“Barbeque for a missing barbeque”

A GROUP of Golden Point residents concerned about the loss of public space and amenity in the suburb are holding a barbeque this Sunday at Jack Greville Parklands.

Logistics for the event are made more difficult because a public barbeque that was once at the site was removed last year, so they must bring their own.

“It’s a barbeque for a missing barbeque and it’s a barbeque for a community that’s missing a lot of its amenity,” said Peter Willis.

The residents first came together in response to loss of parkland and facilities at the former Golden Point Primary School site.

Since then they have held a number of annual barbeques at Jack Greville Parklands on Eureka Day and Mr Willis said the community has grown closer together because of the events.

“We started out as the group that was trying to save a park and a lot of neighbours became pretty well known to each other as a result of that,” He said. “We were a pretty strong group and we fought to try and save that place for nearly five years.”

Members of the group said the public barbeque at Jack Greville Parklands became unusable when a coin got jammed in the payment slot. The issue was then reported to council.

Rather than see the barbeque repaired, Mr Willis said it was removed by Sovereign Hill staff and hasn’t been replaced.

A second, once public barbeque that fell within Sovereign Hill’s fence line was also removed at the time.

Floss Pitson was part of the campaign to save the Golden Point Primary School park and said she used the now removed barbeque before it became damaged.

“I was very disappointed when the barbeque broke down and I came back several times to see if it was working again, and it wasn’t,” she said.

“Then I almost gave up on it and next thing I knew it disappeared.”

Adrian Krzempek said he used both barbeques at different times. He’s also disappointed by the missing barbeque and the area’s loss of public space and amenity.

“It was a great little find,” he said. “It’s just sad to see the infrastructure being removed that should be here for everyone to use.”

The community barbeque is set for this Sunday, 2 December at 6.30pm Jack Greville Parklands, near the corner of Magpie and Bourke streets, Golden Point.

Attendees will need to bring food and drinks, and possibly their own barbeque.