Wurundjeri Woi-wurrung Elders have contributed their cultural knowledge to the Calder Park Drive Level Crossing Removal Project, with co-designed open space for the community to enjoy.
Inspired by the history of the area, the new space includes seating, landscaping and historical markers designed in collaboration with the Wurundjeri Woi-wurrung Cultural Heritage Aboriginal Corporation.
Elements of Wurundjeri Woi-wurrung history of the Victorian Volcanic Plains – on which Calder Park is located – are featured, adding a rich layer of storytelling and honouring the ongoing place of First Peoples in the area.
The new space will open next month, along with the new shared use path, and includes welcome markers with the Woi-wurrung word for welcome, ‘Wominjeka’, and benches made from rammed earth.
A contemporary design has been etched into the ground representing a Wurundjeri Woi-wurrung gathering place, as well as footprints from both the extinct megafauna Diprotodon optatum, the largest-known marsupial to have ever lived, and the critically endangered plains-wanderer, a local species of wading bird.
The space also features designs inspired by native mat rushes, a group of plants used by the Wurundjeri Woi-wurrung people for weaving.
Wurundjeri Elders are encouraging visitors to the space to learn about Wurundjeri Woi-wurrung culture through information panels installed in the area.
While putting the finishing touches on the co-design space and shared use path, crews are also planting more than 100,000 plants, trees and grasses at Calder Park Drive and nearby Holden Road.
Both dangerous level crossings are now gone for good, and the Sunbury Line is now boom gate free.
