Riverside picnic area planned for South Dubbo
DUBBO residents are invited to attend a community information session with council representatives to hear about plans for a new picnic space being developed at the juncture of the Riverside, Tracker Riley and Regand Park walking trails.
On Thursday, July 26, from 7.30am to 9.30am, at the southern end of Tamworth Street, free bacon and egg rolls for the first 100 or so attendees will be served and residents can consult with council over their plans, which does include the removal of 38 Claret Ash trees.
“We will be removing Claret Ash trees and replacing them with 100 native, endemic trees,” Dubbo Regional Council Recreation and Open Space manager Ian Mcalister told Dubbo Photo News. “The offset is about three to one (trees).
“Claret Ash don’t perform well in Dubbo and when they produce seed, it tends to be a lot of seed. What you really don’t want is that seed drop to be happening in a flood situation because all that seed would unfortunately find its way into the river system and down to the Macquarie Marshes – and all of a sudden you’ll have hundreds and thousands of seedlings springing up down there.”
Replacement trees will be river red gums, yellow box and angophora.
“They’re all the right species for this area. We’re sourcing the trees locally through the nursery run by Indigenous Concepts and Networking (ICAN) on Cobra Street,” Mr Mcalister explained.
“Most inland river corridors are one or two plants wide. Anywhere we can help to extend that by doing additional planting is obviously a real benefit.
“We’re planting 100 plants, riverine species, in line with the Dubbo 2040 plan which talks about restoration of the riverine corridor. There will be a lot of trees in this space,” Mr Mcalister said.
Two oaks in the area will be salvaged and replanted in another park.
“There’s also a couple of trees which will be maintained so we can start with something a little bigger and there’s going to be picnic shelters, barbecues, a car park, and the whole area will be fenced as well, to prevent people from driving over the land.”
Council purchased the land in 1996 from the Sunderland family.
“It was always designated to be a public recreation area. Over a number of years, we’ve progressively extended the river corridor. We buy it up because realistically there’s not a huge amount of development you can actually put on the riverbank itself, except sporting fields and parks,” Mr Mcalister added.
The park will also recycle water for its irrigation.
“In the production of potable water for the city, backwash filters create backwash water. Generally that’s just evaporated off. We can’t put it back into the river due to licensing. What we can do is use this area and irrigate it under backwash water,” Mr Mcalister said.
Funding for the new picnic area has come from both Council, which is putting $90,000 in from the ‘Section 94 Open Space’ fund, and a $30,000 contribution from Titan Macquarie Mud Run.
“We were approached by the Macquarie Titan Mud Run (committee) who said they would like to develop this area. They’ve been really supportive since they commenced that event. They’ve put in a number of facilities such as fitness centres around town, and the big shed in Ollie Robbins. They’re very keen to put money back in to the community.
“The park will be a really good way for us to try and promote the recreational opportunities down in this area, and get people using it. It helps build the social fabric of community as well,” Mr Mcalister said.
“There has been a bit of anti-social behaviour down at the bottom of the car park area, breaking into cars, things like that, but when you provide facilities you start to get that passive surveillance happening as well. If you can push that anti-social behaviour out then that’s a benefit for the community,” he said.
The project is expected to be completed by the end of October.