Thank you Stratford

Trains are now travelling at higher speeds on the new Avon River bridge, which was completed in December 2020, three months ahead of schedule.

The new bridge was completed during a nine-day construction blitz in early December, with crews working more than 7,000 hours - around the clock - to connect it to the rail line.

The nearby McAlister Street level crossing has also been upgraded, boosting safety for passengers, motorists and pedestrians. We coordinated these works with the new pedestrian path being installed on McAlister Street delivered by Wellington Shire Council.

Acclaimed artist Ray Thomas has completed a 25-metre long mural on the side of the new bridge, featuring the community’s chosen theme: the Avon River.

The mural honours the Brayakaulung clan and their connection to the Avon River and features Gunaikurnai ancestral totems and cultural practices including scarred canoe trees, stone grinding grooves and bush foods.

We’re now busy landscaping the areas around the new bridge and building the improvements to Apex Park you helped us to design.

Thanks to the participation of the local community throughout 2020, we’ve been able to incorporate the views of more than 400 people into the design of the new nature-based playground and BMX/pump track.

The improvements to Apex Park will be completed in the coming months, creating a fun and challenging new play space for the local community and visitors alike.

Thank you to everyone in Stratford and surrounding communities for your ongoing support and patience while we finalise these works.

Co-designing Apex Park

As part of the project to build a new rail bridge over the Avon River, we wanted to involve the Stratford community in designing the new improvements to Apex Park to create a legacy for the community.

To do this, we developed an engagement process founded on the co-design principles of accessibility and inclusiveness to ensure the community, and especially children, had genuine input into the design of the park.

We asked the community to help us co-design the following improvements to Apex Park:

• A new BMX/pump track
• A new nature-based playground
• A new public artwork
• Selecting the plants that will be planted around the park.

Phase 1 – You told us your ideas

Early in 2020, we heard from Stratford locals who voted on the types of equipment they wanted included in the new nature-based playground and key features for the BMX/pump track.

We asked for feedback via:

• A community day at Apex Park
• An online survey
• School voting with the two local primary schools.

Over the course of our community engagement, we heard from more than 400 people, including more than 200 local primary school students, who provided feedback that was used to develop a concept design for the park upgrades and select a theme for the public artwork.

We also engaged the Avon Landcare Group and local nurseries to help us choose the best plant species and locations for the extensive vegetation that will be planted around the park.

Why a nature-based playground?

Nature-based play areas encourage exploration and interaction for children of different ages and abilities. A nature and adventure play focus was chosen due to the playground’s proximity to the Avon River and native vegetation which Wellington Shire Council and the community supported.

Phase 2 – We showed you our draft plan

Midway through last year, we asked the community for feedback on the concept design we’d developed using their input, to ensure the design reflected the community’s ideas and aspirations for the park.

Due to coronavirus (COVID-19) restrictions, this phase of our engagement was undertaken online. We engaged with locals through a dedicated online engagement portal which included an interactive online map, 3D renders, videos and an online survey. We provided a range of resources and remote learning activities to the local primary schools, and held a series of webinars.

Hard copies of the concept design and survey were also available to ensure everyone could view and provide feedback on the draft design. We received more than 100 responses and used this feedback to finalise the design.

Public artwork

Acclaimed Gunnai artist Ray Thomas and his son Tirilli Thomas have painted a mural on the wall of the new rail bridge. The mural celebrates the local history of Indigenous and non-Indigenous connections to the Avon River, a theme selected by the community in early 2020.

The mural honours the traditional custodians – the Brayakaulung clan – and their connection to Dooyeedang (the Avon River). The artwork includes ancestral totems, Borun the Pelican and Tuk the Female Musk Duck, through to post-contact history and early European settlement in the area, referencing Ray’s own family history and the Ramahyuck Aboriginal Mission near Stratford.

Ray’s mural celebrates the river as a vital source of community life over changing seasons and times.

Ray was selected to deliver the artwork by a Creative Advisory Panel, which included representatives from Creative Victoria, Wellington Shire Council and Gunaikurnai Land and Waters Aboriginal Corporation. Ray worked closely with the Stratford Historical Society to research the local stories represented on the mural.

We encourage you to visit Apex Park and have a look at Stratford’s exciting new mural.