Ballymanus park a community focal point

WITH construction commencing this month, the Ballymanus Central Park is set to be an active hub for families in Ballarat West.

Featuring a skate and scooter track, playground, grass oval, running track, multi-use court, picnic area, barbeque facilities, toilet, grass mound and woodland area, plenty has been laid out to keep the community entertained, social and moving.

City of Ballarat Coordinator of Growth Areas Facilitation, Donna Johnston is a leader of the Ballarat West Development Contributions Plan, helping to manage the park’s design. She’s extremely energised by the project.

“It’s another play space that’s got a multitude of different areas for the community to come together as a focal point, because we haven’t really got that in that space yet,” she said.

“The grassy mound and woodland with natural waterways mean we’ve got a bit more of that passive, open area for play. Sustainability and accessibility are key components of the design and management.”

Five years into the plan’s implementation, the four-hectare community park responds to community needs.

“With the Ballarat-Carngham Road sub-precinct, it’s our fastest growing community,” she said.

“The park is based around demand for that community facility to go in, in the fastest growth front that we’ve got currently within the Ballarat west area.”

Landscape architects have been part of the design scope and were knowledgeable about demands and successes of other communities’ play spaces. Other council departments also took part in the development process.

“With our project control group, we ensured that we had every area in council that needed to be included, so we covered all the particular things we needed,” Ms Johnston said.

“We’ve been talking to our Community Development team, Sport and Recreation team, Active Ageing and all those areas across council that have got that knowledge and expertise in what the community demands and needs are.”

The award-winning Victoria Park Inclusive Play Space and the success of the Modular Pump Track have been good inspiration.

“We looked at other things that were working well in other active open space areas across the municipality. For us, the Inclusive Play Space has been a bit of guidance for what the community’s looking for,” Ms Johnston said.

“We’ve tried to ensure that we’ve covered all areas for the growing community. We want to hear the community feedback.

“It’s been all good so far, so we’re really excited about the positive vibe that’s coming from the community to get that delivered.”