University students studying architecture and urban design have created bold ideas for the Buninyong Botanic Gardens as part of a research project.
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It is hoped the RMIT students' work will be used to encourage long-term and big-picture thinking about what the future of the gardens could be in the process of creating a masterplan with City of Ballarat.
Friends of Buninyong Botanic Gardens president Roger Permezel said individuals often had singular interests in the park and advocated for items like more seats or another barbecue.
"When you are talking about a masterplan you are talking at a higher level than that," he said.
"How can we create a vision for the next 20, 30, 40 and 50 years? That is about more than just needing another barbecue or an extra tree in the bottom corner."
We have these spaces within regional communities which to me are all opportunities.
- Jock Gilbert, RMIT University academic
A plan to fix a leak in The Gong dam situated within the gardens evolved into a project to create a new masterplan for the entire precinct last year.
City of Ballarat councillors agreed to work towards a masterplan during a council meeting in May 2020.
READ MORE: Masterplan for Buninyong Botanic Gardens
City of Ballarat director development and growth Natalie Robertson said council officers had been working with a Stakeholder Advisory Group and with Friends of Buninyong Botanic Gardens for the past 12 months for development of the masterplan.
She said landscape architecture consultants Urban Initiatives have been engaged to prepare the masterplan.
Community members are invited to attend an 'Open House Drop in Session' on June 17 at the Buninyong Town Hall from 3pm to 7pm (subject to COVID restrictions) to share their thoughts for the gardens.
Ms Robertson said this would include options for landscaping as part of The Gong dam wall reconstruction.
A survey will also be available online on the City of Ballarat My Say page and in hard copy in Buninyong for the community to complete following the 'Open House'.
Ms Robertson said a draft masterplan would be developed following the consultation period and it will then go back to community for comment.
"It is expected the masterplan process will be completed before the end of 2021," she said.
Mr Permezel said he would like to use the same process the RMIT students adopted with people in the Buninyong community to arrive at their big vision for the gardens.
"We will use their document to form a visioning process," he said.
"It is taking it a few steps higher than communities usually do."
RELATED COVERAGE: How can Buninyong maintain its village character in the face of change?
The Buninyong Botanic Gardens was established in 1861 and is one of the oldest gazetted botanical gardens in Victoria.
Mr Permezel said it would be important to preserve the historic character of the gardens precinct, but there was also scope for enhancement.
He said the character of Buninyong township was closely linked to the gardens precinct.
The gardens reserve spans two two hectare lots divided by Cornish Street.
The reservoir known as The Gong was originally constructed in 1850 to supply water to the adjacent Buninyong Brewery.
The gardens are host to rare species of conifers and maples and the latticed rotunda is Victoria's earliest memorial to Queen Victoria following her death, dating to 1901.
The warden's office from 1858 and Buninyong Butter Factory from 1892 remain in the precinct.
Jock Gilbert, academic in RMIT University's School of Architecture and Design, has joined the Stakeholder Advisory Group.
He presented his students' visionary document on the Buninyong Botanic Gardens to Mr Permezel last week.
The student work is part of a research project called Project Botanica which looks at the role of botanic gardens as community infrastructure and how they are activated in a changing world.
"Currently botanic gardens are quite static things. Botanic gardens came from colonialism and they haven't really evolved a lot since then," he said.
"We tend to maintain their presence, but we are in a world now where some of the big issues like climate change, reconciliation and the occurrence of pandemics requires us to look differently at the ways we do things.
"We have these spaces within regional communities which to me are all opportunities."
Mr Gilbert has worked with the Australian Inland Botanic Gardens in Buronga near Mildura as well as the Buninyong Botanic Gardens for the project.
He grew up in Buninyong as a child and returned to live in the village three years ago.
"What I am interested in is how can we start to think about meeting some of the challenges of the next 150 years through these gardens and seeing these gardens as pieces of community infrastructure?," he said.
Mr Gilbert said the Buninyong Botanic Gardens held an opportunity to share the stories of history relating to water, geology and Aboriginal culture as well as colonial, pastoral and gold mining history.
"In Buninyong in particular its proximity to the primary school makes for an opportunity to think about how we involve kids in active education in all of those stories, vegetation types and getting their hands dirty," he said.
RMIT students spoke with stakeholders including Buninyong residents during their 12 week real-world project.
Mr Gilbert said strengthening the gardens' connection with the township was a consistent theme of the students' work.
"They were also very interested in improving the water quality without destroying the heritage of The Gong and the upper gardens," he said.
"They thought about how that area might be activated in ways that would enable more of uses like fishing, swimming, bird watching and education with the kids.
"As well as opportunities for providing spaces for Wathawurrung cultural activities, there was thinking about what sort of spaces would be required there."
Mr Gilbert said the masterplan was a 'great opportunity' to provide a vision for what the Buninyong Botanic Gardens could be.
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