Enmore Park Plan of Management - Land

7.0 REVIEWThis section provides a review of existing and past physical and culturalcharacter as a means of understanding its key values to the community andmajor issues for management.7.1 Site contextEnmore Park is located between the centres of Marrickville and Newtown, andcomprises 4ha of open space including the Annette Kellerman Aquatic Centre. Thepark is a significant element of the LGA’s open space system and was the first park tobe established in the Municipality of Marrickville.View towards central garden bedThe park is bounded by Llewellyn Street to the north, Black Street to the east, VictoriaRoad to the south, and Enmore Road to the west. Facilities of note located near thepark include the Marrickville Metro shopping centre to the south west, the BethesdaNursing Home situated on Black Street, and Stead House run by the Salvation Army.7.2 HeritageIn pre-European times the site may have supported Turpentine-Ironbark Forest,however most of this was cleared for agriculture in the early 19 th century.Marrickville was originally part of the 'Eora' nation and populated by the Cadigal peoplewho occupied much of the area between Port Jackson and the Cooks River.Enmore Road frontageThe establishment of Enmore Park was in part due to public pressure largely instigatedby Samuel Cook to provide park areas, and was the first park to be established in theMunicipality of Marrickville.One of the earliest features of the park (circa 1892), was a circular fountain to thecentre, which may have contained fern plantings. This fountain was later replaced by aconcrete bandstand between 1919 and 1922. At this stage drinking fountains were alsoinstalled and the pathways were asphalted.Open park characterBy 1927 an informal cricket pitch had evolved to the southeastern corner of the park.During this time Council granted several sporting bodies permission to train on the park,despite pressure to conserve the park for non sports uses. Moveable soccer posts wereallowed to be erected, however this use was not continued.During the early part of the 1930’s very few trees lay within the body of the park.Although a Phoenix Palm avenue had been planted, these were later removed andreplaced with shrub planting.In 1937-1938 two stone entrances and a tram shelter were constructed on the EnmoreRoad frontage. Major works through 1951-1970 included the construction of theswimming pool complex, the children’s resource centre building, and another buildinglocated in a southern quadrant of the park, which was later removed. The path layoutremained fairly constant from 1930 up until the 1970’s. Later path additions includedextension of the central avenue to run adjoining the pool complex, connecting fromEnmore Road to Black Street.The overall configuration of the park has generally remained constant with its sizeremaining as it was officially proclaimed in 1886 and 1893. Many of the early pathwaysalso remain in the same alignments.A more detailed historical overview of the park is presented separately in theConservation Management Strategy report prepared by Mayne-Wilson and Associates(refer Appendix).A summary timeline of the evolution and development of the park is provided following.57 Marrickville CouncilOctober 2012