Central Park History
The Wurundjeri people used this land and its surrounds prior to European settlement.
The land was subdivided for housing around 1885 however the land boom endedand most of the land remained unsold.
Malvern Council purchased the site for 5000 pounds in 1906. It was part of a 65acre land subdivision scheme encompassing the surrounding areas. This was one of several adjoining subdivisions set up by the Malvern Land Company Limited around 1885.
Between 1891 and 1907, this acreage was used as a golf course that extended between Waverley and Wattletree Roads on either side of Burke Road. From opening day on July 4, 1891, this was home to the (Royal) Melbourne Golf Club for the next 10 years.
When the Melbourne Golf Club moved to its permanent home at Sandringham in1901, the course was taken over by the Caulfield Golf Club (known today as the Metropolitan Golf Club) for six years before the Club moved to Oakleigh in 1907.
Both Clubs did little to improve the property which had been open grazing land dotted with a few native trees and some introduced species.
The course must have been very rough by today’s standards: fairways were cleared through infestation of gorse; unmade roads such as Burke Road constituted hazards; and a dam (now the lake at Hedgeley Dene Gardens) was supposedly a water hazard.
The activities of the local hunt club were curbed because they interfered with the golf.
When Malvern Council took over the Central Park site in1907, it considered several plans for a proposed park and chose one with a sports oval at the northern end. Later that year the park was given its official title of Central Park.
In 1908, tree planting around the Park commenced and fences were installed to keep out straying stock. These fences were removed after World War I but this proved to be somewhat premature as roving horses and cows were a problem for several years to come.
A timber-framed kiosk, with upstairs accommodation for a caretaker, was built in1911 facing the intersection of Burke and Wattletree Roads. An octagonal bandrotunda, which was part of the original 1907 cost estimates, was finally built in 1916.
Central Park entered a new era of modification and improvement in the years that followed the Great War. In 1919-20,185 kurrajong trees were planted in memory of the Malvern soldiers who died in the war. Unfortunately, these kurrajongs failed to prosper and most were shifted to the Kingston Street frontage about 6 years later.
In the 1920s, many alterations were made to Central Park. They included pathreformation and gravelling, replanting, drainage of large areas and planting ofvarious beds of bamboos, palms, trees and herbaceous plants.
The present large conservatory was built in 1927 at a cost of 3500 pounds and used to display annuals through glass windows. The west side of the conservatory was further embellished with a sunken garden. It was built to contain a fountain presented to the City by the Mayor, Cr H G Wilmot, in 1928.
The Gilpin Fountain, a marble drinking fountain was erected in 1929 and was donated by Mr. O. Gilpin.
By 1930, Central Park took the form it has today. Most subsequent changes were actually deletions of some of the Park’s structures and features which had become derelict - the rotunda was demolished in 1951, the Wilmot Fountain in 1962 (subsequently rebuilt by Malvern City Council) and the kiosk in 1973.
A cream brick changing room and toilet block were built in 1963 on the site of the rotunda, and the fun and fitness track was constructed in 1974. A hidden sprinkler system was installed throughout the Park in the 1980s. In late 1987 the playground was moved from the Burke Road side to the safer and less noisy Kingston Street frontage.
In 1987 Council commissioned a study into Central Park to propose measures to conserve, restore and enhance the Park’s qualities for the benefit of present and future citizens of Malvern.
Council constructed a bocce court fronting Burke Road in 1991.
In 1992 the war memorial that stood in front of Malvern Town Hall was re-located to Central Park. A memorial to men who lost their lives in the First World War, it is a granite obelisk designed in the Gothic style in the form of a cross. The memorial was donated by Malvern resident, Englishman Charles Wood.
In January 1992, the Historic Buildings Council (now the Victorian Heritage Council), having determined that the Central park Conservatory is of special significance to the State of Victoria, included the building on the Register of the Historic Buildings Council (now Victorian Heritage Registry).
Central Park Conservatory is considered –
Significant as one of the oldest and largest extant public conservatories in the State.
Representative of the growth in interest in exotic plants and the public display of plants in the early twentieth century. This interest in exotic plants would not have been possible without the provision of the adjacent boiler house, integral to the functioning of conservatories at the time.
Important because of its location in its original form, still on its initial central axis with the fountain still evident.
The Conservatory provides a focal point within the park as well as providing a demarcation visually and geographically between the active and passive areas of the park. The Conservatory was re-opened on the 2 March 1997 by the Mayor Cr. John Chandler following restoration by the City of Stonnington.
On 2 March 1997 John Landy unveiled the plaque naming the oval at Central Park the “John Landy Oval”. Landy, who trained at this oval daily prior to his participation in the 1956 Olympics, won the Australian Mile Championship three times (1953, 1954, 1956), the three mile title in 1956, set world records for the 1500metres and the mile and won two Games medals.
Today Central Park, with its original landscape features largely intact, is one of only a handful of representative Edwardian public gardens in Victoria.
For More Information
Cooper, J B (1935), The History of Malvern.
Melbourne: Specialty Press. In the Stonnington Library, Malvern Branch, Circ. Desk 994.5
Paul Laycock, Landscape Architect, Central Park, Malvern, Malvern, City of (1988). In the Stonnington Library, Malvern Branch
Laceworks Landscape Collaborative, Malvern Urban Character Study, Malvern, City of (1989). In the Stonnington Library, Malvern Branch, Ref 711.4 Mal.
Strahan, Lynne, Private and Public Memory, A History of the City of Malvern:Hargreen Publishing, 1989.
Malvern Council Annual Reports 1916 - 1942
For further information about the history of Central Park, contact the City of Stonnington's Local History Officers on 03 8290 1333 or visit the Local History section of this website.