The proposed naming of the Aitken Hill Recreation Reserve in Craigieburn and Kalkallo Recreation Reserve will be open to the community for consultation as voted on in a council meeting on Monday night.
Council’s sport and recreation team have proposed names for the two officially unnamed reserves that are co-located in proximity to the Aitken Hill Community Centre and the Kalkallo Community Centre respectively.
Councillor Joseph Haweil said he’d like to see some diversity in the naming of the reserves to reflect the many cultures within the municipality.
“We’re always very interested to hear what residents may suggest although it’s most often the case that these facilities go on to be named in association with their locality, Kalkallo, Mickleham, Craigieburn, Greenvale, etc,” Cr Haweil said.
“I would like to in some ways, in my heart of hearts, see at some point in the future, more of these facilities reflect the names of people from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds that reflect the face of the city should it be appropriate.”
The council chamber learned about the meaning of one of their suburb names by Councillor Naim Kurt, who too would like more diversity when it comes to naming of facilities.
“Might be a point of interest to the councillors, but Kalkallo actually means, in the Aboriginal language, bug trees or tomahawk as listed on Victorian places” Cr Kurt said.
“Any interesting diversity of name at least in that choice…maybe it could be reflected in brackets within the name as well, but we’ll see what the community thinks of that.”
However, Councillor Chris Hollow said the names were simple and to the point.
“It seems pretty straightforward to me, Aitken Hill Recreation Reserve and Kalkallo Recreation Reserve, seems like a slam dunk.”
