happens during the week, it's shifted to the nearest weekend, and then like 60% of all children like have a birthday party, and 25% might be at a park and of that 25%, there’s a 50% chance it might be in Eddie Gardens.”
The meteorological analysis is accompanied by a ‘park life’ index that lists the probability of your spot being host to a kid’s party. It also lists the prevalence of grass pollen, the likelihood of magpies swooping from nearby trees and the possibility of tripping over finska sets.
Another feature of the Park Day Index, beside the B.O.M style bird’s eye view, is the ability for the user to enter a virtual-reality Edinburgh Gardens that simulates hanging out in any given location. The spatial dimensions are flawless and the metaverse is coloured with details like dogs running around and horizontal white lines representing the flow of wind. You can then use a slider to track how the spot will be impacted by sun as the day progresses.
“There’s a grid, and then you can triangulate a point. You'd say to your mates: meet me at C5.”
Users can adopt pre-set ‘personas’, such as 'slack liner', which points you towards spots where two trees sit fairly close to each other. It's also possible to build custom personas—based, among other things, on how easily your skin burns or how sensitive you are to noise.
The BoEG bloomed into something truly extraordinary when, at the end of October, it unveiled a sister model to the original Index. Park Aura provides users with an astrological analysis of Edinburgh Gardens that recommends spots to each unique user based on their star sign and Myers-Briggs personality type. At 3pm on a sunny day, for example, a Pisces ENFP might be informed as follows: “Your spot is the middle of the park by the rain-garden, 7.9 out of 10 for a Pisces; the south-east of the park (7.7) if someone beats you to it.” Park Aura also allows you to enter your friends’ details to find the most harmonious spot for a group hangout.
The Rotunda has not been able to identify anything like the Park Day Index or Park Aura anywhere else in the world. It is a credit both to the ingenuity of the BoEG and what Edinburgh Gardens has become that something like this can even exist. But beyond its practical worth, delightful novelty and aesthetic excellence is something even more profound: a (successful) attempt at taking the suffocating layers of information that define 21st century life and synthesising them into something we can all understand and enjoy.
“It's like a democratisation of data thing as well,” says the Director. “There’s so much data out there that's freely accessible and we're able to use. Anyone can go and get that. No one does."
That said, despite the project’s potentially huge philosophical implications, the BoEG will, of course, continue to focus purely on the park that inspired its creation.
“I'm pretty close to Prince's Park and Carlton Gardens, but Eddie Gardens is the one that I vibe with. I've got my mates who are like: are you gonna do it for other parks? And my answer at the moment is like, absolutely not.”
So, when all is said and done, what is the absolute best spot in Edinburgh Gardens? Is it P11-7 (just west of the plinth), J18-5 (in front of the bench on Hipster Hill), F9-3 (halfway between the Rotunda and St Georges Road) or none of the above?
“It's like a democratisation of data thing as well. There’s so much data out there that's freely accessible and we're able to use. Anyone can go and get that. No one does.”
“I would sit in the northern part during winter, that’s where the sun lasts the latest on the lawn,” says the Director. “But now, that spot's not great compared to the eastern side of the park, where you can be sit in the beautiful shade under the the trees with dappled light coming through.”
The Rotunda asked the BoEG what specific spot it was referring to.
“I'd like to keep the exact coordinate private.”
Clink this link to find your favourite spot and follow the Bureau of Edinburgh Gardens at @bureauofedigardens on Instagram.
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