Council report includes ‘Stormwater Treatment’. Please write to Council.

Through the advocacy and support of community members and interested people like you following this story, Knox City Council have been persuaded to undertake and have completed a community consultation process to find out what the community wants for the future of Koolunga, so that they know what  the priorities are, and should be done. Council engaged an independent consultant to do this and provide a report. Council have now released their final version of this Community Values Plan report.

All participants in the community consultation process, which was advertised and open to all community members, were asked the following questions:

• What do you consider the current values and uses of the reserve,
• What are the future focus and uses that you envision for the reserve,
• In developing a plan, where do you think the most improvements can be made.

The answers the community gave are summarised in the Community Values Plan report, and clearly show that the community believe the most important values about Koolunga are:

• Its mixture of uses such as walking, gathering opportunities for groups of people, bushland walking, dog walking;
• The great balance between bushland / wilderness and open space;
• Opportunities for bike riding, running, exercising, football;
• Passive and active recreation values

Much  lower rated of the community themes were history and interpretive signage, and improving the water quality along the line of the Forest Road Drain, which is very overgrown with weeds.

Council undertook to use this report to guide the plan for Koolunga’s future. However, the Council has stated the second of the top community priorities is ‘improvement of stormwater quality in the reserve’. But the Council’s Community Values Report rated water quality as  much further down the priority ranking (along with signage), so it is not a community priority theme.

What the community overwhelmingly want are low cost items to improve the experience of visiting Koolunga for all. Items such as improved seating, better pathways, improved creek crossings to allow access to all, to keep the open spaces, to keep the pine trees and to maintain Koolunga as it is. The community certainly does not want a wetland in Koolunga Reserve.

You can help ensure that Knox Council listens to the community wishes for this wonderful place,  and ensure Council do not build a wetland that will destroy the open spaces.

Please write to the Council – by email to OpenSpace@knox.vic.gov.au , or write to the Open Space team, Knox City Council, 511 Burwood Highway, Wantirna South , VIC 3152, and ask them to stand by their Community Values Plan report and prioritise what the community wanted:

• Improved seats & pathways
• Better creek crossings to allow access for all people
• To keep the open spaces
• To protect and celebrate the history of the Reserve and pine trees as part of the old Chandler Daffodil Farm
• To maintain Koolunga as it is

Tell them you want to keep all the grassed areas, and remind the Council that the community has already overwhelmingly rejected the idea of a wetland for Koolunga – two years ago.