Tram authority built park in Burwood to get people on board
IT’S an icon of Melbourne’s east but the little-known story of the history of Wattle Park and its trams involves a grand plan, a shifty engineer and a treasured tree.
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IT’S less than 20km from the city, but Burwood was once considered to be part of the countryside.
In the early 1900s, the Hawthorn Tramways Trust decided to build an electric tramline down Riversdale Rd to Warrigal Rd and struggled to attract commuters to what was largely a rural area.
So they followed the lead of similar authorities in the USA and created a trolley park.
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In 1915, the trust purchased 137 acres of land for £9000 from Eliza Welch, the widow of Melbourne’s Ball & Welch Department store founder.
Two years later, Wattle Park was opened to the public by Victorian Governor Sir Arthur Stanley who planted a golden wattle tree in the grounds.
Money problems
Not long after its opening, the trust’s poor construction work on tramlines had left it in financial difficulty, grinding any plans for the park’s development to a halt.
It might have had something to do with the trust’s “incompetent” chief engineer, says Melbourne Tram Museum content manager Russell Jones.
The engineer skimmed materials from other locations and even took some to build his own house before he was fired.
The trust was dissolved in February 1920 and control of Wattle Park was passed to the Melbourne & Metropolitan Tramways Board.
As the board was focused on converting the cable tram network to electric traction, the park remained undeveloped for a number of years.
In 1924 The Argus reported: “The board has done nothing to improve or beautify the park, and beyond leasing a small portion of it to football and cricket clubs, the land is put to no use at all”.
Despite this, the value of the land increased to an estimated £130,000 by 1926.
Proper planning and development of the park finally began the same year, with the Field Naturalists Club of Victoria and the Wattle League helping to plant 12,000 wattles, natives and ornamental trees.
Transport ties
In 1928, the Wattle Park tram line was extended from Boundary Rd to Elgar Rd.
The Wattle Park Chalet was built the same year using reclaimed materials from old tram depots and engine houses.
A story in The Argus reported that the chalet had views “extending from Mount Macedon in the north to Frankston in the south, with Mount Dandenong near at hand in the east.”
Other features added to reflect the park’s connection to the transport industry included disused wooden trams to provide shelter for picnic-makers and ornamental fencing made from worn cable tram traction cables.
The wooden trams were later replaced with W-series metal trams to better withstand Melbourne’s weather.
The trams aren’t vandal proof however as one was subject to an arson attack in 2011.
Becoming popular
In 1928, The Argus reported that an estimated 30,000 people visited Wattle Park on the Melbourne Cup holiday.
“Special trams conveyed 35 Sunday school picnic parties, in which the average number of pupils and teachers was 250,” the report stated.
“The sale at the chalet of 240 quarts of ice-cream gave evidence of the youth of many of the visitors.”
Further additions to the park included tennis courts, cricket pitches, a sports oval, and a hockey pitch.
When the nine-hole golf course was opened in October 1937, a special tram service was introduced so golfers could use the course on Sunday mornings.
Within nine months of the golf course opening, the special tram had raised £1388 in revenue.
But Mr Jones said the board was criticised for running trams on the Sabbath.
“The church forecast the end of civilisation,” he said.
In 1940, the Melbourne Tramways Band began performing free recitals in the park during the warmer months.
This tradition continues today, with the next monthly concert ‘Farewell to Arms, Anzac Requiem’ being held on 22 April.
The War Years
Australia’s oldest Lone Pine tree is planted in the park, acting as a reminder of the country’s military history.
In 1915, Private Thomas Keith McDowell, a miner from Wonthaggi and soldier in the 23rd Battalion returned from Gallipoli with a pine cone from infamous tree.
He gave it to his wife’s aunt, Emma Gray who successfully grew four seedlings.
One of the seedlings was planted in Wattle Park in 1933, while the remaining ones were planted at the Shrine of Remembrance, the Sisters Soldiers Memorial Hall near Terang, and the Warrnambool Botanic Gardens.
During WWII, a quarter of an acre of Wattle Park was used to grow vegetables to give to public hospitals and charitable organisations.
In 1948, Zilpah Bennett donated a clock tower to the park in remembrance of her son Royden Louis Charles Bennett who was killed in action at Pozières, France.
During an Anzac Day ceremony in 2011, a new seedling from the Wattle Park pine was grown and planted in the park.
Fading interest
Interest in the park began to sour by the 1960s and 70s as the increasing prevalence of cars made other destinations more accessible.
Parks Victoria now manages and cares for the site, which is mainly used by locals.
Over a century after it opened, Wattle Park is still the only park in Victoria built by a transport authority and about a third of the park is Heritage Victoria listed.
Parks Victoria Area chief ranger Brendan Sullivan said generations of Melburnians have enjoyed the “green and gold jewel ... as a site for picnics, lazy afternoons or exploring old trams”.
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