The City of Ballarat is about to undertake community consultation on the development of a draft masterplan for the gardens, including popular ornamental lake The Gong.

The gardens were established in 1861 with trees supplied by Baron von Mueller who also created the Melbourne Botanical Gardens.

The Gong has been leaking since the water level was raised in 1877, with water running into the lower gardens since.

IN OTHER NEWS:

Friends of the Buninyong Botanic Gardens president Roger Permezel said the group hoped the consultation would allow a plan for the garden which would include wider plans as well as The Gong.

"Over the last year or so, a couple years, people have been just suggesting ideas and the ideas for what could happen here range from closing off the roadway altogether, make it go one way, set it up so it's easy to shut it at certain times," he said.

"The gardens are basically split in two because of this roadway here. You've got a whole other upper gardens area which I would suggest that there are a lot of people in Buninyong don't even realise that it's part of the gardens.

"What a master plan could do is work on how you can bring the two sections together and if you're gonna have that conversation, you'd have to contemplate the fact that you got a problem right in the middle and there has to be ways of addressing that issue."

City of Ballarat Mayor Daniel Moloney said The Gong was one of the more contentious elements of any plans around the gardens.

"That's probably been one of the more contentious element, I think, in the sense of there are some varying opinions as to how that the wall rectification works could take place," he said.

"It's probably fair to say that there's not a singular view on it. Part of the reason for the consultation is to understand the range of different opinions.

"While the most pressing element is The Gong, in terms of the rectification of the dam walls and potential vegetation removal as part of that, there is a need for a longer term masterplan for the whole botanical gardens precinct there."

Cr Moloney said consultation allowed the community to ensure it was heard before a draft plan was prepared.

"The nature of the consultation is that it's deliberately daily open ended and encouraging people to give their thoughts on what they want to see the gardens become and what they value about the gardens and also areas they would like to improve," he said.

If you are seeing this message you are a loyal digital subscriber to The Courier, as we made this story available only to subscribers. Thank you very much for your support and allowing us to continue telling Ballarat's story. We appreciate your support of journalism in our great city.