Fawkner Park is a trapezoidal shaped public park of 41 hectares (101 acres) established in the southern part of the City of Melbourne. It contains a wide range of landscape design elements and features including lawns, tree plantings, pathways, playing fields, structures, such as a circular seat, as well as a number of buildings such as the Caretaker's Cottage and Fence (1885), Substation (1925), Southern Pavilion (1936), Southern Toilet Block now store (1937), Northern Pavilion (1937), Tennis Club and Community Centre (interwar), shelter and playgrounds.
In 1862 Fawkner Park was temporarily reserved and named after the co-founder of Melbourne, John Pascoe Fawkner, although it was not developed until 1875 when formal pathways, avenues (many based on the 'desire line' pathways of original pedestrians) and lawns were established. Fawkner Park is one of Melbourne's 'outer ring' parks and was integral to the vision of Charles La Trobe (Superintendent of the Port Phillip District and later Lieutenant-Governor of Victoria) from the mid-1840s, to develop Melbourne as a city surrounded by extensive public parklands. It demonstrates the Government's desire to provide outdoor recreational spaces for passive and active recreation and to beautify the city. Fawkner Park has a long history as the location of sporting activities, such as cricket, football and tennis, back to the late 1850s. During World War II an area of Fawkner Park was compulsorily acquired by the Defence Department. The 33 Australian Womens Army Service (AWAS) Barracks and the Land Headquarters (LHQ) of the Australian Corps of Signals were constructed on the area which is now the Cordner Oval and its immediate surrounds. Between 1947 and 1955, the huts at the camp were converted to a transit camp for British migrants and also used for emergency accommodation for families. In 1955 Fawkner Park was restored to parkland and since then has been used for passive recreational and sporting activities. A childcare centre opened on the eastern side in 1989. Today Fawkner Park remains relatively unchanged from its original design and is a popular place for sport, leisure, picnics and fitness activities.
Fawkner Park is characterised by straight, tree-lined pathways many of which link pedestrian entry points. The pathway system divides the park into a number of larger lawn areas that contain playing fields for a variety of sports, and smaller lawn areas that feature plantings of specimen trees. There are a number of buildings and structures ranging from sporting pavilions, shelters, tennis courts and playgrounds. The earliest structure remaining on site is the nineteenth century Caretaker's Cottage, located to the western boundary of Fawkner Park on Slater Street. The dominant vegetative element of Fawkner Park are the established treed avenues that criss-cross the site along the primary path system, most notable amongst these being mature avenues of Elm and Moreton Bay Fig. Formal boundary plantations are also located on the northern (Canary Island Palm and Pin Oak), eastern (Canary Island Palm, English Oak, Himalayan Cedar) and southern boundaries (Elm avenue), with a mixed plantation of exotic and Australian native trees to the western boundary. Specimen trees, often grouped into stands or circle plantings, are located in lawn areas between the avenues. A number of the main avenues have been replanted with new species since 2010, including Willow-leaved Oak and Gingko, replacing Golden Poplar avenues, and rejuvenation of the Pin Oak avenue, all located in the north of the park. Due to the lack of ground disturbance since 1955, Fawkner Park has the potential to contain subsurface archaeological material related to the occupation and use as an AWAS and LHQ Signals camp, specifically within the area of Cordner Oval.
This site is part of the traditional land of the Kulin nation.
How is it significant?
Fawkner Park is of historical, archaeological aesthetic significance to the State of Victoria. It satisfies the following criterion for inclusion in the Victorian Heritage Registe