A Garden City Salutes its Health Workers

The City of Ballarat has unveiled a stunning tribute to the work of its major hospitals and all health care workers through COVID-19. 

A roundabout at the heart of the city’s hospital precinct on Drummond Street has been planted in a creative design inspired by the shape of the COVID molecule. 

The garden’s continuous blooms will stand as permanent reminder of what can be achieved when a community works together to conquer the challenges of COVID. 

Ballarat Health Services and St John of God colorectal surgeon, Dr Carolyn Vasey, who was instrumental in getting the project ‘in the ground’ is grateful for the community’s collaborative approach.  

“Whilst we continue to be faced with the challenges of a pandemic, watching the constant, renewing rhythms of nature brings hope at this time. Staff, patients and visitors have watched with much anticipation from our hospital windows as this project has evolved,” she said. 

The talented City of Ballarat Parks team, who have gained notoriety for their clever themed garden designs, simplified the familiar fuzz ball drawings used in the media as a visual representation of COVID, knowing the shape of the ‘spikey proteins’ would prove challenging to mow around!  

The final design includes three intersecting semi-circles representing the connectivity between Ballarat Health Services, St John of God Hospital and the Ballarat community. 

Their brief was to deliver a garden that would inspire and brighten everyone’s day through colour and life.  

That wish has been achieved through a mix of five different salvias in the bold shades of impact purple, Mexican blue, heatwave glow and heatwave bronze, and complemented by a mass border of golden Pyrethrum. 

Ballarat Mayor, Cr Daniel Moloney said he could not be prouder of the way his community, Regional Roads Victoria and the health sector worked together to create such an inspirational project that would forever remind people of the City’s resilience both now and into the future. 

Committee for Ballarat CEO, Michael Poulton, believes the small piece of work holds far more significance now than when the project was conceived last year. It’s the little signs of joy that can give so much hope during challenging times,” he said. 

The University of Melbourne, which operates a medical training facility overlooking the roundabout removed its paling fence to reveal the home’s sprawling heritage gardens, creating a sense of green space in the precinct. 

City of Ballarat gardeners are planning a continual flowering scenario for the COVID garden with new plantings in Summer.