ON Wednesday evening last week at the Southern Grampians Shire Council meeting, members enthusiastically endorsed and adopted the final Children’s Garden and Community Precinct Design for the Hamilton Botanic Gardens.

The preparation of the design, specialist advice and supporting documentation, was funded by the grant of $86,000 from the Department of Environment Land Water and Planning (DELWP) under the ‘Growing Victoria’s Botanical Gardens Grant Program’ (GVBG) in February 2019 with Council contributing $10,000 and in-kind support.

The design was developed in accordance with the principles of the Hamilton Botanic Gardens Master Plan 2015 in consultation with Heritage Victoria, key stakeholders and the community, and identified the former animal enclosure as the ideal location for the Children’s Garden and Community Precinct as it would ‘open up this under used area with poor presentation and unsatisfactory relationship to the rest of the gardens’.

It suggested that the space should be nature play with non-equipment play, including water elements, clambering rocks and a rock cascade that flows to a natural amphitheatre and lower lawn.

The garden design should tie in the depot, cottage and flight aviary into ‘the one landscape’.

In presenting the plan, Community and Corporate Services director, Evelyn Arnold said it was great to be moving forward with a plan to utilise more of the space of the gardens.

“There’s a significant area of the gardens that's currently fenced off, that used to be the zoological portion that we've been working very hard to provide a design for,” she said.

“That will allow for that space to be reactivated and be a nature play space and an intergenerational playground space for the community.

“It's a really very exciting project and we're looking forward to adopting this design and then moving on to hopefully be able to get funding to be able to do the construction.”

Councillor, Katrina Rainsford said it was “a great plan” and “look(ed) forward to seeing it in its entirety” and that she “can’t wait to take the grandkids there”.

“I think there’s been a very sensitive interpretation of the past,” she said.

“To make a play space that is based around water, and the volcanic story with the Wannon Falls and Nigretta (Falls) - it reads very well, I think it'll look fantastic … and I was told that it’s an all-ages space, so we will not be excluded as older people.”

Mayor, Bruach Colliton was similarly thrilled about seeing the project go one step closer to realisation.

“I think this will provide the jewel in the crown for our Botanic Gardens,” he said.

“We all know how special the Botanic Gardens are, how significant they are - a Guilfoyle-designed gardens well-preserved by the Council and the friends of the Botanic Gardens and the community for so long.”

The gardens were originally set aside in the mid-19th Century to be one of the earliest provincial botanic gardens and in 1881, the Council employed renowned curator of the Melbourne Botanic Gardens, William Guilfoyle to design the layout, including curved paths, lawns and rockeries.

“Yet this dead space has existed for a very long time at the back end of the Botanic Gardens,” Cr Colliton said.

“It's really exciting to see a vision for this space and to finally see these designs come together.

“It's really quite significant, and for not all that much money. We know our Federal Government and State Government (will be) spending lots of money in this project - a little over a million dollars is something that will have significant impact for this community and totally complete and enhance these Botanic Gardens.”

Cr Colliton also commended the many community members and interested parties who contributed to the project, congratulating them for their input.

Councillor, Greg McAdam moved the motion which included adopting the design and design documentation for the Children’s Garden and Community Precinct, endorsing the lodgement of a heritage permit application with Heritage Victoria, endorsing the lodgement of a planning permit with Council’s Planning department and endorsing the application for funding opportunities to assist in the construction and delivery of the Children’s Garden and Community Precinct.

The motion was unanimously carried.

Friends of the Hamilton Botanic Gardens president, Marilyn Lyons was thrilled about the decision to approve the plans.

“(We) have had a long and active association with the Shire working collaboratively to promote the Gardens and assist in the implementation of the Master Plan,” she said.

“This proposed new development is welcomed enthusiastically for all of its intended and perceived outcomes and to enhance the lives of our community members and the wider public who will be drawn to this attraction.

“This plan creates outstanding opportunities and facilities for learning and community engagement for both children and adults in both informal and more structured formats.

“There are many community groups who use the Gardens on a regular basis and this new development will support them even more and undoubtedly attract additional utilisation of the new Children’s Nature Play Space and Community Precinct.”