Deb Findlay’s comments come as a strong crowd of more than 100 rallied on Saturday in support of the historical Victoria Street buildings.

“The community has supported the orphanage in the past,” Ms Findlay said.

“They helped develop it over the years and I would like to think the community would help us in the fight.”

The site was bought by a private developer last year.

Heritage Victoria declined to list the former orphanage on the State Heritage Register in December.

Ms Findlay, who was placed in the Alexandra Babies Home as a two-year-old and transferred in 1969 to the Ballarat Children’s Home, said she was grateful to those who turned out for the rally.

The crowd, which ranged from children to the elderly, gathered at Scott Parade before marching on to the former orphanage site.

The participants carried placards as well as a banner with hand prints, names of the former orphanage residents and a sign saying ‘Our Heritage, Our History’.

Ms Findlay said many current Ballarat residents had spent their childhood at the orphanage.

“It was our home,” Ms Findlay said.

“It holds a lot of wonderful memories.

“I would like the developers to be mindful of the rich and powerful history of the children who were separated from their families and who lived here.”

Child and Family Services Ballarat chief executive Kevin Zibell who was at the rally said it was important to recognise the historical value of the site.

“CAFS is the successor of the Ballarat orphanage so history goes back to 1865,” Mr Zibell said.

“We have a clear stake in ensuring the site is historically recognised.

“We have been talking with the developers and I think we have more to gain by working with them.”

It was important, he said, for the community to remember that there had been an orphanage in Ballarat.

City of Ballarat Mayor Mark Harris urged the developer and the former residents to negotiate an outcome.

Cr Harris said the council did not have many legislative powers to overrule a planning application based on the protection of cultural heritage.

“While we have good heritage protection for sites of historical importance, we have very little legislative at state level for areas of cultural significance,” Cr Harris said.

“For areas such as the orphanage where people have some very significant memories, many of them to do with stolen generations, both white and black, we have to be very careful that we are mindful of that.”

However, he said, the former orphanage site was “rife for infill development”.

“We are trying to increase density and that would be an ideal place to do that.

“But council has no investment in doing that.”

The developer could not be reached for a comment before The Courier went to press.