Parks and Gardens
Premier of Victoria passes the buck on Yarra Park
The tree versus the bull barThe EMHS referred its photographic essay on the devastation of Yarra Park to the Premier of Victoria. Similar letters were also sent to the Lord Mayor and the local State Member of Parliament, Bronwyn Pike. The Premier's office, unlike the local member, at least gave us the courtesy of a reply. Unfortunately the Premier passed the buck to the Minister for Sustainability and Environment who in turn passed it to one of his divisional heads. By this time the buck, which was already on very thin ice, sank without a trace. The reply we received was a triumph of obfuscation and spurious argument.
Protection of Yarra Park
Is Yarra Park being managed appropriately in accordance with its registration on the Victorian Heritage Register?
The southern corner of Yarra Park is taking a particular beating from car parking this summer. Our new photo record tells the story.
Yarra Park - MCG Responds
Our continuing campaign to improve the well-being of Yarra Park has achieved some modest improvements of late. Construction vehicles have been causing quite a bit of damage plane trees to the south-western corner near the hump-backed bridge. The cabman's shelter has also been under threat. (See our recent photographic study.)
In response to telephone calls and emails to the MCG executive office there has been a higher level of consciousness of the issues and some immediate actions to protect some areas. We are hoping for continuing improvements, especially as the footy season gets under way.
Yarra Park added to Heritage Register
Yarra Park 1864In culmination of a long campaign by the East Melbourne Group, the Heritage Council of Victoria has added Yarra Park to the Heritage Register. This means that any major developments will require a permit from Heritage Victoria.
Rupert Murdoch's "Melbourne Leader" reacted in form. "Heritage listing puts MCG car park under threat," its headline said. It continued, "The future of game-day carparking at the MCG is under a cloud after Yarra Park was added to the state’s heritage register. East Melbourne residents were last week celebrating after a hard-fought campaign to have the park added to the register."
See the full decision of the Heritage Council and the Leader article in our catalogue item, Yarra Park Heritage Listing 2010.
Yarra Park at its Lowest Point?
Yarra Park 2 August 2010The East Melbourne Historical Society has published a gallery of photographs recording the current condition of Yarra Park, perhaps at its worst in living memory.
As many residents of East Melbourne have noticed, car parking in Yarra Park throughout this wet football season has been severely damaging to the Park. As an estimate, 70% of the Park's surface is now down to bare dirt or mud. Scores of trees are damaged, dead or vanished. Trucks and cars are driving over the roots of trees and parking hard up against them. Even the historic Aboriginal trees have only thin, narrow fringes of grass around them. The gallery tells the story quite unambiguously.
To see what you can do, keep reading ...
Yarra Park, from Go to Woe
When Charles Joseph La Trobe arrived in Melbourne in 1839 as the newly appointed superintendent of the colony of Port Phillip he would have found the north bank of the Yarra, just east of the city,