Muston Park is an

urban park An urban park or metropolitan park, also known as a municipal park (North America) or a public park, public open space, or municipal gardens ( UK), is a park in cities and other incorporated places that offer recreation and green space to resi ...

of 2.0186 hectares, situated in the suburb of Chatswood, seven kilometres north of

Sydney Sydney ( ) is the capital city of the state of New South Wales, and the most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Sydney Harbour and extends about towards the Blue Mountain ...

, Australia.

History

The local

indigenous Australian people Indigenous Australians or Australian First Nations are people with familial heritage from, and membership in, the ethnic groups that lived in Australia before British colonisation. They consist of two distinct groups: the Aboriginal peoples ...

, the

Cammeraygal The Cammeraygal, variously spelled as Cam-mer-ray-gal, Gamaraigal, Kameraigal, Cameragal and several other variations, are one clan of the 29 Darug tribes who are united by a common language, strong ties of kinship and survived as skilled hunte ...

occupied this area for at least 5,800 years. The park is named after William Thomas Muston, the original European owner of the land and Mayor of Willoughby in 1890. His house ‘Penshurst’ stood in the middle of the area and was sold in 1921. By 1938 cows were still grazing in the park.

Circus A circus is a company of performers who put on diverse entertainment shows that may include clowns, acrobats, trained animals, trapeze acts, musicians, dancers, hoopers, tightrope walkers, jugglers, magicians, ventriloquists, and unicyclist ...

es performed here, such as Sole Brother's Circus in 1939 and

Wirth's Circus Wirth's Circus, also known as Wirth Brothers' Circus, was Australia's largest and most prestigious circus company for eight decades. Billed as Australia's own 'Greatest show on Earth' (a reference to the slogan of the American P. T. Barnum Ci ...

in 1942. In the

second world war World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

, parts of the park were used by the

military A military, also known collectively as armed forces, is a heavily armed, highly organized force primarily intended for warfare. It is typically authorized and maintained by a sovereign state, with its members identifiable by their distinct ...

. In 1952, plantations of gum trees were created, named King George VI Memorial Grove in the north made of

Spotted Gum Spotted gum usually refers to the Australian tree species ''Corymbia maculata'' but may also refer to other closely related species within the genus '' Corymbia'' as follows: *''Corymbia citriodora'' (usually referred to as the lemon-scented gum) *' ...

s, and Queen Elizabeth II Grove in the south near the children's playground composed of the similar looking Lemon scented gums. At the same time, the Wisteria walkway was created.

Geography

Average annual rainfall is at Chatswood Bowling Club. Soils are moderately fertile, based on a transitional zone between the

Hawkesbury sandstone Sydney sandstone is the common name for Sydney Basin Hawkesbury Sandstone, one variety of which is historically known as Yellowblock, and also as "yellow gold" a sedimentary rock named after the Hawkesbury River north of Sydney, where this ...

and

Ashfield Shale Ashfield Shale is part of the Wianamatta group of sedimentary rocks in the Sydney Basin. It lies directly on contemporaneously eroded Hawkesbury sandstone or the Mittagong formation. These rock types were formed in the Triassic Period. It is nam ...

. Originally the area would have supported

Blue Gum High Forest The Blue Gum High Forest of the Sydney Basin Bioregion is a wet sclerophyll forest found in the northern parts of Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. It has been classified as critically endangered, under the New South Wales government's ''Threate ...

, but no original trees remain. The oldest trees in the park probably date from the 1880s, when Muston Park was part of a pleasure ground known as Royal Park. They include a

Camphor Laurel ''Camphora officinarum'' is a species of evergreen tree that is commonly known under the names camphor tree, camphorwood or camphor laurel. Description ''Camphora officinarum'' is native to China south of the Yangtze River, Taiwan, southern ...

Bunya Pine ''Araucaria bidwillii'', commonly known as the bunya pine and sometimes referred to as the false monkey puzzle tree, is a large evergreen coniferous tree in the plant family Araucariaceae. It is found naturally in south-east Queensland Austral ...

Hoop Pine ''Araucaria cunninghamii'' is a species of '' Araucaria'' known as hoop pine. Other less commonly used names include colonial pine, Queensland pine, Dorrigo pine, Moreton Bay pine and Richmond River pine. The scientific name honours the botanist ...

White Booyong ''Argyrodendron trifoliolatum'' is an Australian rainforest tree. It is native to eastern Queensland and northeastern NSW, Australia, where it is known as white booyong. Booyong, New South Wales is named after the tree. It can grow up to 45 met ...

Moreton Bay Fig ''Ficus macrophylla'', commonly known as the Moreton Bay fig or Australian banyan, is a large evergreen banyan tree of the family Moraceae native to eastern Australia, from the Wide Bay–Burnett region in the north to the Illawarra in New So ...

and an

Oak An oak is a tree or shrub in the genus ''Quercus'' (; Latin "oak tree") of the beech family, Fagaceae. There are approximately 500 extant species of oaks. The common name "oak" also appears in the names of species in related genera, notably ''L ...

Wildlife

Pacific Black Duck The Pacific black duck (''Anas superciliosa''), commonly known as the PBD, is a dabbling duck found in much of Indonesia, New Guinea, Australia, New Zealand, and many islands in the southwestern Pacific, reaching to the Caroline Islands in the no ...

s, Sulfur-crested cockatoos, Water dragons and

brush turkey Brushturkey, brush-turkey or brush turkey generally refer to birds in three genera in the megapode family, and sometimes to other species such as the Australian bustard: Megapodes ;''Alectura'' * Australian brushturkey, ''Alectura lathami'' ;''Aep ...

s are some of the creatures seen in the park.Information Sign at the park

References

{{Parks in Sydney, state=autocollapse Parks in Sydney Chatswood, New South Wales

History

Geography

Wildlife

See also

References