Melanie Riley
A DOG park for Bordertown could be in the works soon, following positive feedback from the community and a tick of approval from the Bordertown on the Move committee.
Bordertown Rotary Club president, Jeff Wiese said he took the idea of the project to the council, where it was approved, subject to community consultation and approval of Bordertown on the Move.
Mr Wiese said it wasn’t aware of the hurdle until later in the process.
“If we’d known that, we would’ve worked with them right from the start,” he said.
“Initially in February they did not support the project being at Gateway Park, so we decided to give them some more information.”
Community consultation in the form of a survey was conducted earlier this year, which included an option to suggest alternative locations for the dog park, which was part of the information presented to the committee.
“We were asking people if they supported it at Gateway Park or whether they preferred for the dog park to be somewhere else,” Mr Weise said.
“We had a line there to write where they’d prefer, and we had majority support for Gateway Park.
“That was amazing.”
Mr Wiese said a majority of the debate has been around the location of the dog park, and suggestions were made for it to be established at the Overland Park and Soldiers Memorial Park.
The Bordertown Rotary Club was not entirely against alternate locations, however Mr Wiese said neither suggested locations were suitable as Overland Park is not owned by council and due to contamination, there are restrictions on human and animal contact with the site and the local RSL have development plans for the Soldiers Memorial park.
“Our Rotary Club had a high majority supporting that particular site, of course not everyone does, that’s highly unlikely, but we had a majority,” he said.
“So then it became democratically decided for the club to support Gateway Park.”
During the presentation, Mr Wiese was supported by 10 Rotarians in the gallery.
“It wasn’t something I asked for, but they turned up. That was great support.,” Mr Wiese said.
There was only one vote against Gateway Park by the committee, resulting in the committee supporting the location.
“That hurdle is now over,” Mr Weise said.
Mr Wiese said another reason the alternate proposed sites were not going to be suitable is the need for earthworks to be conducted to prepare the land, which would exceed their budget.
“The site we picked already has so much there,” Mr Wiese said of Gateway Park.
“It already has shade, lawn, sprinklers, is already well-drained and it’s got picnic tables and barbecues.
He said choosing this location was the most cost effective for the club, but the project is still looking at an estimated cost of $52,000.
Mr Wiese said since his induction as president in July 2023, he thought the dog park would be a simple process, but realised the project required a lot more work.
“We did hundreds of hours of work and research and I looked at dog parks from Warrnambool to Adelaide,” he said.
“There’s so much involved in it, more than you would ever think.
“Even down to the size of the wire so a ball doesn’t go through it and roll onto the road.”
The proposal includes plans to have two areas of the dog park; one dedicated to all dogs and one recommended for smaller dogs.
“If you’ve got a small dog that’s intimidated by large dogs, you don’t have to go in with the large dogs if you don’t want to,” Mr Weise said.
Seating, water bowls and water drinking places will be some of the extra facilities added to the park to support the dog park.
Mr Wiese said Gateway Park is quite under-utilised, and he and the Rotary Club felt confident it would encourage more visitors to the area.
“The only time I’ve ever seen people there is on Good Friday and Easter Monday,” he said.
“Otherwise, it’s very under-utilised.”
He said the location will be convenient to travellers, being that it is right off the highway, and is situated near cafes, shops and public toilets.
He added that the economy of the town was a significant factor in the decision making process of the Bordertown Rotary club.
“If we just wanted locals, we could’ve had it anywhere, but if we wanted to add to the economy, we had to think about travellers,” he said.
The next stage of the process is for the Rotary Club to present the updates back to council at their upcoming council meeting on April 9, where the councillors will cast a vote.
