Nine parks need naming

IF you are nifty when it comes to naming, now’s your chance to get clever with some of Ballarat’s important – but officially nameless- public parks.

The City of Ballarat is calling on locals to help name nine different parks, all in the city’s west, and all currently lacking official names.

To ensure compliance with Geographic Names Victoria, they’ve begun a process to formally name all nine, some of which currently do get referred to by informal names.

A City spokesperson said the formal naming of the reserves, or parks, is important to properly align with emergency services to help ensure the fastest possible response times should an incident occur at any of them.

“It also creates an opportunity to celebrate local history, reflect the Ballarat community, and increase representation in place naming,” they said.

Most of the parks included on the list currently feature playgrounds or open recreation areas and are located in Winter Valley and Alfredton.

In recent days the City of Ballarat has launched a dedicated MySay webpage where people have until 15 May to suggest names that give the parks identity and meaning.

“This is a real chance for people to come forward with their ideas and help us name many of our parks that currently don’t have an official name,” said City of Ballarat mayor Cr Tracey Hargreaves.

“It’s also important work to be undertaken. We need to make sure we officially register these reserves so emergency services can respond as quickly as possible if they need to.”

Following the initial phase of accepting community suggestions, further engagement is planned for later this year to afford members of the public a further say on shortlisted names.

Meanwhile, the City of Ballarat is also undertaking work to formally adopt at least 35 other unnamed reserves.