Road to future

By MICK ROBERTS

PLANS for the long-term future of Illawarra Grevillea Park will be put to Wollongong City Council this year.

Manager of the Illawarra Grevillea Park, Ray Brown has stockpiled over two thousand tones of recycled road bitumen which will eventually seal kilometres of roadways through the 17 hectare native gardens at Bulli.

The road bitumen was removed from the Princes Highway between Farrell Road and Bulli Public School by the Roads and Traffic Authority (RTA) during re-pavement work and donated to the park for recycling.

Mr Brown said plans are well advanced for new access roads, car parks, a new visitor centre and the relocation of the historic chapel to make way for the extension of the Northern Distributor through to Bulli Pass.

Mr Brown said the park society will lodge plans with Council for the long-term future of the 20-year-old park.

The Northern Leader revealed last year how RTA plans for the extension of the Northern Distributor and a new mountain road to replace Bulli Pass would impact severely on the voluntary operated native gardens. The new road would mean the resumption of several hectares of the park, and prevent access from the current entrance.

"This is not a knee jerk reaction. We have been thinking about this for sometime," Mr Brown said.

The plans include a new entrance via Cope Place and the recently acquired RTA bitumen would seal the new access road.

"This is a pretty bold 30 year plan for the park," he said.

"It adds another couple of million dollars to the estimated five and a half million dollars volunteers have put in kind into infrastructure at the park."

"This is not just a bit of unmanaged bush. This is the northern suburbs' own native botanical gardens, that one day we hope will be managed by Wollongong City Council."

The gardens recently featured on ABC TV's Gardening Australia program and Mr Brown hoped the national coverage would further promote the park, attracting more tourists to the already popular attraction.

The park will be open to the public on the weekends of April 29 and 30 and May 6 and 7 from 10am to 4pm. Admission is $4 adults and children are free.

The park, located behind Bulli Showground, features paved rainforest walks, the historic Sherbrooke Chapel, and barbecue and picnic facilities all within a 10 minute walk from Bulli Railway Station.

For further information visit www.grevilleapark.org