FOREST Hill residents have flagged their desire to transform an empty park ground into a war memorial garden for the growing suburb.
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President of the Forest Hill Progress Association Kevin Kerr said the air force suburb has vacant land available, that would be ideal for a small-scale garden like the Victory Memorial Gardens, which "as it stands cannot grow anymore".
The land, which Mr Kerr refers to is currently home to a rundown tennis court and an oval on Brunskill Avenue, which was previously earmarked for a shopping centre that never came to fruition, he said.
"It is an ideal location for a park where more trees can be planted, a walking track put in and perhaps a scaled-back version of the botanical gardens," Mr Kerr said.
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"It is close to a big air force base and an aerodrome so planes could be the flavour of the week.
"We might want to put a war memorial out there too."
Mr Kerr said that it was important to start this conversation now before developers move in and use up the vacant land.
"We have to start thinking ahead," he said.
The growth of Forest Hill's population is not slowing down, he said, with a residential subdivision expected to cost $13.7 million put forward to Wagga City Council back in July.
The plans promised that 200 new houses could be heading to Forest Hill after a stalled development at Brunslea Park started to pick up pace again.
"As we anticipate a bigger population, I believe we need a park and the facilities to go with that," he said.
"We have the RAAF base out here and the plywood factory and airport are growing all the time. It is quite busy so people are always coming out here all the time.
"Forest Hill is about 11 kilometres out of town and it would be nice to have some facilities that are built in anticipation of us growing before all the land is taken up and stops us from building these amenities."
Wagga RSL Sub-branch president David Gardiner said they would "absolutely" support the idea of a second memorial garden if the project were to get off the ground.
Mr Gardiner said the possibility of having another war memorial garden erected in the city was a project worth exploring.
Besides the Victory Memorial Gardens, he said there were only a few memorials in the smaller villages on Wagga's outskirts like Mangoplah, as well as Kapooka and the RAAF Base at Forest Hill.
"Anything like that we should encourage and if there is a possibility of getting something at Forest Hill would be great," he said.