The Friends of Buninyong Botanic Gardens
Friends of Buninyong Botanic Gardens on behalf of our local community is currently campaigning—and has been for five years—to have the City of Ballarat consider alternatives to its plan to demolish and reconstruct The Gong dam wall located in the state government Heritage Victoria listed Botanic Gardens, between upper and lower Gardens. The Heritage Victoria citation notes that the Buninyong Botanic Gardens “are of historical, aesthetic, scientific (botanical) and social significance to the State of Victoria.” Community passion for protecting the heritage values of the Buninyong Botanic Gardens is reflected in the report ‘Our Heritage. Our Future’ prepared by Buninyong Friends to present to Heritage Victoria in support of our opposition to the Council plan. Expert independent advice commissioned by Council from a leading Heritage Consultant cautioned Council, “Reconstruction of a new dam wall will have detrimental impacts on the cultural heritage significance of the Buninyong Botanic Gardens” but it seems to have fallen on deaf ears.
The ‘Our Heritage. Our Future’ report proposes that Council consider an alternative approach to remediation works at The Gong that would not cause the heritage degradation to be inflicted by Council’s plan.
One alternative proposal explains a design that creates a wetland to the east of The Gong dam wall. A series of water-holding ponds would eliminate the need for landscape destruction, prevent the loss of biodiversity and habitat destruction, facilitate responses to climate change, and enhance The Gong as a community asset. Such an option would allow for preservation of the existing Gong wall and its vegetation while retaining fishing and water-based activities in the dam.
Environmentally, this approach would increase vegetation cover for shade and cooling, provide habitat for birds and other native species and, in step with Council’s position on biodiversity, create opportunities to rethink the Gardens’ plant collections through the implementation of a strategic corridor connecting The Gong to outlying remnant bushland.
Council’s executive, officers and councillors are intransigently wedded to the ‘their’ plan, which they commissioned with no reference to Friends or the community. Friends of Buninyong Botanic Gardens sees ‘Our Heritage. Our Future’ as providing a starting point for a meaningful, collaborative co-design process with Council and engaging across disciplines and stakeholders in a generative and positive way to include heritage bodies, community and user groups, neighbours, Traditional Owners, Botanic Gardens groups, landscape experts, engineers and designers. It is a stepping-off point for inclusive discussion and action.
The ‘Our Heritage. Our Future’ report can be requested free-of-charge by contacting info@buninyongbotanicgardensfriends.org.au... and enter “Our Gardens” in the Subject line.
