Working towards a new Open Space Strategy for Ballarat

What does being outside mean to you?  

This will be one of the key questions to answer to help develop Ballarat’s Open Space Strategy 2024.  

The City of Ballarat is seeking feedback from the community on a number of topics related to open spaces, including what is their favourite open area in the city and why.

The strategy will guide the improvement and development of public open spaces, parks, reserves and natural spaces across the city.  

The feedback will help shape the draft Open Space Strategy 2024, which will be presented back to the community early next year for further consultation through collaborative workshops as well as an online component.  

“What you tell us now will assist in determining how the strategy will be shaped,” City of Ballarat Mayor, Cr Des Hudson said.  

Key feedback from the community that will assist in developing the strategy will be:

• How should open space be classified or grouped.
• How the community currently uses and values the open spaces, and how this can be improved.
• How to improve safety, accessibility and equity in open spaces.  
• Key priorities for the improvement of open space.  
• What types of open spaces are most valuable to the community.  

The City of Ballarat wants to create an understanding of how the community currently uses and enjoys open spaces, what areas are valued and how safety, accessibility and equity relate to open spaces. The new strategy will supersede the Open Space Strategy from 2008.

Cr Hudson said open spaces are an important part of everyone’s daily lives.

“Being able to contribute to how our parks, gardens and trails look in Ballarat is a great benefit to our lives, so we urge you to come and chat with us about what the open spaces mean to you,” he said.  

“To me open space are wonderful locations for people to come together, to engage in active play, somewhere to take the kids to let them enjoy being young and adventurous, or places to sit and ponder and watch the world go by.”  

“Open spaces should be places that all ages love and feel connected to,” he said.  

To provide feedback the community can visit MySay to complete a survey and provide comments to help develop the strategy. Individuals wanting to be more involved are encouraged to provide their contact details on the MySay page so that City of Ballarat officers can keep them updated.