Point Nepean Community Use Activation Strategy

Point Nepean National Park is located on the tip of the Mornington Peninsula, Victoria. As well as striking natural beauty it as a rich history, having played an important role in shaping early Victorian settlement, housing the historic Quarantine Station, military forts and tunnels. The Park is well visited during the summer and holiday periods.

Village Well was engaged by Parks Victoria to provide advice regarding how to enhance the visitor experience and increase community activities. Parks Victoria were also seeking ways to increase the number of visitors to the Park outside the traditional summer and holiday periods, and attract private investment to enhance the visitors’ experience through the inclusion and trial of temporary activities and community-led initiatives.

As well as researching existing community programs and patterns of use, Village Well consulted with the local community, staff, volunteers and commercial operators to prioritise activities and ideas for inclusion into the Park that had been generated during previous consultations. A Filtering Framework was developed for Parks Victoria to use when assessing the type and suitability of activities for Point Nepean, providing advice on ways to improve concept or idea delivering more benefit to the Park and/or the community. The Filtering Framework was tested with stakeholders to assess its usability and functionality.

Following the Framework, Village Well developed a Community Use Activation Strategy that proposed a suite of activities and ideas for delivery by the community in partnership with Parks Victoria over a 3 – 5 year time frame. Village Well suggested a deliberate strategy of starting a large number of small activities and allowing them to grow rather than focusing solely on a small number of large, complex projects. As well as giving Parks Victoria a tool to check the suitability of activities proposed for the Park, it gave prospective event organisers an understanding into the type of activities the community and Parks Victoria deemed suitable.

A key outcome of the project was the strengthening of relationships between Parks Victoria and its community, as well as a way to encourage interest in the community to deliver their own initiative or activity.