By Callum Ludwig
Warburton resident Ivor Wolstencroft once again lent his voice to a Yarr Ranges Council meeting on Tuesday 13 August, offering his thoughts on the proposed Birrarung Valley Walk project and opportunities it could open up for disability access.
Mr Wolstencroft has been an outspoken advocate for improved disability access in the Yarra Ranges, speaking often at council meetings and particularly about wheelchair access along the edge of the Yarra River.
Mr Wolstencroft said he was greatly impressed when he heard about the Birrarung Valley Walk.
“I think the Disability Access Committee [sic Disability Advisory Committee] within Council could have a lot to share with the Birrurung Valley Walk because one step makes a massive difference to a person in a wheelchair,” he said.
“My concept is that you could have hubs along this journey that are representative of different areas of the river and each of these hubs would have a disabled access track running for about an hour or two, perhaps upstream and downstream so if you’re independent in a wheelchair you could have an afternoon spent on the Birrurung Valley Walk,”
“An even bigger dream is that you could actually link these hubs with a disabled-friendly bus so that for instance if somebody came to Lilydale they’d get on a disabled-friendly bus that would run perhaps two or three times a day, maybe just on special occasions to start and that you could allow a person to enter one of these hubs and they could be picked up two, three, four hours later.”
Birrarung Valley Walk Inc is seeking to link existing walking tracks and paths from the mouth of the Birrarung (Yarra River) to the Upper Yarra Reservoir to protect, enhance and promote the natural environment and First Nations culture of the Birrarung Valley.
Yarra Ranges Council entered a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Birrarung Valley Walk Inc to support the project at the council meeting on Tuesday 9 July.
Mr Wolstencroft said he wants to look after anyone with a wheelchair in Warburton, including his wife, and identified the East Warburton bridge as another problem area.
“If you go north upstream you encounter the East Warburton bridge and that’s a nightmare, I can see just that two and a half years ago (Eildon MP) Cindy McLeish raised this in parliament that this is a bridge that the East Warburton community and I would say the Warburton community needs for access,” he said.
“Even today I’m speaking to the headmaster at the Millwarra Primary School [Principal Rod Barnard] and he said he’s been writing to ministers, he’s been keen because none of his students can get from East Warburton to the Millwarra [Millgrove] campus on their bikes, they need a police escort across that bridge.”
Eildon MP Cindy McLeish raised the need for a pedestrian bridge over the Yarra River in East Warburton in the Victorian Parliament in February 2022, having also lobbied for over five years up to 2022 for the McMahons Creek pedestrian bridge to be restored.
O’Shannassy Ward Councillor Jim Child said that Mr Wolstencroft raised some very significant points and Council would be forwarding his enquiries on to the Birrarung Valley Walk committee if he hadn’t already.
“We’re well aware of that situation out there at East Warburton and Rod Barnard, the Principal of Millwarra and of course, the Warburton East Primary School is a campus of Millwarra, you’re right, over a number of years, the traffic has had to be stopped there by police while the school children ride their bikes over that bridge,” he said.
“It is so dangerous and over the 12 years here on Council, I’ve made submissions in regards to that bridge and of recent times over the last few years, there have been some significant accidents that have happened on that bridge with the demolition of the railing by vehicles and you just dare to contemplate if a pedestrian or a cyclist was on the bridge at the time of those particular accidents.”
Councillors Andrew Fullagar, Fiona McAllister and Johanna Skelton all shared appreciation for Mr Wolstencroft’s presentation and excitement at his proposals.
“I do think we have such great opportunities and a long way to go to actually make some of these incredible trails that we’re working on and these beautiful places that we live in more accessible,” Cr McAllister said.
“I liked the use of the word step because I think, in my mind, this is perhaps a small step for you and you’re planting the seed for other people to think beyond this room and I think they’re all very valid points,” Cr Fullagar said.
“I got very excited reading your proposal, I love envisioning what it could be and like you say, it’s not going to be there straight away, but someone needs to plant that vision and we sometimes need someone to do it for us and to present what could be,” Cr Skelton said.
