The Committee for Ballarat North, led by president Cat Davis, has been pushing for the works for years - the group is made of up community members seeking to improve the amenity in the area.

The existing Midlands Reserve is home to several community groups, kindergartens, and an Aqua Play park which recently reopened, as well as an old scout hall that Ms Davis described as "derelict".

READ MORE: Ballarat North Residents group want action in the northern suburbs

"Out of all the park spaces and community spaces we saw, we found that Ballarat North wasn't really engaging as a community as well as it should," she said.

"We do have green spaces, but they're underplanted, underutilized, just lawn with small amounts of playground equipment dotted around the area.

"The scout hall on Landsborough Street is completely run down, it was being used by the local scout group but they moved on to a better building and were only storing goods in it."

The group saw the reserve as the "hub" of the Ballarat North community, close to shops, a bus stop, and other businesses - the decision was made to consult widely before creating a draft plan.

"Here we have an area that's definitely the community hub, and it's halfway to a good park, but it has very old, tired, and mostly broken playgrounds installed, it's not very inclusive," Ms Davis said.

"We put all our ideas in one drawing, then we put them on Facebook, we got some good feedback on what people wanted.

"They wanted more nature play, no bulky plastics, something really inclusive, they agreed it should be the main focus of Ballarat North, people want to spend time out there.

"From that grew our second development plans, and we took those to council and said we want to apply for the engaging communities grant, we think our project will be most beneficial to Ballarat North residents."

Ms Davis said the project gained more momentum when more stakeholders shared ideas, which the City of Ballarat noticed.

"Utilising this area and better developing it for a lot of different uses, all of these businesses can utilise this spaces as well," she said.

"It's not just kids going to a playground - we're seeing community movie nights on the lawn, a produce or craft market coming through, community gardening events where someone might give a talk on how to better manage our gardens, things like that, which benefit all Ballarat North residents.

"We have gyms, who can now do outdoor workouts, the seniors wanted a Tai Chi space, so a square in the gardens - there are so many groups that can really have an interest in this space.

"We had the backing of everyone behind us - and we got the grant."

The project is now on council's MySay page for consultation and feedback, which closes on November 23.

A council spokesperson said in a statement the total grant was about $280,000, and if no major concerns are raised in the consultation, works will begin as soon as possible with the demolition of the scout hall.

"The splash park facility is not expected to be impacted - works will be carried out safely away from the location, and/or once the summer season is over," they said.

"The City acknowledges the support and community advocacy of the Committee For Ballarat North, which we are working with - along with those organisations neighbouring the Reserve - Ballarat North Community Centre Working Group (includes reps from North Ballarat Senior Citizens s and U3A), Ballarat Child Care Cooperative, and Midlands Kindergarten."

Ms Davis said the grant was a big step for established communities in Ballarat's suburbs - it's not just the new developments that will receive fancy playgrounds.

"For residents, no matter what part of Ballarat they come to, they want to stay at their local park, they don't want to always go down to the two major parks in Ballarat," she said.

"So we need to have engaging spaces that people can walk to, and I think COVID really set that in place - we were asking ourselves what is in five kilometres, where would we normally walk to and enjoy if we had a place to go?

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"Walking on pavement looking at everyone's houses, it's not the same as walking past a creek into a landscaped area with trees and butterflies and birds, and we don't want to drive 15 minutes and go to a park with 500 people, we want the lifestyle at our fingertips with everything's close.

"I think people are wanting way more - life should be more colourful than what we're preparing for."

To check out the draft master plan, visit the MySay page.

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