THE bickering over a relatively small piece of land at Golden Point has gone on for far too long.
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This 1.2-hectare piece of land is privately owned – and deemed appropriate for development by VCAT – but has been held hostage by a small group of people who seem to think they have a claim over it.
The William Dunstan Reserve – an informal nickname for the Magpie Street land adopted by the small but vocal Friends of William Dunstan Reserve group – has been at the centre of a fight for the past few years.
Despite being used over the years by locals for recreational purposes, this land has never been a public recreation reserve.
It did, however, operate as a recreational space for pupils who attended the former Golden Point Primary School.
At that time, the land was owned by the state government. Sovereign Hill then bought the property and the land’s title was changed to unrestricted freehold. Between 1977 and 2012, it was used as an overflow car park during busy times at the museum and even shared the land for different community uses.
The land was later sold to developer Grovac, pending subdivision approval.
Every roadblock by the Friends of William Dunstan Reserve to have the land retained for recreational purposes has been overcome.
VCAT earlier this year knocked back the group’s arguments to preserve the land as a community space, while Heritage Victoria also failed to support claims that the land was the location of the gold commissioner’s camp in the 1850s.
Now the heavyweights have been brought in, with the unions placing a green ban on works at the site.
Under the ban, unions are being discouraged from working on the site or participating in any work as part of the sale of the land. This is all under the guise of “looking out for workers not only in their workplace, but also in the community”.
Ballarat Regional Trades and Labour Council secretary Brett Edgington said: “If this park can be sold into private hands and be developed, what then is to protect the same thing happening to other parks.”
That’s an admirable sentiment, Mr Edgington, if the former Golden Point Primary School recreational reserve was a public park, but it’s not and never has been.
It’s a piece of private property.