Digging deep for ideas to transform quarries
[Royal Botanic Gardens Cranbourne. Valley Lake, Niddrie]
[Vision: Aerial view of the Royal Botanic Gardens Cranbourne. Views of Valley Lake, Niddrie]
Danny Suster - Director Extractives, Department of Jobs, Precincts and Regions
Quarries are a temporary land use, they usually exist for a period of between 15-20 maybe 30 years and then they transition to things that are very, very different.
[Vision: Aerial view of operating quarry. Aerial view of the Royal Botanic Gardens Cranbourne]
Some of the best known parks around Melbourne are actually old quarries.
Cranbourne Botanic Gardens, Fitzroy Gardens as well are great examples of parks that many people wouldn’t even know were a quarry at a point in time.
But I don’t think we should wed ourselves to history too much, I think there’s a lot of opportunity to think a little bit innovatively and see what new assets we can design.
[Vision: View of ladder sculpture at Valley Lake, Niddrie and lake showing accommodation]
The Quarry Transformation Grants are helping to think through different ideas.
Definitely they’re also helping with the feasibility, but they also then provide a little bit of a model process for other industries to follow.
[Vision: Time lapse photography of sky and clouds; and Arid Garden at the Royal Botanic Garden Cranbourne]
Joseph Norster - General Manager, These Are The Projects We Do Together
[Vision: Aerial view of Beech Forest, Otway Ranges]
[Text: Quarry Transformation Grant - Beech Forest, Otway Ranges. Changing an old quarry into a camp and community space]
Our main focus early on is going to be our International Summer Camp which will see, like, up to 120 students arrive on site every summer.
[Vision: Close-up view of model for accommodation at summer camp and aerial view of site itself]
What this money has allowed us to do is to really engage with consultants on the ground in order to progress kind of like, a number of the ideas for building and the capabilities of the site.
But we see it as a much broader application of the site for other groups to use throughout the year.
[Vision: View of Valley Lake and accommodation. View of quarry site]
Danny Suster - Director Extractives, Department of Jobs, Precincts and Regions
One of the great things about quarries is they provide a bit of a different landscape.
They provide interesting structures that can be really made aesthetically pleasing.
[The Victorian Connection people, communities and the economy. For more news and stories go to connection.vic.gov.au. Victoria State Government. Authorised by the Victorian Government, Melbourne]
