Ballarat community groups will be able to commemorate special occasions out of the shadow of British colonialism as plans for a new intercultural gathering place near completion.
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The City of Ballarat is expected to release final designs for a garden at the north-western corner of Sturt and Pleasant streets early in the new financial year, with features including a performance platform, barbecue and shelter, and a community flagpole available for use in flag-raising ceremonies on culturally significant days.
The new flag-raising site would provide an alternative to the existing community flagpole on Sturt Street, which stands within metres of a large statue honouring former ruler of the British Empire, Queen Victoria.
The garden's design follows community consultation earlier in the year.
Community wellbeing director Matthew Wilson said the feedback was helping to shape "a community place for all cultures to gather, beautify the existing area and develop a diverse environment featuring plants from around the globe".
The council stressed the new flagpole would not replace but would co-exist with the current flagpole in Queen Victoria Square.
Nigerian Australian and Ballarat African Association president Dr Michael Akindeju said creating the garden was a positive step to recognising the city's diversity would provide a "more appropriate" location for flag raisings.
Dr Akindeju said the Queen Victoria statue was a reminder of colonisation and the slave trade "that was certainly encouraged by the monarchy" and that it was "high time we did away with such relics".
"I would prefer that we don't have the Queen Victoria statue overlooking everything, and I can only imagine how our Indigenous colleagues would feel about that," he said.
"It's something that we all just endure, hoping that it stops."
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Dr Akindeju said Ballarat was moving in the right direction to become a more harmonious intercultural city, but efforts should not stop with the garden.
"I would encourage [decision-makers] to really look into avenues or opportunities to represent and reflect all the cultural groupings that we have living within our boundaries," he said.
"For example, street names and other permanent visuals that show the story of Ballarat as opposed to being monoethnic in nature."
Ballarat in 2016 claimed the title of "Australia's first intercultural city" after self-assessment and accreditation by the Council of Europe.
Wadawurrung Traditional Owners Aboriginal Corporation and Ballarat Indian Association were contacted for comment.
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