Glenthorne National Park Master Plan

The trans­for­ma­tion of the Glen­thorne Precinct fol­lows a mas­ter plan that was devel­oped in con­sul­ta­tion with the com­mu­ni­ty in 2019.

The mas­ter plan iden­ti­fied the need to retain the dis­tinct nat­ur­al char­ac­ter and func­tions of each park while enhanc­ing the con­nec­tions between them, using exist­ing and new infra­struc­ture and cre­at­ing an acces­si­ble and inclu­sive net­work of open space.

It mapped out a desire to estab­lish shared-use trails for walk­ing and cycling, as well as the cre­ation of a vis­i­tor cen­tre that incor­po­rat­ed cul­tur­al and her­itage areas, and the con­struc­tion of a nature play space for children.

The mas­ter plan also includ­ed rec­om­men­da­tions about expand­ing trans­port options and facil­i­tat­ing traf­fic access for more peo­ple to vis­it and enjoy the area.

View some of the high­lights from the mas­ter plan or down­load the entire plan (PDF, 9.5MB).

Major con­struc­tion of key areas includ­ing the vis­i­tor hub and facil­i­ties, shared use trails, nature play space and Kau­r­na cul­tur­al ele­ments, will be com­plet­ed in the first half of 2023.

Bring­ing the mas­ter plan to life

A range of spe­cif­ic plans have been devel­oped to bring the mas­ter plan to life:

1. Park man­age­ment plan

A park man­age­ment plan has been devel­oped and adopt­ed for the long-term man­age­ment of all parks with­in the Glen­thorne Precinct, includ­ing Glen­thorne Nation­al Park-Itya­mai­it­pin­na Yarta. 

2. Inter­pre­ta­tion Plan

Phys­i­cal and dig­i­tal inter­pre­ta­tion (such as sig­nage and audio walk­ing tours) will be rolled out across Glen­thorne Nation­al Park-Itya­mai­it­pin­na Yarta to help vis­i­tors con­nect with the park’s rich his­tor­i­cal and cul­tur­al her­itage, along with the recre­ation oppor­tu­ni­ties on offer. Vis­i­tors can expect to see inter­pre­tive ele­ments such as a farm trail fea­tur­ing Kau­r­na and Euro­pean his­to­ry, and a fam­i­ly-ori­ent­ed nature dis­cov­ery trail.

3. Trail Plan

A new trail net­work will be con­struct­ed at Glen­thorne in the sec­tion of the park on the south side of Majors Road. This net­work will include acces­si­ble trails to key sites with­in the park.

The net­work will link to oth­er recre­ation­al areas and open spaces and the main entry points to the park from the east – includ­ing Hap­py Val­ley Reser­voir, Lan­der Road and Matthew Street to the south, and Majors Road to the north.

Key look­outs and junc­tion points have also been con­sid­ered in this process and will com­ple­ment the inter­pre­ta­tion plan for Glenthorne.

4. Eco­log­i­cal restora­tion plan

Glenthorne’s exten­sive eco­log­i­cal restora­tion pro­gram is joint­ly sup­port­ed by the Aus­tralian Government’s Envi­ron­ment Restora­tion Fund, which includes the restora­tion of grey box grassy wood­land across the south­ern side of the park.

Approx­i­mate­ly 90,000 plants will be prop­a­gat­ed to restore this threat­ened species with­in Glen­thorne Nation­al Park-Itya­mai­it­pin­na Yarta, as well as weed con­trol pro­grams and site prepa­ra­tion works across 165 hectares over the next 2 years.

You can con­tribute to the eco­log­i­cal restora­tion of Glen­thorne through becom­ing a vol­un­teer and par­tic­i­pat­ing in com­mu­ni­ty plant­i­ng events held dur­ing plant­i­ng season.