Josh Burns (Macnamara, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I'm very pleased to rise to speak about a project in my electorate that the Albanese Labor government is helping to deliver. This is a project that many young students in Melbourne will be learning more about in the years to come. It is an extremely exciting development and a project that is essential to the residents of Ellwood. The project I'm talking about is the transformation of the old Elsternwick golf course, or, as we affectionately knew it, the royal Elsternwick. It was a golf course where many of us lost many balls over the years, especially in the water down the middle.

The Elsternwick golf course has been transformed into a nature reserve. It's a project that has been led by the Bayside Council. I've been very pleased to work in collaboration with the member for Goldstein on this, as this park falls right in the middle of both of our electorates. The old Elsternwick golf course has been completely transformed into the Yalukit Willam Nature Reserve. At the top of the Yalukit Willam Nature Reserve is a chain of ponds. It's an incredibly beautiful system of small ponds where locals can walk and enjoy a tranquil and special experience. There are Indigenous meeting points. At the bottom of the Yalukit Willam Nature Reserve is where the new parts are going to be developed. The federal government, through our $10 million commitment, will be allocating funds to help build the southern wetlands, and these wetlands will be absolutely spectacular. They're going to be a place where people can go, walk around and have one of these absolutely pristine natural environments right in the heart of Melbourne.

At the edge of the wetlands, there is another project that we have been involved in, in collaboration with the City of Port Phillip, which is the $1.7 million commitment to the urban river water policy, which will collect stormwater from the wetlands, capture it, treat it and recycle it. It's a really important way of recycling the water, but it's also a really important mechanism to make sure that the water that then flows into the bay is as clean as possible. We want to make sure that we don't have polluted water flowing into the Port Phillip Bay.

The other part of the project that I wanted to mention in this adjournment debate is the educational gateway building. This is a building that's going to be at the top of the park, where the old clubhouse used to be, and it's going to be a brand-new building. The City of Bayside is working in collaboration with the federal government and the federal department of infrastructure to go through the design processes. But what this I going to be is an educational hub for students in local schools to be able to come, visit and learn about the different wildlife, the different natural Indigenous plants that have been restored and all of the different habitats and parts of the Yalukit Willam Nature Reserve. There have been many parts and many contributors to the design and natural environmental considerations that help create this incredible place in Elwood.

Students will be able to come to this gateway building and learn about the importance of Indigenous species, Indigenous wildlife and Indigenous plants to our local area. It's going to be a really special gathering point, one where, once students have learnt about what's actually happening in the park, they'll be able to then walk through, experience, look out and see all of these different interactive aspects of what's going on around us. It's going to be such an important gathering point, it's going to be a community centre and it's going to be a hub of educational experiences for young locals that I'm really proud to be part of.

The final part of it—and this is a really important aspect of the entire precinct—is that, while we are developing the Yalukit Willam Nature Reserve, we are also working in collaboration with Melbourne Water because Elwood is a flood-prone area. Melbourne Water has confirmed their plans for a big bypass of the water that would usually flow into Elwood during a high tide or high-rain event to capture it and divert it through Head Street, which is about a kilometre down the road, and there will be massive piping to divert a whole lot of water. So this project has education and flood mitigation. It has an absolutely magnificent park for people to enjoy. It's a collaboration between all layers of government. I'm very proud to see it continue.

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