Tree tourists can now enjoy sounds as well as sights

BALLAN’S Historic Tree Walk has become more inclusive, with the addition of an audio tour added to its online walking guide.

The updated guide aims to be more easily accessible to people who are vision impaired.

The audio component was added late last year and is voiced by local resident and podcaster Patrick Bonello.

The Ballan Arboretum Group launched the walk last March in an effort to honour early settlers who planted significant trees on nature strips, public land, parks and on private properties.

The self-guided tour officially starts at the railway station and takes between two and two-and-a-half hours to complete, visiting 29 trees.

The official starting point of the Ballan Historic Tree Walk, the town’s train station.

QR codes at each stop can be scanned to take people to a website that offers facts, local knowledge, scientific information of the specific tree, and now the audio component.

Mr Bonello said a Moorabool Shire Council grant had allowed creation of the audio component, which would help people who are blind or have low vision, as well as others who might prefer the company of a narrator.

“It has been quite the journey from start to finish with a dedicated group of volunteers driving the arboretum group,” he said.

Mr Bonello said trees on the tour highlighted how passionate the early settlers were about beautifying Ballan: “From planting a row of Monterey Pines as a windbreak to protect the train station, to a group of four Giant Redwoods at the Ballan Primary School planted by the children during Arbor Day in 1904.”

Stop No.19 on the walk is two Monterey cypress trees that frame St John’s Anglican Church, thought to have been planted around 1849.

He said the Ballan Historical Society was able to “fill in the blanks” when it came to the many stories surrounding the plantings.

“It’s even recorded that a ladies’ bazaar was held to raise funds specifically for tree planting,” Mr Bonello said.

Mr Bonello said that in its simplest form, an arboretum is a place with trees.

“So the concept of transforming Ballan into an arboretum town was the initiative of a group of local residents, supported by the Ballan and District Chamber of Commerce and the Moorabool Shire,” he said.

Donations also came from the former Ballan Quilting Group, the Lions club, the former Rotary club, and the Moorabool Windfarm.

More information about the arboretum group is available on the chamber of commerce website at ballanchamberofcommerce.com.au.