What could happen at 'The Springs'?

Landscape Architects, sala4D worked with community members from Orange including site visits with community who are connected to the site to draft cost estimates, staging and a design report.

The study found that the site was important for its cultural significance, and also as a place of quiet and calm alongside a growing city.

The report suggests funding be sought for basic features such as paths and seats but also interpretive information signs telling the history of the site, its natural environment and its significance as Wirajuri country.

Many parts of the project are dependent upon sourcing funds, but with the help of the contents of this document, grant applications will be assisted through evidence of strong strategic planning.

The Heritage Landscape Plan delivers a staged schedule of projects that Council can use for planning work. The stages are:

• Stage 1 – Land Management Policy
• Stage 2 – Creek line and bushland restoration
• Stage 3 – Interpretation and connectivity to ‘The Springs’.

Key elements of Stage 3 include:

• · Interpretive sculptures providing understanding of ‘The Springs’ as a settlement;
• · Other interpretive elements such as silhouettes . Interpretive silhouette artworks could be placed appropriately in the landscape to allow people to appreciate how people lived at ‘The Springs’ to show their connection to county and the community.

Silhouette designs may include:

• outline ghost houses, showing the scale of the shanty houses
• children stepping over the creek;
• woman hanging laundry;
• school child with a bicycle; and,
• Wiradjuri man keeping lookout at the top of the hill near the dam.

· Totem Pole sculpture providing a strong visual link to Wiradjuri culture;

· Provision of a new boardwalk over the Soak area to provide compliant access;

· A Keeping Place for Wiradjuri culture;

· Linking pathways to town and the health precinct, providing an opportunity for interpretation of the routes residents of The Springs used to take

· Picnic areas and seats to provide basic park amenity

· thought-provoking phrases in the footpath, to use family names of residents at ‘The Springs’, ·