By Adam Carey
The Turkish community of Melbourne’s north has a name for the green, undulating parkland on the southern banks of Greenvale Reservoir: Ford’un Arkasι.
It translates as “behind Ford”, a nod to the car factory in nearby Campbellfield.
Greenvale resident Michelle Issa is fighting to see the reservoir park reopened after several years of closure.Credit: Chris Hopkins
Like the old Ford factory, the large southern section of the park has been shut for a decade – though it has nothing to do with economic forces. It was closed in 2014 for works to strengthen the reservoir’s dam wall – and has never reopened despite occasional promises to do so.
Michelle Issa moved into a new housing estate across the road from the reservoir a few years ago, part of a wave of more than 10,000 residents who have shifted to Greenvale in the years since the park’s indefinite closure.
“It just breaks my heart that this is a place that is closed and yet there are all these new developments, all these people who would love it, so many kids around, and it should just be open,” Issa said.
The park was a second backyard for Su Altanbas, who grew up nearby and still lives in Greenvale, now with her husband and three children.
“I grew up in the park really. As a kid, I used to wonder, ‘Where’s the Ford factory?’” Altanbas said.
“Any time they saw that the sun was out, that was where our families would take us so we would burn our energy. We had picnics there, breakfast, barbecues.”
Issa and Altanbas are among a band of residents struggling to get answers about why the park remains closed six years after the dam wall upgrade was completed and whether public access will ever be returned.
Parks Victoria, which manages the land around the reservoir, said it was exploring ways to reopen the park but that there were competing priorities, including the protection of a vital water source for Melbourne. High-speed traffic along Somerton Road is also a risk to people turning in and out of the park.
Greenvale residents (left to right) Jonathan and Stephan Woodhams, Michelle Issa and Tamara Nolan in the smaller northern section of the park, which remains open.Credit: Chris Hopkins
“Parks Victoria has a duty of care to visitors and we are continuing to work with Melbourne Water, Hume City Council and other key stakeholders to explore options to safely reopen this area to residents, while ensuring Melbourne’s drinking water supply remains protected,” area chief ranger Kate Churven said.
Greenvale Reservoir provides 12 per cent of Melbourne’s drinking water.
“Works on the Greenvale dam were completed to ensure that 350,000 people in the north-western and western suburbs would continue to receive safe and reliable drinking water,” Melbourne Water said.
That number is about to grow further.
The park entrance at Somerton Road has been closed for several years.Credit: Photograph by Chris Hopkins
A new housing estate is being planned for just north of the reservoir, with 380 lots. The Hume City Council will consider the estate at a meeting this week and says it will bolster the case for reopening the park.
“The fact the [estate] is delivering a limited amount of community infrastructure, including limited open space, further exacerbates the need for community access to this Melbourne Water land as a destination and recreation space for families and residents,” the council said.
The smaller northern section of the park has remained open, but – despite a 2022 upgrade – has fewer facilities than the southern end.
Evan Mulholland, Liberal MP for the Northern Metropolitan Region, has raised the status of the southern end of the park in state parliament numerous times.
He accused Labor of sitting on its hands for six years following the dam-wall upgrade. His petition to the state government, signed by more than 500 people, laments that “what was once an iconic piece of nature has become a hidden and deserted parkland”.
“Communities like Greenvale are being flooded with thousands of new homes, leaving a real need for commensurate and valued open space for families. It is well overdue for Labor to do the right thing by Greenvale locals and reopen the park,” Mulholland said.
City of Hume councillor Joseph Haweil, a Greenvale resident, said the community was owed an answer about whether the park would ever reopen.
He said residents retained a deep affection for it because there were few other large open spaces nearby for gatherings.
“The sad thing is that, for many residents out here, they often have to travel to places like Coburg Lake Reserve ... [or] to Edwardes Lake Park in Darebin,” Haweil said.
Greenvale Residents Association president Tamara Nolan said the need for more open space close to home was underlined during pandemic lockdowns, when people had to remain within five kilometres of their home.
“There’s definitely been a huge increase in residents, and so there’s a lot more demand for open spaces. I can tell you, during COVID, Woodlands Park got a real beating.”
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