Our residents are smarter than the Bendigo Bunch ... they know we already have a GovHub in Bendigo and we don't need to rip the heart out of a suburb for another costly CBD mistake by council and growing parking woes in the centre.
Check out the perceptive letter from David Elvery published in the Bendigo Weekly this week:
Don Erskine’s suggested plan for five satellite, largely self-employed townships, including Ravenswood, around Bendigo makes sense.
However, I strongly suggest that any pressure for subdivision and development of the upper southern slopes of the Big Hill Range should be opposed by the City of Greater Bendigo and the Victorian government.
This entry and egress to and from Bendigo via the Calder Highway is truly a “Streeton” style landscape worth protecting.
The more gently sloping land directly around Ravenswood, south of the Alternative Highway interchange, could certainly be developed as a township, serviced by a Coliban Water pipeline and possibly a local Heathcote-style sewerage treatment plant, using an evaporative pondage system.
The treated water could be used for irrigation of the nearby golf course, orchards, vineyards and special crops and pastures.
Max Turner’s letter backs Don Erskine’s proposals and also opposes our council’s city-centric proposal of a government hub, which I also oppose.
Recently I visited the old Department of Agriculture regional office at Epsom.
This large complex has now been adopted as a virtual “GovHub”, housing staff of DELWP and several other Victorian government departments (with space for more), already decentralised and supporting local Epsom businesses.
I consider rural clients would much prefer visiting the hub, especially when serviced by Don Erskine’s proposed arterial road system, rather than coping with the CBD’s heavy traffic snarl.
Well said!
