Push for Queens Park to be standalone suburb

SOME residents near Queens Park want the area and surrounds to officially become a suburb of the same name, and are gathering signatures to support their efforts.

Launched on change.org by Daniel Senia late last month, the petition “Rename lower Highton area to Queens Park” was mailed to all addresses inside the proposed new suburb and garnered more than 340 signatures in its first week. It has more than 450 as of earlier this week.

About 670 homes sit inside the proposed renaming zone in Highton, which is geographically bordered by the Barwon River, Queens Park Golf Course and Montpellier Basins.

A group of residents say this area is already commonly known as “Queens Park”, and formally naming the suburb would give the area its own identity, reclaim the history of the original Geelong zoning, and empower ratepayers to have a more direct impact on the local area.

Explaining his petition, Mr Senia wrote that the lower Highton area was “its own little community in Geelong”.

“Geographically isolated by the Barwon River, Queens Park Golf Course and reserves and the water basins, our little pocket of the world deserves its own postcode.

“Generally paying higher rates than our fellow Hightonians due to land sizes and value, it would be beneficial to put those funds to use more directly, maintaining our roads and parks, upgrading the one way bridge and tidying up our side of the river

“Taking the name of the adjacent parkland ‘Queens Park’ is the logical step.

“This petition aims to not only gain community support, but build a community of neighbours via our Facebook page and use our communal power as residents and business owners of Geelong to effect change.”

The residents’ group plans to formally submit a proposal to the City of Greater Geelong in the coming weeks “off the back of community interest”.

To read the petition and sign it, head to change.org/p/rename-lower-highton-area-to-queens-park