Victoria

Title: Water

My name is Mason Budds and I conducted an interview with my mother Jenny Budds who is 45 years old and has lived in Ballarat all of her life. The subject that was chosen for the interview was water and in particular the changes to the surrounding water catchments and lakes that surround Ballarat.

When my mum was a child there was no shortage of water in the Ballarat district. All of the lakes and reservoirs were nearly always full. My mum lived on a farm in the Wallace district and opposite the farm was Beales Reservoir. When she was young they used to go fishing in the reservoir and other surrounding reservoirs. There were caretakers living there and the surrounding grounds where always kept neat and tidy for everyone to enjoy. Nowadays nearly all of the caretakers are gone and most of the reservoirs are no longer open to the public. Most of these areas are no longer holding any significant water.

My mum and her family also used to water ski and often went to Lake Burrumbeet or Learmonth which were always full and gave great enjoyment in the hot summer months.

Since the prolonged drought that has affected Australia in recent years, all of these lakes have dried up and are no longer used for any recreational activity. Water skiing in the Ballarat area no longer exists.

Lake Wendouree, which was a beautiful area in the centre of Ballarat has also been a victim of the drought and is also dry. Lake Wendouree was a place where my mum, her friends and family would go for picnics and sometimes swimming (not very often because of the leeches). The gardens and lawn areas around the lake were always green and full of colour.

My mum said it is very sad that kids today do not get to enjoy the water activities that she enjoyed as a child.

Unfortunately the climate change that is occurring world wide has affected our water holding facilities, but we all live in hope that sufficient rains will come to help ease this situation and relieve some of the pressure on water restrictions. Also it is hoped that water recycling may improve and some of this water may be used to refill our lakes. Hopefully some day in the future everyone will get to experience the wonderful fun that is associated with water activities.