Posted on 12 January 2020
The old Brewery sits at the far end of The Gong, a small but beautiful lake created in the 1860s or 70s by damming wetlands. It’s part of the Buninyong Botanic Gardens, which is Heritage Victoria listed.
The City of Ballarat now plans to destroy a significant part of this area by taking out all trees on both sides of the dam wall, currently a significant habitat for wildlife on the lake side. Their plan is to replace it with a wall of large bare rocks! It’s a hideous plan and one constructed without community consultation other than a bald presentation of what they plan to do. Their so-called ‘community engagement’ is to invite us to help choose what knee-high max plants will replace the old trees. The consultants admit to not having considered alternatives to this drastic ‘engineering’ solution.
The excuse for this project is that the area on the Gardens side is damp in winter from roots leaking through. It’s been doing this since at least the early 1970s and with climate change it’s drier each year. There has to be a better way.
Tell the City of Ballarat what you think on their My Ballarat MySay
http://buninyongbrewery.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/The-Gong-sounds-12Jan-2020-2.m4a
