Stuart Dunn, Castlemaine
The community owes Michael Wright a huge thanks for his recent letter to the editor (Castlemaine Mail, July 10) in which he exposed the true motivation behind the group known as ‘Gold Camp’.
In his letter Wright laments the Camp Reserve “…used to be the place to go for everybody, on a promenade from the civic centre, across the rail and the creek. But now, for much of the community it is fenced off, barren, a place to avoid because there is nothing to do.”
The letter also suggests the sporting clubs using the facility should perhaps ‘move elsewhere’.
And with those extraordinary sentiments, we can at last begin to understand the senseless opposition ‘Gold Camp’ has mounted against a master plan unanimously endorsed by all of the Camp Reserve users.
The Castlemaine Show? Fenced off. Farmers Market? Barren. The Main Game? A place to avoid because there is nothing to do. And if you play sport, just get lost altogether.
The simple truth is to ‘Gold Camp’ the hundreds of thousands of people who attend the multitude of community and sporting events at the Camp Reserve each year don’t count. For them it isn’t a community, unless it is THEIR community.
Gold Camp doesn’t want events or any sort of organised use of the Camp Reserve. They want community events and sports moved elsewhere, out of sight and out of mind so they can enjoy the views from their porches and stroll around the grounds at will without all this irritating community use happening around them.
This thinking explains why Gold Camp engaged a company to produce a mediocre alternate master plan, without ever consulting the multiple user groups who are currently at the reserve, and why they held a ‘public’ meeting to discuss the Camp Reserve, without any discussion with those groups.
Why on earth would you need to consult with a user group, when your ultimate aim is to move them all out so you can enjoy your daily walk without some annoying community event breaching the peace?
If you attend the Camp Reserve for anything that happens there currently, whether it is sport, markets, charity events, agricultural shows, swap meets or anything else, Gold Camp is not with you. They don’t consider you community and want you elsewhere.
They don’t appreciate the simple joy the hard-working user groups have delivered this community through the myriad of events they provide at the reserve, the colourful, joyous spectacles that happen there most weeks and bring people together in all sorts of ways and have for many years.
Gold Camp consider those events fenced off, barren, and a place to avoid. In the words of Paul Keating they are truly more to be pitied than despised.
Editor’s Note: Gold Camp Castlemaine has reiterated on numerous occasions that they are not against the redevelopment of Camp Reserve, but are keen to preserve the heritage of the precinct. They also invited user groups to attend the public sessions and be part of the discussion around potential alternatives.