By Callum Ludwig
Dog owners in Wesburn were left dismayed after nearby works on Old Warburton Road saw their dog off-leash area at Wesburn Park worse for wear.
Large trucks parked in the space designated for dog owners at the recreation reserve between Tuesday 28 and Friday 31 January, leaving behind puddles of oil and ripping up the grass.
President of Yarra Ranges Dogs (YaRD), a social dog walking group associated with Wesburn Park, Nicole Murray said they were very concerned by what was left all over the grassed section and the pipeline, which forms part of the off-leash dog park.
“There have been several ‘Snap Send Solves’ sent to YRC (Yarra Ranges Council) and lots of local talk about the council obviously not caring,” she said.
“Some people want me to go to the local member, which as a committee, we may still do since the council just wants to cover it with sand and seed and pretend it’s not there,”
“I don’t think this is appropriate action in a dog park, how is a bit of sawdust going to keep dogs and a menagerie of other animals off the polluted spaces without fencing the space off.”
The area has been topdressed by Yarra Ranges Council staff, which involves placing a layer of sand, organic compost, or similar material such as sawdust on top of a grassed area to help improve its health and appearance.
Ms Murray said re-erecting their dog off-leash sign and establishing fencing near the dog off-leash area would absolutely help prevent misuse of the space.
“It would also let truck drivers, itinerant overnighters, members of the public who sit and eat lunch in the middle of the dog off-leash section, the ECOSS events team, council-run projects team and most importantly, new dog owners that this is a space is dedicated only for off-leashed dogs,” she said.
“For the past five years, YaRD has been working with council staff who treat us with indifference, fobbing us off as unimportant and because we don’t make tourist money for council, forgotten unless we do not pay our yearly dog registrations which have not been spent on dog facilities at Wesburn Park,”
“The problem we are facing as a large local group is that we feel the council still really don’t want to allow us to keep using this space and are preparing to shunt us off to the nearest ‘out of the way’ space they can find so they can use this area as parking for the mountain bikes in the southern part of the park.”
YaRD consists of over 400 members which use the dog off-leash area at Wesburn Park, with other use groups such as the Upper Yarra Pony Club, Upper Yarra SES Unit and Wesburn Junior Football Club also taking up different areas within the park.
Fellow dog owner Suzanne Brendel said she found it all mind-boggling.
“I understand that works need to be conducted in the area for upkeep and maintenance, but I don’t believe that it’s necessary to have such heavy vehicles that carry toxic waste park on the off-leash area, because it poses a security risk for people walking dogs off-leash when there’s heavy vehicles using that for parking and egress,” she said.
“Secondly, dumping toxic waste, I believe it was brought to the attention of the Council and cleaned up but there was residual waste left behind and for people with big dogs, it’s maybe not an issue, but there’s also little dogs running around there too,”
“I cannot see how they cannot understand that it’s a safety issue if vehicles have access to that off-leash grass area… you can’t have your dog walking off an area where people are driving around and parking particularly large trucks that are now dumping toxic wastes, it’s actually comical.”
A Yarra Ranges Council spokesperson said the Council apologises for any inconvenience caused.
“Council can confirm that a contractor vehicle, while completing works on Old Warburton Road, Wesburn, caused minor damage to a grassed area which is due to be fixed with additional topsoil and grass seeds shortly,” they said.
“A dog off-leash sign at Wesburn Park, which was previously damaged, is also due for replacement in coming weeks.”
