Long Gully plan set for next step

A DRAFT of the proposed Long Gully Community Plan will be presented at a public event next month.

The draft plan, developed since 2021 by a working group, is aimed at capturing community hopes and aspirations while identifying concerns and challenges – and how to deal with them.

It will be released and discussed at the Long Gully Neighbourhood Centre in Derwent Drive from 7.30pm on Wednesday 7 August.

Jonathan Cornford, who chairs the working group, said a final plan would probably appear in the second half of the year.

“The working group’s role is to come up with the plan, then it will be back to the community [to make it happen],” Mr Cornford said.

A key outcome could be formation of a Long Gully progress association, which Mr Cornford said would be a “key vehicle” for advancing elements of the document.

The draft plan, an initiative of the Long Gully Neighbourhood Centre, was compiled using feedback from a number of focus group activities in 2022 and a community survey last year.

It says Long Gully is “well known as a suburb with significant socio-economic disadvantage” and ranks among the bottom one per cent of Victoria’s most disadvantaged suburbs, based on Australian Bureau of Statistics data.

In the survey, the two strongest responses to a question about what people liked least about living in Long Gully were anti-social behaviour (62 per cent) and the stigma attached to Long Gully (61 per cent).

“There’s no secret Long Gully’s got its problems, its share of social problems,” Mr Cornford said.

“But I think that overall, given the general perception of Long Gully the overall tenor of those [focus] groups was surprisingly positive and upbeat.

“Those things are real, they’re concerns that came up, but they didn’t dominate by any means.

“What I was struck by was the common valuing of Long Gully as a place in its own right and for what it has to offer.”

The draft plan identifies four key areas for future work; developing and deepening community and connection, improving movement, connectivity and connection, developing public spaces and community assets, and preserving nature, heritage and character.

When the plan is finalised, it will be submitted to the City of Greater Bendigo in the hope it will be used in council planning processes and projects affecting the suburb.