Heatherton residents have been fighting for 30 years to protect what is currently known as the Delta site, at 91-185 Kingston Rd Heatherton, for eventual use as parkland.
When the neighbouring land and houses in Nicholas Grove were first sold in 1965, the land on the Delta site market gardens was a big field of daffodils. Through the middle was Willis St, and locals recall picking blackberries there.
In 1995 the usage of the land changed when Pioneer Sands took over the land and started sand mining. As a compromise with residents, the Kingston Linear Walk was formed as a parkland buffer between the rear boundaries of the residential homes in Nicholas Grove, and the mining site. The Kingston Linear Walk currently includes a popular walking track between Kingston Rd and the Henry Street Trail, and a fenced off park between the residential home boundaries and the walking track. (The Delta Group own the Kingston Linear Walk land, but allow public access to the walking track.)
In the early 2000s the Delta Group opened a construction and demolition materials recycling centre on the site, and applied to use the land for concrete crushing and dumping acid sulphate soils. Residents and council objected to the various applications, and the site was only used for cleanfill, with a promise that the land would afterwards be transformed into parkland.
Kingston Council zoned the land as Green Wedge, and a Parks Victoria Acquisition Overlay was put over it. The land has been a central part of the Sandbelt Chain of Parks project, and the Kingston Council have more recently provided residents with plans to develop the land into a sporting fields facility.
Last Updated: 13th January 2021