Site Treatment and Development

There are a number of actions and recommendations to improve this site for public use and preserve the ruins:

The key actions are to:

• Improve accessibility to the sloping site for all users with ramped pathways;
• Conserve the ruins with restoration of key features including stabilising the remaining stonewalls, elements of the window openings, and lowering high walls at risk of falling;
• Provide a hard accessible surface inside the ruins to allow all visitors to explore the space;
• Continue to explore the option of providing an open accessible deck wrapping around the ruins, similar to the original veranda, to improve access, circulation and views;
• Provide amenities, including seating, picnic tables, interpretation panels, etc;
• Remove invasive and dangerous trees and shrubs from the wooded area, plant with new native trees and allow for natural regeneration;
• Consider highwater and flooding in the site design;
• Allow for shoreline activities but deter general access to the water due to swift current concerns;
• Contribute to winter trail use by being a destination along the corridor that can be a place to pause and enjoy the views;
• Limit access by unauthorized vehicles to the lower shoreline area;
• Develop an interpretation strategy that addresses the site’s many attributes including the pumphouse, the river shoreline, and the communities in the area.

Key suggestions by the community and technical focus groups include:

• Preserve the ruins, but limit the reconstruction of missing elements;
• Provide more shade with trees and more soft surfaces with grasses;
• Allow the landscape areas not for active use to grow wild and natural;
• Consider personal security and manage site access and circulation;
• If providing decking, ensure that it is simple and does not detract from the ruins;
• Provide ways to interpret the site including display panels but ensure that these features do not dominate the character of the site;
• There is a great diversity of stories that can be interpreted and can inform the detail site design that will follow – continue to engage stakeholders.