Ballarat’s neighbourly parks

The City of Ballarat is seeking community input towards improving seven of Ballarat’s smaller open spaces as part of the Neighbourhood Parks Improvements Program.

Users of these local parks are being called on for their input into how the reserves can be improved in terms of accessibility, attractiveness, and usability.

The proposed designs will also aim to provide natural shade and increase pedestrian connections.

This series builds on the success of the Small Parks Improvements program that saw twelve neighbourhood parks improved across 2022 and 2023 in collaboration with local residents who use the parks.  

The Neighbourhood Parks Improvements Program is a rolling project at the City of Ballarat.

The project involves designing reserves in collaboration with the users of the spaces every financial year and delivering the upgrades in the following financial year.

City of Ballarat Mayor, Cr Des Hudson said that the neighbourhood parks for this group had been selected based on need and community requests.  

“Parks that are chosen have not had upgrades in more than fifteen years or so and have older equipment that no longer suits the needs of the community that use the spaces or have been nominated through a community request,” he said.  

Neighbourhood parks, marked for design collaboration with their local users this year are:  

• Yarana Drive Park, Yarana Drive, Mount Helen.  
• Victoria Street Reserve, 63 Victoria Street, Sebastopol.  
• Kowree Crescent Reserve, 14-16 Kowree Crescent, Sebastopol.
• Drummond Street Reserve, 311 Drummond Street North, Ballarat Central.
• Clover Street Reserve, 9-13 Clover Street, Wendouree.  
• Gregory Street Reserve, 514 Gregory Street, Soldiers Hill.  
• Marigold Street Reserve, 12-14 Aster Street, Wendouree.  

To start the design process, residents are asked to provide their feedback on their local reserve. This input will be used to create a concept design for improvements at the reserve.  

The City of Ballarat will then bring the designs back to the neighbourhood, to make sure the proposed plans will work for the local community.  

If one of these parks is your local, you can have your say, by completing the survey online, attending a co-design workshop at your local park or emailing citydesign@ballarat.vic.gov.au  

To get you started site assessments have been prepared for each reserve. The assessment looks at opportunities, constraints, and ideas for each reserve and can be viewed at the Neighbourhood Parks MySay page.  

You can register on MySay to stay informed and be notified of the co-design workshops at your park.  

Co-design workshops  

• Yarna Drive Park, 25 July 2023, 3pm-4pm.  
• Victoria Street Park, 25 July 2023, 3pm-4pm.  
• Gregory Street Park 25 July 2023, 4.30pm-5.30pm.  
• Kowrie Street Park, 25 July 2023, 4.30pm-5.30pm.  
• Marigold Street & Clover Street Parks, 27 July 2023, 3pm-4pm at Marigold Street Park.  
• Drummond Street Park, 27 July 2023, 4.30pm-5.30pm.