Victoria Park Lake

Victoria Park Lake is Shepparton’s primary park and an iconic fixture in the Shepparton landscape. In the summer of 2006, Council controversially decided to allow the degraded lake to dry out, highlighting the need to consider its redesign to guarantee sustainable water supply to the lake year-round and into the future, restoring its ecological health and providing valuable amenity to the Shepparton community.

Urban Initiatives was engaged by the City of Greater Shepparton to participate in an extensive stakeholder and community consultation process with a view to producing a Master Plan for the precinct and achieve the aforementioned objectives.

The Master Plan proposed the implementation of extensive areas of indigenous revegetation in keeping with the character established by the lakeside River Red Gums and considered hydraulic infrastructure to establish a vibrant wetland ecology. In addition, walking paths, shelters, fishing jetties, seating and picnic areas were integrated.

Council’s requirements for water quality were complex owing to limited catchment areas, organic loads caused by thriving bird and fish populations, and other seasonal pressures such as substantial evaporation. Urban Initiatives provided detailed water quality management guidelines that have enabled maintenance of a healthy water body for the long term.

Today, the project is universally appreciated by the Shepparton community, with the lake and surrounds having become a focus for events including triathlons, festivals and celebrations. The Lake Precinct continues to be developed, most recently with the construction of the adjacent Shepparton Arts Museum, for which Urban Initiatives has designed the landscapes.