The last animal enclosure in Bendigo's botanic gardens could go if heritage experts sign off on a plan before the state's planning department.
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Greater Bendigo's council wants to remove the remaining aviary nets, ending a tradition that dates back to the early days of the botanic gardens.
The White Hills park's menagerie has over the years included all kinds of animals including monkeys.
Wallabies, kangaroos, cockatoos and other birds have all been removed in recent decades, the council said in a submission to the state planning department asking permission to demolish what remains.
"The only existing remnants of these enclosures is aviary netting, an airlock entrance gate, fencing, concrete pond, colorbond shelter, and associated paths," it said.
The council said changing public attitudes had heralded the end of the menagerie, among other issues.
"There was insufficient space for the animal collection which was creating vermin problems and causing environmental degradation to the gardens," it told the planning department.
Difficulties impressing visitors even in glory days
The remaining bird nets are from a more modern structure than the display areas that people have visited since Bendigo's early days.
Monkeys had a place in the gardens up until the late 20th century and were delighting the public a century earlier - as one one visitor's article from an 1868 edition of the Bendigo Advertiser shows.
"We moved on to see the monkeys, the greatest sight in the gardens," they said in a story that at times read like little more than a grumble about the weather and other parts of the gardens.
"Three or four deer, who would not let us have a good look at them, hid themselves behind a stack in a small enclosure, and we were put in bodily fear by an emu protruding its black head out of the palings," they wrote.
A bird in another enclosure bit the writer when they put their hand too close, and an old, one legged cockatoo appeared interested in nothing but a limited conversation.
Other people were more enthusiastic in their writings on the menagerie.
It was a regular picnic spot for children on school outings, stories in 19th century editions of the Advertiser show.
Yet by 2009 community expectations around such menageries had changed. The council decided to start phasing animals out of the gardens in that year after community consultations.
Netting is not heritage: council
It now expects to spend $20,000 removing the remaining aviary netting, assuming the state government signs off on demolition plans.
Tearing it down would bolster heritage values at what is among the state's oldest botanic gardens, the council told the government.
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"The aviary netting and associated structures date to the post-war era and are intrusive upon the setting of the botanic garden," it said.
State bureaucrats are considering the council's application and are inviting people to view and lodge a submission on it until August 13, 2023, at www.heritage.vic.gov.au
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