UTAS Esk Activities Space and Community Garden open at Inveresk campus

He said it was important to find time to take a break from study and work, and the new spaces gave him that ability: "It really gives a campus feel".

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The Esk Activities Space, which includes basketball courts and table tennis tables, and the UTAS Community Garden was celebrated on Thursday at a student-led event.

Plant and Play was organised by Darchside, a student society of UTAS architecture students, of which Mr Scott is a member.

The spaces are open to both UTAS students and the community and are part of UTAS' push to activate the precinct as a whole.

UTAS Launceston pro vice chancellor Dom Geraghty said part of the Northern Transformation project was to help activate the entire area.

"We want to bring people onto the precinct and expose them not only to the university but our other neighbours, QVMAG has a wonderful visitation rate but we want to increase that and we want people to see the entire precinct as a place of learning," he said.

The Esk Activities Space and the Community Garden are part of the "urban realm" designated in the Inveresk master plan as the spaces between buildings.

UTAS' Inveresk campus was the main tenet of the Launceston City Deal and is funded through all three levels of government and investment from UTAS.

Tasmanian State Development Minister Guy Barnett congratulated UTAS on the milestone in the campus development.

"This is another example of how the Launceston City Deal is helping to make Launceston one of the most liveable and innovative regional cities in Australia," he said.

"One of the overarching aims of moving the university campus to Inveresk was to connect with the community and have higher education at the forefront of people's minds, which is exactly what the urban eealm does so visibly through sporting, recreational and social activities."

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The Play and Plant Day showcased the activities on offer at the Esk Activities Space, but also saw the first plants planted in the community garden.

UTAS Community Garden coordinator Jeff McLintock said the community garden was about teaching students about food security, but also inviting the community to plant, grow and eat the produce.

"We found through our survey that 42 per cent of students identify as being food insecure, so we want to give students the opportunity to learn to grow their own food," he said.

Crops planted in the community garden, which spans 500 square metres included winter vegetables such as lettuce, kale, winter greens and silverbeet.

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Mr McLintock said the community garden was also about sustainability, and reducing the "food miles" that contributed to global warming.

City of Launceston acting mayor Danny Gibson said he was pleased to see the spaces had been "thoughtfully designed" to allow the community to interact.

"When students choose to study in this beautiful city, regardless of where they come from, it quickly becomes their new home and they are always warmly welcomed into our community," he said.

Federal Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development and Local Government Minister Catherine King said the opening of the spaces was exciting.

"It's great to see the students at the university and the broader community coming together to enjoy these new facilities," she said.

"I look forward to seeing more projects delivered through the University of Tasmania redevelopment and continuing work on projects like this that will benefit the Launceston community and surrounding region."

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