Heritage Monitoring at Wattle Park

A VISIT TO WATTLE PARK



As part of monitoring of commercial heritage propreties managed by Parks Victoria, a condition report is conducted at the beginning and end of every lease period. Once a property is up for Expression of Interest for a lesee, a survey of the condition based on the results of the previous condition survey is conducted.


The Commercial Services Branch informs the Heritage Branch of the end of the lease period and Chris, Heritage Planner,  visits the site and conducts the survey. Lucky for me I got to accompany him to do this at one of the heritage resources at Wattle Park,  which has a very interesting history.

 


Wattle Park was established as a public recreation facility in 1916 by the Hawthorn Tramways Trust as part of the introduction of the Tram system in Melbourne. It was land established as a park for the purpose of a destination. People were encouraged to ride the Tram to this destination and it was and still is the last stop on the line. It was modelled after the American Trolley Parks.


It contains 12,000 Wattle Trees and other native and exotic trees that were planted by the Field Naturalists Club of Victoria and the Wattle League.


What's a Wattle???
The Golden Wattle, was officially declared Australia's National Floral Emblem in 1988. A formal proclamation of the Wattle as the floral emblem of Austrlalia was first proposed in 1913 but had never been finalised.




These cable lines are from the original tram lines! A good recycling use and way to present history in the park.

Wattle Park is a beautiful park where I saw many birds and continously took deep breaths to savour the smell of the lemon gum trees. It offers many trails and many species of birds, frogs, butterfly, bats, skinks, ringtail and brushtail possums. There are also sports fields, and a golf course at the park.

Wattle Park was intended to be a 'great attraction to residents of the metropolis for outings and picnics' and to provide a magnificent opportunity for 'going to the country at cheap rates to breathe Heaven's fresh oxygen' where everyone could enjoy the great outdoors free from the 'rowdy customer' who frequented amusement parks.


Today it is no longer a park in the countryside as it sits within a city that has grown to 4million people. It is a park that everyone who grew up in Melbourne remembers. A colleague was telling me how in school all the classes would go to Wattle Park for physically fitness events, and he claimed there is an age group of Melbournians who would have all visited the park at least once as part of school.

We were there to mainly focus on the built heritage in the park so I didn't have lots of time to walk a trail, but I did get to see many birds in my short walk through the park.





An old tram car, kept at the park and maintained. It is open to visitor and picnic tables have been installed inside. You can have a nice lunch on this old tram or pretend you are the driver!




A commemorative Lone Pine in the Park.



These beautiful Lorakeets were everywhere in the Park!!! So lovely and quite the characters.



Chris inspecting this beautiful multi-pane leaded glass window.




Doors leading into the Chalet, beautiful wood and brickwork.




The Chalet was constructed in the Park in 1928 to provide meals and entertainment for the increasing number of visitors. It is situated on the highest point in the Park and designed by Monsbourgh in the English domestic style after Lutyens. It has a steeply pitched slate tiled roof and fits in beautifully to its picturesque setting.




Today the Chalet is leased out to a business that caters to weddings and events. The lesees are responsible for maintaining the heritage features of the Chalet and have done a great job. Mostly everything is authentic and the beautiful wood has stood up to the test of time and numerous dancing shoes! The dancefloor in the picture below is wood and has only had to have some minor replacements in all its years. I loved looking at all the scuff marks and just pictured people dancing away on its hard surface.


The interior of the Chalet




Another beautiful wood door.





View of rear gardens from the inside of the Chalet...I just loved these iron barred doors!!




 These Lorakeets became one of my favorite things in the park. I couldn't stop looking at them.



And the monitoring continues!!



The beautiful gardens at rear of the Chalet.





Rear of Chalet. This has a lovely garden and walkway trellis. You can see why it is popular for weddings!



This bandstand was modified recently and in fact I learned that my colleague Chris designed the shelter! You could just imagine in its day, The Tramways band with their stripes and straw hats and gleaming brass instrument. Still today there are concerts in the park on summer Sundays. It would be a great spot to listen to music amongst the lemon gum trees which I absolutely could not get enough of the smell. I still have a leaf in my purse that I picked so the smell could last longer!

I learned that this was a Crab apple tree!!! Not like the ones I'm used to seeing around home, this version is called a 'Ballerina' tree which is a dwarf crab apple tree developed from dwarfed roots to grow shorter, more compact trees for smaller gardens. I wanted to try one but they weren't ripe!

So pretty!!

I really wish I had time to walk this trail! Looks like you would come across lots of wonderful natural and cultural resources. I have put it on the list of things to do before leaving Melbourne.






An old tram that is still put to use and now has picnic tables for visitors to enjoy a picnic lunch.




Having a go at being a Tram driver!





As you may have guessed I have a thing for doorways. Love them! And this one was fabulous with multipaned leaded windows, an arch and thick harwood doors.


For more info on Wattle Park check out Parks Victoria Wattle Park page

Christmas and New Year's 2010

  

Christmas felt more like Christmas this time around. Last time we had just arrived and spent Christmas just the two of us in our apartment in Docklands. My first Christmas without my family ever and the quietest Christmas day I have ever had. See my blog post http://anwareendownunder.blogspot.com/2010/03/christmas-dinner-in-docklands_23.html to see photos and read about our day.

I had no idea that Australians buy real Christmas Pine's for Christmas from local Christmas Tree Farms to decorate in their homes! This is more of what I expected to see...a tree in the food court at work all decked out in Christmas garb.

Like last time, I attended the Christmas Party for city office staff which was held at the St. Kilda Yacht Squadron.It was a lovely event with a delicious Christmas lunch. At our tables were Christmas crackers that contained a party hat, joke and toy. We all put on our party hats and enjoyed our lunch while overlooking the St. Kilda pier and beach!





St. Kilda Yacht Club Squadron building.



 

                      

Enjoying the terrace during the city office Christmas party. This is my Parks Victoria colleague Rebecca and I with the St. Kilda Pier in the background.

                                                      

After the Christmas lunch which ended around 3pm, most of the City Office staff headed to The Republica, a restaurant and bar located right on the beach! It was such a lovely afternoon mingling with colleagues while enjoying the sun, sand, palm trees and view of the water.

Parks Victoria staff enjoying a nice afternoon at The Rebublica on St. Kilda Beach.

Christmas Day!

As I mentioned, this year Christmas felt a little more like Christmas. We spent Christmas day with our fellow Canadian exchangees in Glen Waverly, where Helen and Rick from Jasper live. They live in what Parks Victoria calls "The Bushy Park House" as it is located right next to Bushy Park. It is a fabulous house with a neighbouring pasture with horses and cows. Helen and Rick set up a lovely Christmas table outside and for a bunch of Canadians, eating Christmas dinner outside for the first time, was an experience we will never forget! Glen Waverly is only about a 20 minute drive from where we live and with its lovely pastoral setting it was so hard to believe that we were in a city of 4 million people.

 

 







The beautiful table setting that Helen and Rick set up for us in their lovely backyard overlooking the horses and cows!

The guys, from left to right; Brian (Ottawa), Michael (Jasper), Kelly (Winnipeg), Bill (Winnipeg), Rick (Jasper), and Jeremy (Seaford, Victoria) who is now an honorary Canadian Exchangee given that he is recently engaged to a Canadian exchangee.

 

Bill from Winnipeg at Helen and Rick's Bushy Park House!!



Our lovely Christmas day meal. It was a pot luck so everyone brought a dish. My contribution was sweet and regular mashed potatoes..locally grown of course!! We had lamb, turkey and shrimp on the barbie!!





Rick doing up some shrimp on the barbie!!

Enjoying our lovely Christmas dinner and watching the sunset and horses



New Years Eve 

For New Year's Eve we went to Clifton Hill a beautiful  inner city suburb where Karen and Bill are staying. We visited their house and then walked down to Queen's Arcade where we had reservations at a family owned Italian Bistro. A perfect dinner spot, I enjoyed a lovely grilled sea perch with potatoes and vegetables. While others had Veal Scallopini and Seafood Marinara. We met a lovely Australian couple and had a great time.

Brian and I, Karen and Bill enjoying our time at this fabulous Italian Bistro in Clifton Hill.



A lovely couple from Melbourne who we met during dinner.



After dinner we had some time to kill before heading to see the fireworks so we stopped at "The Local" a common term used to refer to the local pub in the area, to shoot a few games of pool. It was fun, with retro music in the background and the locals coming in and out as they celebrated New Years Eve.



Karen and I at 'The Local'




Bill and Brian playing pool at 'The Local'!

 

We couldn't have timed our departure from 'The Local' more perfectly and made it to the park (which took a while to find, but we just followed others on their way) in perfect time for the Fireworks. They are just fabulous in Melbourne. They happen twice throughout the evening, once at 9pm and the other at midnight. At midnight the buildings in the CBD (downtown) shoot fireworks off of their roofs. It is quite the site to see and lasted quite a while. We had a perfect view of the whole city skyline which was a treat to see!

New Years Day 2011

\New Year's Day we hosted a BBQ at our place with friends we met last time we were here and living in Docklands.

Some goodies I picked up at the Prahran Market - Kalamata and green olives, apple, raisin and spice chutney, beetroot dip, assorted cheeses included a really nice soft cheese with fig and walnuts and assorted crackers of course!



All prepared and ready to throw on the barbie - vine tomatoes, sweet and sour lamb cutlets, mushrooms and potatoes..of course we also had shrimp on the barbie and our friends brought over some marinated chook (chicken) and steak. I got the recipe for the lamb marinade off of a TV program here called Huey's Kitchen. Huey, goes around to various historic sites and other places of interest in Victoria, brings his BBQ along and cooks up a quick meal or two. He has some quick and easy recipes to follow and this one was pretty tasty! I also did the tomatoes based on his show, on the barbie with some red wine vinegar, balsamic, sea salt and a touch of olive oil.





Our friend Ryan taking over the bbq'ing - good thing because he did an amazing job, much better than we would have done, the meat was cooked perfect, with the steak so tender it melted in your mouth! A perfect New Years Day feast!





Ev, enjoying the sounds of Josh's guitar while the food was cooking. Brian and Josh even played Dueling Banjos on Ryan's request!

Our New Years Day feast...mmmmm it was soooo good!





 

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!!!

New Years bread in bakery window on Chapel Street