A recommendation that Lake Wendouree be included in the Victorian Heritage Register will have extensive and perhaps unforeseen effects, says City of Ballarat mayor Daniel Moloney.
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The recommendation, by the director of Heritage Victoria to the Heritage Council of Victoria, follows concerted lobbying by groups opposed to the installation of lighting around the lake, or the installation of lighting in a certain form. That lobbying saw an interim protection order (IPO) placed on the lake.
The entirety of the lake and its surrounding Crown allotment reserves will be included in the registration, an area of some 238 hectares.
If the lake is registered it will join other places of significance on the VHR, including Bells Beach, Hanging Rock, the Brighton Bathing Boxes and Dendy Street Beach, the MCG, Geelong's Eastern Beach Bathing Complex and the Hepburn Mineral Springs Reserve.
The report says 'although there are several places in the VHR which feature lakes within their extent, there are currently no lakes in Victoria that have been recognised as being of state level cultural heritage significance.'
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Cr Moloney says the IPO and prospective VHR registration are already having unanticipated effects.
"The situation we're finding ourselves in now is there'll be a lot of boat shed owners, including schools around the lake, who are going to have to find themselves going through a heritage permit process," he says.
"For the most basic of works, we're still trying to determine the level of exemptions we can get. So for instance, we just had to get a permit to host the Australian Masters rowing at the lake, which we cut pretty fine to even get that approved in time. Just to put a marquee down at the finish line or on the rowing course, with some temporary signage around it, required a heritage permit. And without that heritage permit, we wouldn't have been able to host that national event.
"We would hope some exemptions could be given to host low impact sporting and cultural events. I would hate to think we have to get a permit to run a Survival Dawn Service on View Point. That would be pretty insulting to our traditional owners."
The registration may not affect the lighting project however, says Cr Moloney, with the western Botanic Gardens lights already in receipt of a permit.
"We would expect Heritage Victoria be consistent their application and provide under the same argument a permit extending to the whole lake, allowing the project to go ahead."
The Heritage Council will now consider the recommendation for listing.
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