Wattle Park (Melbourne)
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Wattle Park is a public park in Melbourne, Australia, located in the suburb of Burwood. It is known for its plantation of 12,000
wattle Wattle or wattles may refer to: Plants *''Acacia sensu lato'', polyphyletic genus of plants commonly known as wattle, especially in Australia and South Africa **''Acacia'', large genus of shrubs and trees, native to Australasia **Black wattle, c ...
trees. It is currently maintained by
Parks Victoria Parks Victoria is a government agency of the state of Victoria, Australia. Parks Victoria was established in December 1996 as a statutory authority, reporting to the Victorian Minister for Environment and Climate Change. The ''Parks Victoria Ac ...
. The park provides public open space for recreation, as well as sporting facilities (accessed on a fee paying basis) and a wedding and function venue.


Location and facilities

Wattle Park is located in the Melbourne suburb of Burwood within the
City of Whitehorse The City of Whitehorse is a local government area in Victoria, Australia in the eastern suburbs of Melbourne. It has an area of and in June 2018, Whitehorse had a population of 176,196. Whitehorse was formed in December 1994 by the amalgamat ...
, approximately 13 km east of Melbourne's CBD. There are two children's playgrounds, BBQs, tables and seats. Two heritage 'W' Class trams offer shelter. The Wattle Park Chalet is located within the park. The Chalet has been used as a wedding venue and function centre since it opened in 1928. Oral sources suggest that this is the oldest continuously running wedding venue in Melbourne. Public toilets are located near Wattle Park Chalet on Monsborough Drive, the access road off Riversdale Road. There is a large grassed sports oval and a nine-hole public golf course with cafe, and public tennis courts are available by booking Wattle Park Golf Course. There are a number of walking tracks through the bush and a perimeter track. Dogs are permitted in the park on a lead.


Wattle Park Chalet

The Wattle Park Chalet was built in 1928 as a
tea-house A teahouse (mainly Asia) or tearoom (also tea room) is an establishment which primarily serves tea and other light refreshments. A tea room may be a room set aside in a hotel especially for serving afternoon tea, or may be an establishment whic ...
and function venue. It is an elegant structure in the rustic
Tudor style Tudor Revival architecture (also known as mock Tudor in the UK) first manifested itself in domestic architecture in the United Kingdom in the latter half of the 19th century. Based on revival of aspects that were perceived as Tudor architecture ...
of English architect
Sir Edwin Lutyens Sir Edwin Landseer Lutyens ( ; 29 March 1869 – 1 January 1944) was an English architect known for imaginatively adapting traditional architectural styles to the requirements of his era. He designed many English country houses, war memoria ...
. The Wattle Park Chalet was designed by
Melbourne Melbourne ( ; Boonwurrung/Woiwurrung: ''Narrm'' or ''Naarm'') is the capital and most populous city of the Australian state of Victoria, and the second-most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Its name generally refers to a met ...
architect Alan Monsborough and is located at the centre of Wattle Park. In one of the earliest stories of recycling; the timber beams used for building the chalet were recycled from other, earlier structures. The roof slates came from the former
Yarra Bend Asylum Yarra Bend Asylum was the first permanent institution established in Victoria that was devoted to the treatment of the mentally ill. It opened in 1848 as a ward of the Asylum at Tarban Creek in New South Wales. It was not officially called Yarr ...
. Bricks came from cable tram engine-house chimneys. The front porch was added later, in 1937. The construction of the chalet involved several sub-contractors. The Builders' Labourers' Federation stopped construction work on 7 March 1928, demanding higher pay. They returned to work approximately four weeks later at the same pay rate. Two smaller single-storey wings branch off the chalet's main hall. The west wing originally contained the caretaker's residence, and the east wing contained the kitchen and kiosk. Between the wings was a paved courtyard. The paving was recycled from the former tramway engine house on Alexandra Avenue and old cable tram sheds.


Heritage and the Lone Pine

Approximately one-third of the park is recorded as a heritage place by
Heritage Victoria Heritage Victoria is a Victorian State Government agency responsible for administering the ''Heritage Act 1995'' and supporting the work of the Heritage Council of Victoria. Heritage Victoria was formed from the earlier Historic Buildings Prese ...
, and the
National Trust of Australia The National Trust of Australia, officially the Australian Council of National Trusts (ACNT), is the Australian national peak body for community-based, non-government non-profit organisations committed to promoting and conserving Australia's Ind ...
has also classified the park. The " Lone Pine" tree growing near the main carpark is listed on the National Trust's Significant Tree Register, being one of the country's few original Lone Pines. The tree was grown from the seed of a cone collected by one of the Australian soldiers involved in the Gallipoli Campaign from the lone pine tree in
Gallipoli The Gallipoli peninsula (; tr, Gelibolu Yarımadası; grc, Χερσόνησος της Καλλίπολης, ) is located in the southern part of East Thrace, the European part of Turkey, with the Aegean Sea to the west and the Dardanelles ...
,
Turkey Turkey ( tr, Türkiye ), officially the Republic of Türkiye ( tr, Türkiye Cumhuriyeti, links=no ), is a list of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country located mainly on the Anatolia, Anatolian Peninsula in Western Asia, with ...
as a reminder of this notable battle and the ANZACs' involvement in
World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...
. Planted in Wattle Park on 8 May 1933 at the
Trooping of the Colour Trooping the Colour is a ceremony performed every year in London, United Kingdom, by regiments of the British Army. Similar events are held in other countries of the Commonwealth. Trooping the Colour has been a tradition of British infantry regi ...
by the 24th Battalion, the tree was the first Lone Pine to ever be publicly planted as an ANZAC memorial, pre-dating the one planted at Melbourne's
Shrine of Remembrance The Shrine of Remembrance (commonly referred to as The Shrine) is a war memorial in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, located in Kings Domain on St Kilda Road. It was built to honour the men and women of Victoria who served in World War I, but ...
by a month, and the one at the
Australian War Memorial The Australian War Memorial is Australia's national memorial to the members of its armed forces and supporting organisations who have died or participated in wars involving the Commonwealth of Australia and some conflicts involving pe ...
in Canberra by seventeen months.


Flora and fauna

The park contains areas of indigenous remnant bush land which has been identified as regionally significant. The Urban Fauna Survey Unit (Department of Conservation Forests and Lands, 1989) nominated the site as one of regional significance on the basis of its high diversity of common native fauna in a suburban environment. There are recorded to be at least twenty species of
butterfly Butterflies are insects in the macrolepidopteran clade Rhopalocera from the Order (biology), order Lepidoptera, which also includes moths. Adult butterflies have large, often brightly coloured wings, and conspicuous, fluttering flight. The ...
, sixty species of
beetle Beetles are insects that form the order Coleoptera (), in the superorder Endopterygota. Their front pair of wings are hardened into wing-cases, elytra, distinguishing them from most other insects. The Coleoptera, with about 400,000 describ ...
, three species of frogs,
bat Bats are mammals of the order Chiroptera.''cheir'', "hand" and πτερόν''pteron'', "wing". With their forelimbs adapted as wings, they are the only mammals capable of true and sustained flight. Bats are more agile in flight than most bi ...
s,
skinks Skinks are lizards belonging to the family Scincidae, a family in the infraorder Scincomorpha. With more than 1,500 described species across 100 different taxonomic genera, the family Scincidae is one of the most diverse families of lizards. Ski ...
, ringtail and brushtail
possums Possum may refer to: Animals * Phalangeriformes, or possums, any of a number of arboreal marsupial species native to Australia, New Guinea, and Sulawesi ** Common brushtail possum (''Trichosurus vulpecula''), a common possum in Australian urban a ...
. The park's bird life includes
kookaburra Kookaburras are terrestrial tree kingfishers of the genus ''Dacelo'' native to Australia and New Guinea, which grow to between in length and weigh around . The name is a loanword from Wiradjuri ''guuguubarra'', onomatopoeic of its call. The ...
s,
rosella Rosellas are in a genus that consists of six species and nineteen subspecies. These colourful parrots from Australia are in the genus ''Platycercus''. ''Platycercus'' means "broad-tailed" or "flat-tailed", reflecting a feature common to the ...
s,
rainbow lorikeet The rainbow lorikeet (''Trichoglossus moluccanus'') is a species of parrot found in Australia. It is common along the eastern seaboard, from northern Queensland to South Australia. Its habitat is rainforest, coastal bush and woodland areas. Six ...
s,
galah The galah (; ''Eolophus roseicapilla''), also known as the pink and grey cockatoo or rose-breasted cockatoo, is the only species within genus ''Eolophus'' of the cockatoo family. Found throughout Australia, it is among the most common of the co ...
s, and
gang-gang cockatoo The gang-gang cockatoo (''Callocephalon fimbriatum'') is a parrot found in the cooler and wetter forests and woodlands of Australia, particularly alpine bushland. It is the only species placed in the genus ''Callocephalon''. Mostly mild grey in ...
s."Parks Victoria: Wattle Park"
Parks Victoria. Accessed 21 July 2009


History

The park was first created when the
Hawthorn Tramway Trust The Melbourne & Metropolitan Tramways Board (MMTB) was a government-owned authority that was responsible for the tram network in Melbourne, Australia between 1919 and 1983, when it was merged into the Metropolitan Transit Authority. It had bee ...
(HTT) purchased 137 acres (554,000 m2) of land from Eliza Welch, under the condition it was to be used as a public park. the park was formerly the residence of the late Cr. Orlando Fenwick, who became Lord Mayor of Melbourne. It was known as Fenwick's Paddock when purchased for about £2500 by the late Mrs. Welch (proprietress of Ball and Welch Pty. Ltd.). The park opened on 31 March 1917 when Sir
Arthur Stanley Arthur Stanley may refer to: *Arthur Stanley (politician) (1869–1947), British Conservative politician *Arthur Stanley, 5th Baron Stanley of Alderley (1875–1931), English nobleman and Governor of Victoria * Arthur Jehu Stanley Jr. (1901–2001), ...
planted a Golden Wattle and named the park. Due to the HTT's financial troubles, further development of the park was put off for some time. After the HTT had been amalgamated into the
Melbourne & Metropolitan Tramways Board The Melbourne & Metropolitan Tramways Board (MMTB) was a government-owned authority that was responsible for the tram network in Melbourne, Australia between 1919 and 1983, when it was merged into the Metropolitan Transit Authority. It had bee ...
, it was put off due to work on electrifying Melbourne's cable tramways. Planning and development of the park started in the 1920s and 30s, with a plantation of 12,000 wattle trees planted in between 1926 and 1928 laid out in a wide belt as a hedge around the outskirts of the area. Lawns and flower beds were laid down, winding pathways built, and a small stream trickling through the centre of the park was cleaned and widened and. Fringed with willows and poplars. On the north eastern slopes, a splendid natural forest, consisting chiefly of poplars, gums, woolly butt and eucalyptus longifolia, was carefully preserved. The Wattle Park Chalet containing a cafe, dancing floor and other- amenities. considerable ingenuity was shown in the building of this chalet. Bricks from old tramway chimneys were extensively used, while the roof contained slates from the demolished Yarra Bend Asylum. Rafters and other timbers came from disused car barns, stones from old rookeries along Alexander-avenue, while the pavements of the promenade in front of the chalet and elsewhere were made from. broken slates from old- tramway engine houses and was completed in 1928 and served as a tea house for light refreshments and recreation, as well as a scenic wedding and function venue. Fencing posts around the boundaries of the park were manufactured from -old. tramway, rails, and a children's joy wheel was made from, a tramway 'cable wheel. The chalet was built, on the highest slope in the. park, about, 320 feet above sea level, and from its balconies a splendid panoramic view of Melbourne was obtained. Children's playgrounds were laid out, swings, joy wheels, a wading pool and other attractions installed. Cable car dummies were transformed into shelters and places where meals could be enjoyed. A sports oval was laid out alongside the chalet, along with two tennis courts. Facing Boundary-Road, (now Warrigal Road) was one of the most conspicuous spots in the park, a miniature lake planted with water lilies and stocked with goldfish. This lake used to be the dam of the old homestead. ("The Age" Sat 4 Feb 1933 p6). A 9-hole
golf course A golf course is the grounds on which the sport of golf is played. It consists of a series of holes, each consisting of a tee box, a fairway, the rough and other hazards, and a green with a cylindrical hole in the ground, known as a "cup". Th ...
opened at Wattle Park in October 1937, with other facilities following later. Most of the trees at Wattle Park were planted by Head Landscape Gardener and Curator of the park at that time, George William Tickner (later by deed poll George Nelson) who had built his own home at 14 Patterson Avenue, opposite the park. George was responsible for the planning, laying out, design and construction of the Tennis Courts, Golf Course, Pond, Lake, Paths, Walking Tracks, Sports Oval and many other structures in the park. Employed by the tramways board in the 1920s, Wattle Park became his life's work until he retired. With the rise of popularity of motor cars in the 1960s and 70s, the MMTB (which was absorbed by the new Metropolitan Transit Authority in 1983) was focusing its attention elsewhere. Subsequently, local residents began to complain to the state government about the poor state of Wattle Park. In 1991, ownership of Wattle Park was passed from the
Public Transport Corporation The Public Transport Corporation (PTC) was a Victoria State Government owned statutory authority formed under the Transport Act 1983 which operated passenger and freight trains, trams and bus services. The PTC was also responsible for directly ...
to the
Melbourne & Metropolitan Board of Works The Melbourne and Metropolitan Board of Works (MMBW) was a public utility board in Melbourne, Australia, set up in 1891 to provide water supply, sewerage and sewage treatment functions for the city. In 1992, the MMBW was merged with a number of sm ...
, which undertook a program to rehabilitate the park's landscape.


Connection with trams

As Wattle Park, for most of its history, had been maintained by Melbourne's tram operators, it retains a connection with Melbourne's tramways. The Melbourne Tramways Band (no longer sponsored by
Yarra Trams Yarra Trams is the trading name of the operator of the tram network in Melbourne, Australia, which is owned by VicTrack and leased to Yarra Trams by the Victorian Department of Transport. The current franchise is operated by Keolis Downer. As ...
) plays at Wattle Park once a month during spring and autumn. The bodies of two W2 class trams are installed as shelters at Wattle Park, and tram route 70 runs along the park's northern boundary, with its terminus at the easternmost end of the park.


References


External links


Parks Victoria: Wattle Park
{{Metropolitan parks of Victoria Parks in Melbourne Heritage sites in Melbourne City of Whitehorse