Creating a bushland sanctuary, a natural place of welcome, play and retreat in the heart of Reservoir West' is the community’s vision for Darebin’s newest park.
Over the past two years, Council has been working closely with a group of residents to create a vision and master plan for your new park.
Reimagining Ruthven draft master plan outlines a vision to guide the transformation of the former Ruthven Primary School into a native park in Reservoir West, over the next 20- 30 years.
Master Plan has been adopted!
At its Council Meeting on Monday 29 June 2020, Council adopted the Reimagining Ruthven Master Plan, following community consultation.
Thank you to everyone who provided feedback to help finalise the master plan.
You can check out the adopted master plan (click on the image below).
Transforming the site to a park
We are pleased to announce that works to start to transform the former Ruthven Primary School into a new community park have already taken place and include:
- Concrete and asphalt has been replaced with new lawn
- 102 new trees have been planted and new garden beds created.
We are currently working on a concept design for the new playspace and we’ll be seeking your feedback to the design in August 2020.
Stay tuned for more details!
Background
Council purchased the former Ruthven Primary School to provide more open space for the local community to enjoy.
In 2017 we held a Family Fun Day event to celebrate this new open space and collected your ideas on what you wanted to in your new park. You can check out the consultation findings in the Document Library located to the right.
Over 350 people attended this event, shared lovely stories and pitched great ideas to help us understand what you would like to see happen in your new park.
Many community members raised concerns around the designation of a Children’s Hub at the former Ruthven Primary School site in the Council Plan - Darebin 2021. These concerns were reinforced the Community Reference Group (CRG), created to help guide the master plan project.
At the 7 November 2018 meeting, Council supported the community’s vision by resolving to develop the entire Ruthven site as a park only with no Children’s Hub or large buildings on site.
