City of Darebin Heritage Study Volume 1 Draft Thematic

DAREBIN HERITAGE STUDY STAGE 2Brickworks then a council tip. The Ray Bramham Gardens are on the site of the CliftonBrickworks.Darebin Parklands was formerly the large bluestone quarry worked by John Sharp Adams ofAlphington from 1906. The site became the Alphington tip in 1966, and the surrounding landwas used for horse agistment. After the tip closed in 1975 local residents campaigned for theland to be made into a park. Northcote Council purchased the site and revegetation workswere undertaken by park rangers and local residents to restore the natural bushland. In 1979local volunteers assisted Sidney Clifton to construct a pedestrian bridge over Darebin Creek tolink the park with Rockbeare Park on the opposite side. Darebin Park is regarded as a pioneerof urban land reclamation and revegetation (“Darebin Parklands”).Darebin Creek Reserve where it interrupts Rathcown Road at Reservoir was mostly a swamp,which used to pose a hazard to people walking along Purinuan Road, especially in the dark(Jones, 1994:87). It is now parkland.Rescuing creeksBy the 1960s, creeks were the unsafe and ugly backs to lesser valued properties, but thepotential for their rehabilitation began to be recognised. Community interest in linearparklands and habitat creation led to acquisitions of parkland and development of trails and,Creek Management Committees formed.Merri Merri Park in Northcote, was a Melbourne Water Depot. When Melbourne Waterdecided to build a concrete flood levee there, the community and the Merri CreekCoordination Committee persuaded them to create an earthen levee in a parkland landscapedsetting with indigenous species instead. The park is now a popular area for walking andrelaxing.Another levee project on the north side of Normanby Avenue to Strettle Reserve on MerriCreek led to the conversion of industrial land to parkland along the Creek. Groves’ land, offMerri Parade in Northcote, held the Groves timber latticework factory up until the early1990s, on flood-prone land adjacent to Merri Creek. The area was converted to semi-naturalparkland with funding from Council and Melbourne Water.Street plantingsStreet beautification was an expression of civic pride. In 1885, around the same time as theNorthcote Park was planted, a row of elm trees was planted at Northcote’s High Streetentrance. As Northcote began to be re-discovered by people looking for suburban land, theNorthcote South Ratepayers Association, formed in 1901, did some further beautificationwork to ‘greatly impress visitors, and cause many to settle amongst us’. The plantings of lawnsand flower beds were completed in 1905. In 1913, the Northcote South RatepayersAssociation installed two cannons, which had formerly protected the South Channel in PortPhillip Bay, at the garden entrance. According to the writer of ‘Glimpses of our Past’ (p.5) therockeries were constructed in the 1930s at the same time as those at Northcote Park, however amuch earlier photograph, possibly taken at the time the cannons were installed, shows therockeries already in place (Lemon, 1983:142, 160-61).Figure 51Cannon on HighStreet, Northcote,1975Photographer:John T. Collins[State Library ofVictoria, AN:H98.250/1311,INjc013003]82