Wet weather and our open spaces
The recent wet weather has had a significant impact on how we care for our parks and open spaces.
Across the City of Moonee Valley, we maintain 435 hectares of open space and 220 parks and reserves.
Not only have we had floods that have affected the landscape, but the grounds are damp, and grass and weeds are growing faster. And the soil is not drying out like it usually does at this time of year.
The normal three-weekly mowing schedules have come under intense pressure as many staff have been diverted onto flood response, clean-up and recovery. The weather conditions have impacted all the usual ground maintenance work we do to keep grass and weeds under control in open space areas.
These conditions are likely to continue throughout the Summer. The saturated ground conditions have the potential for machinery to get bogged, causing damage to both the ground and machinery, reducing the effectiveness of the service. Council has 20 staff members dedicated to mowing tasks with 16 ride-on mowers for our smaller reserves and four tractors for broadacre mowing.
Our team prioritises areas of high community use and will continue to monitor feedback on the needs and expectations of our community.
Read more about flood updates.