Buninyong Botanic Gardens Landscape Masterplan adopted

Ballarat City Council has voted to adopt the Buninyong Botanic Gardens Landscape Masterplan.

Officers will prepare an implementation plan for the master plan, including detailed costings with the project to be referred to future budget cycles for funding.

The City of Ballarat will now proceed with detailed planning, design and reconstruction of the Gong Reservoir wall, taking into consideration recommendations made in the engineering peer review, conducted by Stantec in 2023, and the Landscape Masterplan.

The leaking Gong Reservoir wall was identified as a public safety risk in 2019. Wall failure could mean flooding downstream, impacting the Botanic Gardens, the bowling club, primary school and private residences. An independent risk assessment recommended the City of Ballarat ‘take measures to reduce the overall risk’.

An engineering solution was developed to stabilise the wall and a 27 May 2020 Council resolution recommended that a landscape masterplan be created to integrate the reconstructed Gong Reservoir into the surrounding landscape.

Proposed wall remediation works, recommended by an experienced dam engineer, include the construction of an internal sand filter to control seepage through the wall.  

A total budget of $1.4 million has been allocated for the wall reconstruction.

The works also enable the controlled discharge of the seepage water into the garden ponds. A landscaping design response to the works includes re-use and redevelopment of the stone retaining wall, at the base of the wall on the gardens’ side, planting of suitable species, new garden beds with low growing plants, fencing and bollards, a boardwalk for access to the Gong Reservoir and new paths and crossing points for pedestrians.

The Buninyong Botanic Gardens Landscape Masterplan was informed through extensive community consultation and stakeholder engagement in 2021 and early 2022, including both a pre-engagement and a draft engagement landscape masterplan phase.

The final draft masterplan was completed in early 2022.  

Some members of the Friends of the Gardens sought a peer review of the engineering solution as to its suitability. The peer review supported the principles of the original design and landscape proposals. As a result, the Draft Landscape Masterplan remained unchanged and was presented to Council for endorsement.  

City of Ballarat Councillor Ben Taylor said after extensive community consultation it was great to finalise the Landscape Masterplan for the Buninyong Botanic Gardens.  

“The Buninyong Botanic Gardens Landscape Masterplan helps to preserve and protect these significant Victorian Heritage Register-listed gardens,” he said.

“The Gong Reservoir wall reconstruction will stabilise the wall, providing peace of mind for nearby residents, while the landscape treatments will better integrate the dam into the gardens with an indigenous and native garden showcasing riverine and Australian plants.”

The new masterplan compliments the Buninyong Botanic Gardens Conservation Study and Masterplan (2004).