Flagstaff Gardens, Melbourne
Encyclopedia
Melbourne
Melbourne is the capital and most populous city in the state of Victoria, and the second most populous city in Australia. The Melbourne City Centre is the hub of the greater metropolitan area and the Census statistical division—of which "Melbourne" is the common name. As of June 2009, the greater...
, Victoria
Victoria (Australia)
Victoria is the second most populous state in Australia. Geographically the smallest mainland state, Victoria is bordered by New South Wales, South Australia, and Tasmania on Boundary Islet to the north, west and south respectively....
, Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
, first established in 1862. In 2005 it is one of the most visited and widely used parks in the city by nearby office workers and tourists. The gardens are notable for their archeological, horticultural, historical and social significance to the history of Melbourne
History of Melbourne
The history of Melbourne details the city's growth from a fledging settlement into a modern commercial and financial centre as Australia's second largest city.-Pre-European settlement:...
.
The gardens are 7.2 hectares (18 acres) of Crown Land bounded by William
William Street, Melbourne
William Street is a major street in the central business district of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. It runs roughly north-south from Flinders Street to Victoria Street, and is located in the western half of the Hoddle Grid....
, La Trobe
La Trobe Street, Melbourne
La Trobe Street is a major street in the central business district of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. It runs roughly from east to west and forms the northern boundary of the CBD ....
, King
King Street, Melbourne
King Street is a main street in the Melbourne central business district. King Street is part of the Pacific Highway, and used to be part of National Route 1 until the city by-pass road linking the Monash Freeway with the Westgate Freeway was completed...
and Dudley streets, managed by the City of Melbourne
City of Melbourne
The City of Melbourne is a Local Government Area in Victoria, Australia, located in the central city area of Melbourne. The city has an area of 36 square kilometres and has an estimated population of 93,105 people. The city's motto is "Vires acquirit eundo" which means "She gathers strength as she...
. On the southeast corner opposite is the entrance to Flagstaff railway station. Diagonally opposite stands the Victorian branch of the Royal Mint
Royal Mint
The Royal Mint is the body permitted to manufacture, or mint, coins in the United Kingdom. The Mint originated over 1,100 years ago, but since 2009 it operates as Royal Mint Ltd, a company which has an exclusive contract with HM Treasury to supply all coinage for the UK...
, established 7 August 1869. The former Royal Mint building is a well-preserved example of Victorian Gold Rush
Victorian gold rush
The Victorian gold rush was a period in the history of Victoria, Australia approximately between 1851 and the late 1860s. In 10 years the Australian population nearly tripled.- Overview :During this era Victoria dominated the world's gold output...
boom-period classical styled architecture. The facade features paired columns with scrolled capitals and the Royal Mint coat-of-arms.
On the northeast corner over William Street, is the Queen Victoria Market
Queen Victoria Market
The Queen Victoria Market is a major landmark in Melbourne, Australia, and at around seven hectares is the largest open air market in the Southern Hemisphere. The Market is significant to Melbourne's culture and heritage and has been listed on the Victorian Heritage Register...
.
The park contains extensive lawns with a variety of mature trees, flowerbeds and wild animals including possums. The southern end is characterised by deciduous
Deciduous
Deciduous means "falling off at maturity" or "tending to fall off", and is typically used in reference to trees or shrubs that lose their leaves seasonally, and to the shedding of other plant structures such as petals after flowering or fruit when ripe...
trees, while the northern end contains mature eucalypt
Eucalypt
Eucalypts are woody plants belonging to three closely related genera:Eucalyptus, Corymbia and Angophora.In 1995 new evidence, largely genetic, indicated that some prominent Eucalyptus species were actually more closely related to Angophora than to the other eucalypts; they were split off into the...
s. Avenues of elm
Elm
Elms are deciduous and semi-deciduous trees comprising the genus Ulmus in the plant family Ulmaceae. The dozens of species are found in temperate and tropical-montane regions of North America and Eurasia, ranging southward into Indonesia. Elms are components of many kinds of natural forests...
s shade pathways along with several large Moreton Bay Fig
Moreton Bay Fig
Ficus macrophylla, commonly known as the Moreton Bay Fig, is a large evergreen banyan tree of the Moraceae family that is a native of most of the eastern coast of Australia, from the Atherton Tableland in the north to the Illawarra in New South Wales, and Lord Howe Island. Its common name is...
trees. The north corner contains a bowling lawn, rose
Rose
A rose is a woody perennial of the genus Rosa, within the family Rosaceae. There are over 100 species. They form a group of erect shrubs, and climbing or trailing plants, with stems that are often armed with sharp prickles. Flowers are large and showy, in colours ranging from white through yellows...
beds, flower and shrub beds. Along William Street there are tennis courts, which also double as volleyball, handball and netball courts. Electric barbecues nearby provides a popular site for office parties in December. Scattered about the lawns and gardens are memorials and sculptures that illuminate some of the social significance of the area.
Flagstaff Gardens have been classified by the National Trust of Australia
National Trust of Australia
The Australian Council of National Trusts is the peak body for community-based, non-government organisations committed to promoting and conserving Australia's indigenous, natural and historic heritage....
(Victoria) and is listed by the Australian Heritage Commission and the Victorian Heritage Register
Victorian Heritage Register
The Victorian Heritage Register lists places of cultural heritage significance to the State of Victoria, Australia. It has statutory weight under the Heritage Act 1995 which establishes Heritage Victoria as the permit authority...
.
At the listing ceremony by the Victorian Heritage Council in April 2004, Council Chair Chris Gallagher said "This listing ensures the much loved trees, landscaping and other individual features are conserved and protected. But it also means the whole site is recognised as an important place for gaining an insight into our historical, archaeological, aesthetic, horticultural and social heritage."
History
With the establishment of MelbourneHistory of Melbourne
The history of Melbourne details the city's growth from a fledging settlement into a modern commercial and financial centre as Australia's second largest city.-Pre-European settlement:...
in 1835, the first deaths in the colony were buried on high ground between William and King Streets, in what was colloquially called Burial Hill. The hill had panoramic views of the small colony, the Yarra River
Yarra River
The Yarra River, originally Birrarung, is a river in east-central Victoria, Australia. The lower stretches of the river is where the city of Melbourne was established in 1835 and today Greater Melbourne dominates and influences the landscape of its lower reaches...
and Port Phillip
Port Phillip
Port Phillip Port Phillip Port Phillip (also commonly referred to as Port Phillip Bay or (locally) just The Bay, is a large bay in southern Victoria, Australia; it is the location of Melbourne. Geographically, the bay covers and the shore stretches roughly . Although it is extremely shallow for...
.
- 1838 - Melbourne cemetery was marked out in what is now the Queen Victoria market, and burials continued at that location.
- 1839 - Superintendent Charles La TrobeCharles La TrobeCharles Joseph La Trobe was the first lieutenant-governor of the colony of Victoria .-Early life:La Trobe was born in London, the son of Christian Ignatius Latrobe, a family of Huguenot origin...
first included the site as part of the green belt encircling Melbourne which included Batman's HillBatman's HillBatman's Hill in Melbourne, Australia was named for the Vandemonian adventurer and grazier John Batman. Now removed, the 18 metre high hill was located to the south of today's Collins Street and Southern Cross railway station, and is the site of a steel marker the same height as the original...
, Carlton GardensCarlton Gardens, MelbourneThe Carlton Gardens is a World Heritage Site located on the northeastern edge of the Central Business District in the suburb of Carlton, in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia....
, Fitzroy GardensFitzroy Gardens, MelbourneThe Fitzroy Gardens are 26 hectares located on the southeastern edge of the Melbourne Central Business District in East Melbourne, Victoria, Australia...
, Treasury GardensTreasury Gardens, MelbourneThe Treasury Gardens consist of 5.8 hectares on the south-eastern side of the Melbourne Central Business District, East Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. The gardens are bounded by Wellington Parade, Spring Street, Treasury Place, and by the Fitzroy Gardens across Lansdowne street to the west...
and the Kings Domain. - 1840 - a flagstaff was erected on the hill as part of a signalling system between the town and ships in the Port of MelbournePort of MelbourneThe Port of Melbourne is Australia's busiest port for containerised and general cargo. It is located in Melbourne, Victoria and covers an area at the mouth of the Yarra River, downstream of Bolte Bridge, which is at the head of Port Phillip, as well as several piers on the bay itself...
. The flagstaff proved too small and the following year a fifty foot (15 m) flagstaff was erected. - 11 November 1850: site of announcement of Victoria’s Separation from the Colony of New South WalesNew South WalesNew South Wales is a state of :Australia, located in the east of the country. It is bordered by Queensland, Victoria and South Australia to the north, south and west respectively. To the east, the state is bordered by the Tasman Sea, which forms part of the Pacific Ocean. New South Wales...
, resulting in celebrations with a huge bonfire with about 5,000 townspeople in attendance. - 1853- establishment of the Melbourne cemetery
- 1857 - cutting excavated to ease the gradient of King Street. This created the bluestone retaining wall of the high bank along the western boundary.
- 1857-1863 - A Magnetic Observatory and Weather Station was established by Georg von NeumayerGeorg von NeumayerGeorg Balthazar von Neumayer , was a German polar explorer and scientist who conceived the idea of international cooperation for meteorology and scientific observation....
on the hilltop. William John WillsWilliam John WillsWilliam John Wills was an English surveyor who also trained for a while as a surgeon. He achieved fame as the second-in-command of the ill-fated Burke and Wills expedition, which was the first expedition to cross Australia from south to north, finding a route across the continent from the settled...
worked here as an assistant before being appointed to the Burke and Wills expeditionBurke and Wills expeditionIn 1860–61, Robert O'Hara Burke and William John Wills led an expedition of 19 men with the intention of crossing Australia from Melbourne in the south to the Gulf of Carpentaria in the north, a distance of around 3,250 kilometres...
. The observatory moved to the Kings Domain when the Melbourne ObservatoryMelbourne ObservatoryMelbourne Observatory was founded in 1862 to serve as a scientific research institution for the rapidly growing city of Melbourne, the capital of the colony of Victoria. The observatory was tasked by the Victorian government with maintaining an accurate time reference for the colony through...
was established, as iron in the buildings surrounding Flagstaff Hill were affecting Neumayer's magnetic observations. - 1860s - the telegraphElectrical telegraphAn electrical telegraph is a telegraph that uses electrical signals, usually conveyed via telecommunication lines or radio. The electromagnetic telegraph is a device for human-to-human transmission of coded text messages....
supersedes signalling by flagsInternational maritime signal flagsThe system of international maritime signal flags is one system of flag signals representing individual letters of the alphabet in signals to or from ships...
. - 1862 - West Melbourne residents petition the government to turn the hill into public gardens or recreation reserve. Clement HodgkinsonClement HodgkinsonClement Hodgkinson was a notable English naturalist, explorer and surveyor of Australia. He was Victorian Assistant Commissioner of Crown Lands and Survey from 1861 to 1874.- Exploration in New South Wales :...
, the Deputy Surveyor-General in charge of city parks, prepared a plan for the gardens and directed its implementation.The FitzroyFitzroy Gardens, MelbourneThe Fitzroy Gardens are 26 hectares located on the southeastern edge of the Melbourne Central Business District in East Melbourne, Victoria, Australia...
and Treasury GardensTreasury Gardens, MelbourneThe Treasury Gardens consist of 5.8 hectares on the south-eastern side of the Melbourne Central Business District, East Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. The gardens are bounded by Wellington Parade, Spring Street, Treasury Place, and by the Fitzroy Gardens across Lansdowne street to the west...
were also designed by him. - 1871 - Memorial to Melbourne’s pioneers erected.
- 1873 - Gardens permanently reserved
- 1880 - establishment of path network, lawns, trees and flowerbeds.
- October 9, 1917 - the City of Melbourne was appointed responsible for the Flagstaff Gardens.
- 1918 - children’s playground established, one of the first in Melbourne.
- 23 March 2004 - gardens formally added to the Victorian Heritage Register.