Four projects in Victoria have been named the recipients of Quarry Transformation Grants, which aim to help stimulate smart thinking about repurposing former quarry sites.
One of the grants is going to a small quarry in the Otway Ranges in southern Victoria. The former Beech Forest quarry has been unused since 2014, but the grant will help it become a summer camp and creative space for the community. Work is underway to host an international summer camp at the site in February 2023.
Another of the grants is going to Burdett Sands near Frankston in southeast Melbourne and it will help with the development of a concept design for a new biodiversity corridor to potentially be created from a water drainage easement.
Two Boral sites will also receive grants, at Montrose to help develop a landscape masterplan, and at Wollert to look at the feasibility of creating more parkland.
Work is already underway and these exciting projects are due to be finalised by June 2023.
Many of Victoria’s best-known parks, gardens, shopping centres and residential developments were once quarries, having provided the raw materials to build the suburbs around them.
Quarry Transformation Grants are funded through the Extractive Resources Strategy, which aims to boost innovation across the sector to help ensure the community benefits of quarries live on.