Bert Wright Park Community Garden

The Baysie Rollers worked with local businesses Bayswater Landscapes and Saltbush Landscape Design to add a native garden and landscaping elements to the southern aspect of Bert Wright Park, creating a beautiful community garden. 

The garden beautifies the view of the park both looking in from King William Street and looking out from within the park. It also acts as a minor sound dampener from traffic noise whilst in the park. Waterwise native plants support biodiversity, and locals can sit on the curved bench and enjoy the view of Bayswater's mighty kurrajong tree.

The garden is not only an attraction, but a space for visitors to the town centre can take a moment to stop and admire beautiful Bayswater.

The Process

Concepting began in 2020 in conjunction with the City of Bayswater’s wider Bert Wright Park Concept Plan, with community consultation on the project taking place in May 2021. Extensive planning and landscape design were completed before commencing the garden build.   

A community planting day in November 2021 enabled local residents to get involved in planting out the garden. Community members were also invited to donate old bricks, so little bits of Bayswater heritage could be upcycled into a beautiful curved bench seat that referenced the area's federation homes. The bench seat also features reclaimed limestone blocks saved from the old Bayswater train station. This bench seat features some hidden surprises! Tucked away in coloured glass bricks are some hidden gems that give nods to the area - including a tip-truck in memory of the Bayswater bridge! Thank you to Meltatorque Fabrications and Remill for the bench design and build.

Construction of the bench seat was finished in April 2022, marking the completion of the project.

We celebrated the completion of the garden in September 2022 with an intimate fireside storytelling evening for all the people and businesses who helped us with the project. Local Elder, Vaughn McGuire and Chair of the Bayswater Historical Society, Monica Main told stories about the history of the area as we snuggled up with blankets and supper under the stars. The event was a great way to ground the park in a sense of place at the heart of historic Bayswater, and provided the many and varied stakeholders involved in the project a moment to reflect and celebrate.

The Baysie Rollers would like to thank everyone involved in this project, including the City of Bayswater, Department of Communities and Bendigo Community Bank Bayswater for their support and funding contributions.