Noosa Botanic Gardens Master Plan

Karen Finzel29:57

Thank you. I'd just like to add to that too. We always talk about engendering trust in our community and often that sits at an all-time low but I must say your team and when you step up to these disasters and also for people that address the reconstruction post the disasters. I think our community is in really good hands because you all do a great job so thank you for that and it's that one step closer to building that trust and those relationships that you know when the rubber hits the road we all and work together for the collective good thank you for that thank you you're welcome and thank you for your report today so we'll take it to the vote all in favour thank you that's unanimous thank you very much. Well done, thank you. So with that we are, oh you may leave the table. So. We're moving on now to item 7.2 the Noosa Botanic Gardens master plan. We welcome Shaun, you're here. Thank you. And Geordie. Thank you. So who's giving the overview?

Thank you, Shaun. I used to go past this site as a school child, riding from Cooroy through to go and slide on the spillway at Lake Macdonald there on some hessian sacks. And it used to be an overgrown dumping ground at the time. And in that short space of my short life, we've seen it develop so much and that's a testament to the volunteers and Council to develop it to this stage. And as Shaun said, it is highly valued in our community for a whole range of reasons. But the question is, how do we continue to improve? How do we continue the gardens going forward if we don't know what people want and we don't have a plan? So I'm very excited and very proud to have developed and present to Council a draft plan for your endorsement, consideration endorsement for the next of public consultation. We have listened to the community, we've done a lot of listening throughout the last year. We have had pop-ups in the park, we've online surveys, we've had stakeholder reference groups internal, we've had external stakeholder groups, and we've had a lot of one-on sessions as well with interested parties, with community groups, with friends of groups and the like, and along the way we've developed various versions of the draft and we've finally come up with a plan which we've put to the various stakeholder groups and we're now in a position that we can present to Council. So as a result of all of that we've found out essentially what people love about the gardens currently. And what sort of things that we should improve on, so a few of the major features of the draft plan, first of all I should say that we created a vision for the plan which was a new vision and it built on the vision that was previously put to Council in 2017, but the new vision is to cultivate a vibrant botanic garden that reflects community values, working with nature. Now and for the future. We think that sets the tone very well for the master plan and under that we have some objectives and some of those developments proposed, so the plan is a 25 year plan, it's not a promise that we're going to deliver everything within the next term of Council or within a set period of time, it's just saying as we develop the gardens in time, these are the types of things we can do and it's not detailed, so if we need to move a pathway, if we need to change things around slightly we can do that, if we need to change the planning slightly later on we can do that, it's really just setting a plan for the future so as Council gets capital money, operational money, can tap into funding. We've got things that we can do within the gardens and develop the gardens according to a plan which is a good thing so the major features of the plan first one was preservation enhancement of our botanic collection which is very important it is a botanic garden improved visitor entry experience which includes a drop-off area we had some feedback around that there was multiple entrances to the gardens and we didn't have that feel of the entrance and it also includes a community facility there was quite a lot of feedback around wanting some sort of commercial offerings teas, like coffees but also places that people can go for meetings and also get information so there is a small community meeting facility within the plan at that entrance feature area. We have primarily accessible grade pathways around the Botanic Gardens so it's the main loops around the gardens so people with accessibility issues can go around those loops. We have activity zones area. Including a playground in the Botanic Gardens as well. At the moment it's separated from the Botanic Gardens to the north end and we have cultural heritage considerations as well so as you will read through the draft master plan you'll see this like there's a whole range of a range of developments and improvements that are planned around all those things and including legibility and signage and other things, education within the plan. So the plans presented for Council's consideration. The next stage if you endorsed is for further public consultation. We'll do some more pop-ups in the park, we'll put some posters out, we'll put it in the paper, we'll put it on online surveys, we'll put it back to the stakeholder reference groups, internal and the external stakeholder groups, and then do some more consultation with each of those individual groups as well. We will then come back to Council, revise the plan, come back to Council again with a summary of that engagement. Of that engagement submissions received, and then hopefully for public adoption.

I just want to do a bit of a prelude to then handing over to Geordie because I was thinking about this last couple of days and so we so we're a member of the Australian New Zealand Botanic Gardens association and I sort of tapped into their views about what makes, why Botanic Gardens important and they've got a great list of environmental benefits like conservation of biodiversity, seed banks and research, urban cooling and air quality. Financial pollinator support, but then educational benefits of Botanic Gardens, public education, school and university partnerships, citizen science where visitors can participate in plant monitoring and conservation efforts. Very significantly, health and wellbeing, you know, the mental health of green spaces, reducing stress, anxiety and depression, physical activity, encouraging exercise and then therapeutic horticulture for rehabilitation therapy. Then there's the culture and recreational values such as art and culture, tourism and community engagement, particularly volunteer opportunities, fostering community spirit. And then scientific research, you know, plant science and taxonomy, and then climate change studies. I thought that's a really good context, because what we're at a phase with the Noosa Botanic Gardens is really realising its benefits or its opportunities on behalf of the community, because when we started this process, we actually didn't even know how many people visited the gardens. So we, you know, this originally a community-leaning enterprise, so we put out traffic monitors just for cars, and we did it in May and November last year, and assuming, you know, 1.5 passengers per vehicle, that equates to a visitation of 180,000 people per year to the daily Noosa Botanic Gardens in its current in its current format, which is significant when you compare it to our suite of other recreation and cultural facilities. So I see that the context that we're really thinking, well, this is such a valuable facility on behalf of our residents and our community. And that's really set the tone of this master plan, which is, well, how do we cultivate that even more? So, and actually answer their desires and their aspirations with this face. So I hand over to joy.