The Pakenham Level Crossing Removal Project has teamed up with Riding for the Disabled Association of Australia (RDA), recently donating 336 tonnes of gravel from the project’s temporary works to the volunteer group located just a few kilometres from the new East Pakenham Station.
RDA Australia has been supporting people with physical and intellectual disabilities to ride horses for 60 years, both in Australia and the UK, and operates 35 centres in Victoria. Pakenham RDA has 25 volunteers who support about a dozen participants to access horse riding each week.
When workers on the Pakenham project heard about muddy and wet conditions at Pakenham RDA causing volunteers to regularly get their boots and wheelbarrows stuck in the mud, they quickly came up with a plan to use redundant temporary materials from the project to repair the laneways across the 25-acre site.
Using mini excavators, the project team set about spreading more than 300 tonnes of gravel to resurface and smooth out the muddy lanes.
Pakenham RDA president Mary Longden said the “fantastic” initiative would save staff and volunteers a lot of backbreaking work.
“It makes such a difference. This time last year we were pushing a wheelbarrow with the hay for the horses, losing our gumboots on the way, and now we can drive,” she said.
Pakenham RDA houses nine horses and ponies. One of its more famous residents is 18-year-old former racehorse Thumbtacks, re-trained to “go slow” to support riders with additional needs.
Volunteer Ken Ellison said equine-assisted therapy for people with disabilities had many benefits.
“They say that for a person with a physical disability to ride a horse is akin to an able-bodied person walking. Their muscles they use on the horse are similar to someone who is walking,” he said.
Making the centre’s lanes more usable has made the group’s goal of buying an off-road vehicle to move hay and equipment around the site more achievable, he said.
The level crossings at Main Street, McGregor Road and Racecourse Road in Pakenham have been removed by building a 2.5km section of elevated rail, and the new stations at Pakenham and East Pakenham are now open.
The crossings were removed by building a rail bridge over the three roads, creating six MCGs’ worth of new community open space for locals to enjoy for generations to come. The open space will be ready for everyone to enjoy in Spring 2024.
