What did you do on Friday 13th, perhaps nothing if you are superstitious! Yet six members of the Friends of the Bendigo-Kilmore Rail Trail, plus one member from the Junortoun Community Action Group, were out on the O’Keefe Rail Trail on 13 Nov, installing place name signs.
With four public bushland reserves directly connected to the O’Keefe Rail Trail in the Junortoun and Axedale areas, most trail users would not know that such reserves existed. Those areas might have looked like a ‘bush block’, yet were they private property or public reserves?
The Friends group approached the City of Greater Bendigo, highlighting the situation and seeking to have the council’s standard place name signs placed facing the rail trail at those public nature reserves. After consideration and investigation, the request was agreed to and the signs provided for installation. The signs were placed at the trail’s ‘Strathfieldsaye Station’ area, for the Junortoun Nature Reserve, at the Knul-doorong Woodland reserve (near Binks Rd and Somerset Park Rd), the Bennetts Rd Flora Reserve, and the trail’s ‘Axedale Station’ area of the Axedale Nature Conservation Reserve. With trail users now being well informed, its expected that these nature reserves are more likely to be explored and enjoyed.
