ASSESSMENT OF CULTURAL HERITAGE
SIGNIFICANCE & EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR
RECOMMENDATION TO THE HERITAGE
COUNCIL
NAME:
WARRINGAL PARKLANDS AND BANYULE FLATS
LOCATION:
2 Beverley Road, Heidelberg and 136 Banyule Road, Viewbank
FILE:
14/002326
HERMES NUMBER:
197066
EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR RECOMMENDATION TO THE HERITAGE COUNCIL:
 That the place NOT be included in the Victorian Heritage Register under Section 32 (1)(b) of the
Heritage Act 1995.
TIM SMITH
Executive Director
Recommendation Date:
19 September 2014
1
Name: Warringal Parklands and Banyule Flats
Hermes number: 197066
EXTENT OF NOMINATION
The nomination for the Warringal Parklands and Banyule Flats notes that the boundaries are:
 Heidelberg Park, Beverley Road and Buckingham Drive to the west
 River Yarra and Parks Victoria Viewbank to the east
 Salt Creek to the south
 Banyule Road to the north.
2
Name: Warringal Parklands and Banyule Flats
Hermes number: 197066
BRIEF SUMMARY OF HISTORY AND DESCRIPTION
Summary of history
The land around Heidelberg was one of the first parts of Melbourne to be subdivided and sold. In the 1840s
it was a prestigious area occupied by some of Melbourne’s colonial gentry. By the late 1840s some of their
properties were being subdivided and sold or leased. Following the 1850s gold rushes, the land on the Yarra
River flats was used for market gardens and orchards, often by tenant farmers. In the 1860s-70s there was
a move in the area to grazing and dairying, though some farming continued into the mid-twentieth century.
The area was popular with artists during the nineteenth century. In the late 1880s and 1890s the
Heidelberg School artists, Arthur Streeton and Walter Withers, rented houses at Mount Eagle, near
Heidelberg. They were joined by artists such as Charles Conder, Tom Roberts and Frederick McCubbin,
whose landscapes, including those painted in that part of the Yarra Valley, became some of the best known
images in Australian art. The Heidelberg area remained semi-rural until improvements to the train service in
1901 led to suburban development, which increased after World War II. The Warringal Parklands was
developed by local authorities as a recreational area from the early twentieth century. The Heidelberg
Swimming Club was active at Sill’s Bend from this time and the Warringal Oval was established after 1931.
Other ovals were established to the north of Warringal Oval, including the two recreation ovals established
in 1974 on the Banyule Flats Reserve. The Heidelberg City Council carried out extensive plantings of exotic
and native species in the previously open landscape in the 1930s and from the 1960s. A native garden was
also established on Banyule Flats in 1974. The post-war period saw the establishment of environmental
conservation groups throughout Australia, and the threat of development along the Yarra River led to the
formation in 1955 of the River Protection League, which, under various names, continued to raise public
awareness of local conservation issues. As the Warringal Conservation Society, it has had a strong influence
on the development of the site, including the re-vegetation of the Warringal Swamp and the Banyule
Billabong area.
Summary of description
The Warringal Parklands and Banyule Flats are recreation sites on the north bank of the Yarra River within
the c1500 ha Yarra Valley Parklands, which extend along the river from Ivanhoe to Warrandyte.
Warringal Parklands is an extensive area of parkland and bushland which features a number of distinct
areas. Sill’s Bend, used as an orchard and farm from the 1850s, retains a few old fruit trees, as well as later
plantings, and was a popular swimming spot in the early twentieth century. Fanning’s Bend has tree
plantings from the 1960s and later. Warringal Park, a sports ground built in 1926, features late 1920s poplar
avenues as well as mature pepper trees and eucalypts. North of the oval are the Warringal Swamps, a
wetland area with plantings of indigenous trees and shrubs, and an area of ornamental parkland where
various planting schemes have been developed since the 1950s. The former Heidelberg Shire Offices have
been relocated to this area.
North of this is the Banyule Flats, a broad flood plain which was part of the original Banyule Estate, used
from the 1840s for grazing, and cultivated during the gold rushes. It retains features such as drainage
channels, a dam, fences, posts and a relocated stockyard associated with its earlier uses. The area includes
swampland, where extensive revegetation work has taken place, the Banyule Billabong, a sports oval and
the Banyule Native Garden.
3
Name: Warringal Parklands and Banyule Flats
Hermes number: 197066
RECOMMENDATION REASON
REASON FOR NOT RECOMMENDING INCLUSION IN THE VICTORIAN HERITAGE REGISTER
Several surveys have been carried out to identify areas of heritage significance in the City of
Banyule:
 Graeme Butler, ‘Heidelberg Conservation Study’, Part 1 – Heidelberg Historic Buildings &
Areas Assessment, 1985
 Loder & Bayly and Marilyn McBriar, ‘Heidelberg Conservation Study, Part II, Historic
Riverland Landscape Assessment, 1985
 Allom Lovell & Associates in association with John Patrick, ‘Banyule Historic Places Study’,
vol 3, Landscape Citations, 1999.
The Context report ‘Warringal Parklands & Banyule Flats. VHR Nomination Assessment Report’,
May 2014, was submitted to support the nomination of the place for the Victorian Heritage
Register (VHR) by Banyule Council.
Neither the Warringal Parklands nor Banyule Flats were identified in Graeme Butler’s study as
significant landscapes or precincts. The Loder & Bayly report identified the ‘major landscapes from
Viewbank downstream to Burke Road’ (but not specifically the area nominated) as being of state
significance. This study does not assign a level of significance to the Warringal Parklands or
Banyule Flats. The Allom Lovell survey identified both the Warringal Parklands and Banyule Flats
(which are listed separately in their study) as being landscapes with significance at a ‘B’ level,
defined in this study as integral to the cultural significance of the City of Banyule but not
warranting listing in the Victorian Heritage Register.
The assessment by Context, which reflects the conclusions of the Loder & Bayly report, argues that
the Warringal Parklands and Banyule Flats have significance at a state level, partly for their
association with the early history of the Heidelberg area, particularly its prestige estates and early
farming activities. However, such farming activities were carried out throughout the suburbs of
Melbourne and in country areas from the earliest days of the colony, and the farming carried on in
this area is not sufficiently notable when compared to these other areas to make it of state
significance. The area now retains little evidence of its early farming, and only a few features, such
as a few old fruit trees, fence lines and drainage channels, survive to demonstrate this part of its
history. The houses of the colonial gentry in the Heidelberg area, such as the nearby Banyule (VHR
H926) and Charterisville (VHR H1140), provide better evidence of the way of life of the gentry at
the time than do the vestiges of their farming activities.
The Context report argues that the nominated area has state significance for its association with
the Heidelberg School of artists and the remnants of the landscapes they depicted. The Heidelberg
School artists painted many landscapes along the Yarra River outside the nominated area, such as
on the south side of the river opposite the nominated area, on the Viewbank estate upstream, at
nearby Eaglemont (where they lived for some time), and at Heidelberg, East Ivanhoe and
Templestowe, not only in the part of the Yarra Valley covered by the nomination. The artists also
painted extensively in many other areas around Melbourne which are now suburbs, including Box
Hill, Mentone, Brighton and Beaumaris, as well as in other parts of Victoria and in other states.
4
Name: Warringal Parklands and Banyule Flats
Hermes number: 197066
The images of the Heidelberg riverlands and its surroundings have become some of the best known
in Australian art, depicting open undulating pastures with cattle grazing , bare hills with patches of
woodland, rough grass, derelict orchards, scattered huts, partially cleared wetlands, sparse
vegetation along the river, and distant views towards the Dandenongs. However the landscapes
which we now see in this area differ significantly from those depicted by the Heidelberg artists.
Since the 1920s there has been suburban development on the surrounding land, much regrowth
along the river, and plantings of indigenous and exotic trees have been carried out in previously
open areas. While the topography remains unchanged, the landscapes depicted in the paintings of
this part of the Yarra Valley in the 1880s-90s are very different to the landscapes seen in the same
areas today. The parklands along the river are flanked by housing, the riverbanks are well
vegetated, the wetlands have been revegetated and there has been a great deal of planting of
both exotic and native trees throughout the area, particularly in the post-World War II period. The
landscape is now enclosed rather than open, with minimal views towards or within the nominated
area or out of it towards the distant hills.
The paintings themselves are the best reflection of the landscape in this area as it was in the late
nineteenth century. The Heidelberg School painters are also remembered by the houses they
occupied and painted in, such as Charterisville at Eaglemont (VHR H1140), which was occupied for
a number of years by Walter Withers and other Heidelberg School painters; Southernwood, Walter
Withers’ house and studio at Eltham (VHR H2235); Fontainebleau at Mt Macedon (VHR1980), the
home of Charles McCubbin from 1901-17, where some of his major works were painted; and
Longacres (VHR H1876), Arthur Streeton’s home and studio at Olinda, which also has a garden
created by him.
The landscapes associated with the Heidelberg School painters are better demonstrated in parts of
the Yarra River Valley that have not been transformed into parkland, for example on the nearby
Viewbank estate and slightly further upstream, and in other parts of Melbourne not so altered in
recent years, such as the beaches around Mentone.
The Context report also suggests that this part of the Yarra Valley may be of central importance in
the history of the conservation movement in Victoria. But this history has not yet been researched
or documented in such a way as to demonstrate significance at a state level for the association
between the nominated area and the early local conservation organisations. The conservation
movement in this area may have local significance, but there is no evidence that it was important
at a state level. It can be argued also that any significance should be associated more closely with
the conservation organisations themselves and the archival collections demonstrating their
activism, rather than with the landscapes they were formed to protect.
The Executive Director considers that the Warringal Parklands and the Banyule Flats have local
significance but do not have sufficient heritage value to be included in the Victorian Heritage
Register.
5
Name: Warringal Parklands and Banyule Flats
Hermes number: 197066
RELEVANT INFORMATION
LOCAL GOVERNMENT AUTHORITY:
BANYULE
HERITAGE LISTING INFORMATION:
Heritage Overlay:
No
Other listing:
No
HISTORY
The land at Heidelberg was sold by crown auction in 1837, making it one of the first areas in the
Melbourne region to be subdivided. The land was purchased by some of the colony's prominent
citizens, including David McArthur (who built Charterisville, VHR H1140), Joseph Hawdon (who built
Banyule, VHR H926) and Dr Robert Martin (who built Viewbank, now demolished, VHR H1396). By
1840, Warringal (the early name for Heidelberg) had been surveyed, the name Warringal referring
to an Aboriginal term for ‘eagle's nest’.
The 1840s depression ruined several of the Heidelberg gentlemen, and by the late 1840s their
large properties were being subdivided and some lots sold or leased. The area became largely
agricultural and the 1850s gold discoveries brought a brief boom, as the fertile Yarra flood plains
were used for market gardens and orchards. During the 1850s much of the Banyule estate was
given over to tenant farming. Mark Sill purchased some of the Banyule land (now Sill’s Bend) and
Peter Fanning leased an area on the river flats (now Fanning’s Bend), in the southern part of the
subject site, which they used for dairying and orchards.
In the 1860s and 1870s increasingly frequent floods and the exhaustion of the land on the river
flats resulted in a move to grazing and dairying. However, some farming and market gardening
continued: at Sills Bend and Warringal until the 1920s and on the Banyule and Viewbank Estates
until the 1960s. Banyule Flats were transferred to Council ownership in 1967, but some grazing
continued there until 1992.
The encroachment of suburbia in the Heidelberg area was delayed by the lack of good public
transport access. Although the railway reached Heidelberg in May 1888 the area remained
relatively undeveloped until improvements to the train service in 1901 began four decades of slow
suburban development, which increased after World War II.
The Heidelberg School of artists
The Heidelberg School, whose artists were the first to realistically depict the Australian landscape,
was the first important art movement in Australia. During the 1880s and 1890s a number of
painting sites in and around Melbourne were used by artists associated with the Heidelberg School,
such as Frederick McCubbin, Tom Roberts, Arthur Streeton, Walter Withers, Louis Abrahams and
Charles Conder. The most popular sites near Melbourne, which are now suburbs, were Eaglemont,
Heidelberg, East Ivanhoe, Templestowe, Mentone, Brighton and Beaumaris. The most popular
sites for the group east of Melbourne were Box Hill and Eaglemont c1885-90, and from 1890
around the Charterisville estate at Heidelberg.
6
Name: Warringal Parklands and Banyule Flats
Hermes number: 197066
The late arrival of the rail service to Heidelberg meant that the peaceful rural environment of the
area was preserved, and also meant that houses were available at low rents, both of which
attracted artists to the area. In 1888 Streeton moved to some semi-derelict farm buildings on the
summit of Mount Eagle, a popular beauty spot near the village of Heidelberg, where he was soon
joined by other artists, and in the following year was joined by Roberts and Conder. In about 1890
Withers rented the 1840 stone mansion Charterisville (VHR H1140) at Ivanhoe, which then had a
barn, stables, cottages and a large garden on about 60 ha extending from Mount Eagle down to the
Yarra River flats. This became an important art school and artists' colony, and went on to become
the longest surviving artists' camp in Melbourne.
Paintings completed in the vicinity include: Withers’ ‘The Old Coach Road, Heidelberg’, ‘The Valley
of the Yarra near Charterisville’, ‘A Bright Winter’s Morning’, and ‘Tranquil Winter’ (which depicts a
cottage on the Banyule Estate which survives north of the Australian native garden to the north of
Banyule Flats); Streeton’s ‘Still Glides the Stream, and Shall Forever glide’, ‘Spring 1890’, ‘Golden
Summer, Eaglemont’, ‘Yarra Valley at Heidelberg’ and ‘Near Heidelberg’; Conder’s ‘The Yarra
Heidelberg; Boys Bathing’; and Roberts’ Quiet Stream, Heidelberg’. The scenery along the Yarra
around Heidelberg then wound through open pasture land, which was described by Streeton as a
‘long undulating plain’, with cleared hills beyond.
The Heidelberg School artists painted extensively in the city and suburbs of Melbourne, in the
Dandenong Ranges, in the Macedon Ranges and in other parts of Victoria and New South Wales,
where they produced some of Australia’s most iconic artworks.
The site as a recreational landscape
The Warringal Parklands were developed as a recreational area by local authorities from the early
twentieth century. Heidelberg Swimming Club was active at Sill’s Bend from this time. The
Warringal oval, which included a trotting track, was established after 1931 and by 1956 photos
show that it had a formal avenue planting of poplar trees (probably planted in the 1930s). Further
planting occurred after that time, and a development plan drawn up by the Heidelberg City Council
in 1966 led to a second phase of planting, which includes groups of Pinus radiata and native trees.
Native trees were planted between the Warringal Swamp and the Yarra River, and on the south
side of the oval, after this time.
In 1969 38 ha of parkland on the Banyule Flats was transferred to the Heidelberg City Council, and
the late 1970s saw the acquisition of land along the river by the Melbourne & Metropolitan Board
of Works Waterways and Parks Division. This land was transferred to Parks Victoria in 1997. In
1974 two recreation ovals and a native garden designed by Peter Glass were established on
Banyule Flats.
The local conservation movement from the 1950s
The post-war period saw the establishment throughout Australia of many community conservation
groups, which were concerned about the destruction of the natural and built environment. Rapidly
increasing development along the Yarra River in the Heidelberg area in the 1950s saw the
formation of the River Protection League in Ivanhoe in 1955, and this evolved into the Save the
Yarra League (1958), then the Yarra Valley Conservation League (1965) and the Warringal
Conservation Society (1970). These groups raised public awareness of a range of local
environmental issues. During the 1970s the Banyule Flats and the Warringal Parklands featured in
community campaigns to recognise the natural and recreational values of the middle Yarra
7
Name: Warringal Parklands and Banyule Flats
Hermes number: 197066
corridor. In 1971 the planning policy for the river proposed that the river corridor and adjacent
lands be planned as open space for nature conservation and recreation. The Warringal
Conservation Society had a strong influence on the development of the subject site, particularly
the establishment of the native garden, the indigenous planting on the flats, the planning of the
ovals, the re-vegetation of the Warringal Swamp in the 1970s and 1980s to provide more bird
habitats, and the re-vegetation of the Banyule Swamp and Billabong area.
VICTORIAN HISTORICAL THEMES
04
08
09
Transforming and managing land and natural resources
4.3
Grazing and raising livestock
4.4
Farming
Building community life
8.4
Forming community organisations
Shaping cultural and creative life
9.1
Participating in sport and recreation
9.3
Achieving design and artistic distinction
PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION
The Warringal Parklands and Banyule Flats are recreation sites within the c1500 ha Yarra Valley
Parklands, which extend for c16km along the Yarra River from Ivanhoe to Warrandyte. The Yarra
Valley Parklands have been established since the 1970s and form a significant area of open space
in the metropolitan area, with a backbone of interconnecting trails, parks and waterways.
Warringal Parklands is an extensive area of parkland and preserved bushland adjacent to the north
bank of the Yarra River. It features a number of distinct areas. Sill’s Bend to the south-east of the
site, formerly an orchard and farm, retains a few old fruit trees, including mulberry and pear,
descendants of the original 1850s plantings, as well as mature exotic trees such as English Oak, Pin
Oak and Hybrid Black Poplar. It has a swimming beach popular during the early twentieth century.
To the north of this is Fanning’s Bend which has tree plantings from the 1960s onwards. To the
south-west is Warringal Park, with a sports ground built in 1926 with a trotting track (now an
access road) around the perimeter, which has late 1920s avenues of Hybrid Black Poplar, as well as
mature pepper trees and eucalypts. The Warringal swamp, north of the oval, are major
ephemeral wetlands with plantings of indigenous trees and shrubs. In the northern part of is an
area of ornamental parkland, where a number of planting schemes have been developed since the
1950s, reflecting the changes in tree planting trends during the second half of the twentieth
century. The former Heidelberg Shire Offices have been relocated to this area.
North of Warringal Parklands are Banyule Flats, a broad flood plain along the Yarra River, which
comprises much of the original Banyule Estate, used as early as the 1840s for sheep grazing and
extensively cultivated and grazed during the gold rushes. This area is bordered to the west by the
Banyule escarpment and below this is open parkland, which retains features such as drainage
channels, a dam, fences, posts and a relocated stockyard, associated with its earlier pastoral use.
In the central area is swampland, where extensive re-vegetation work has taken place, and has
extensive reed beds and open water. To the south is the Banyule Billabong and to the north is the
Banyule Native Gardens, designed in 1974 by the landscape architect Peter Glass.
8
Name: Warringal Parklands and Banyule Flats
Hermes number: 197066
INTEGRITY/INTACTNESS
Warringal Parklands and Banyule Flats were in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries
used for pastoral activities and market gardening, and since 1926, when acquired by the
Heidelberg City Council they have been used as a public recreation area (although some areas
continued to be used for grazing until 1992). The development of formal recreational facilities, the
restoration of Banyule swamp and considerable replanting has led to significant changes to the
landscape since the nineteenth century.
CONDITION
Warringal Parklands and Banyule Flats are managed by Banyule City Council with full-time on-site
rangers and help from the Warringal Conservation Society, and are in good condition.
COMPARISONS
The nominator considers that the area has some heritage value for its association with
 early farming around Melbourne
 the estates of the gentlemen of Heidelberg in the mid nineteenth century
 the landscapes painted by the Heidelberg School of artists in the late nineteenth century and
 the early history of the conservation movement in Victoria.
Other early farming areas around Melbourne
Agriculture has been carried out around Melbourne since the earliest days of the colony,
particularly market gardening, orchards, dairy farming and other such labour intensive activities.
The plains to the north of Melbourne were a notable farming area from the early days of the
colony. Many of Melbourne’s farms were typically small and held on lease, and as Melbourne grew
the agricultural fringe was constantly pushed further out, from Brunswick, Moonee Ponds and
Prahran until the 1850s, and then to Coburg, Hawthorn, Caulfield and Brighton, as well as the
farmlands of the Yarra Valley until the 1880s. The early farms around Melbourne were therefore
not permanent, they did not survive for long and have left little trace. The farms on the subject
site are no exception, and retain little evidence of the early farming activities, with only a few fruit
trees and some old fence lines and drainage channels remaining to demonstrate this part of its
history. The fact that the land was originally owned by Melbourne gentlemen who often leased
out their land to tenant farms is not in itself of state significance, and is not demonstrated by the
surviving fabric.
Estates of the early elite of Melbourne
The Heidelberg and Brighton areas were prestigious locations in the late 1830s and the 1840s for
the homes or retreats of Melbourne’s elite. The surviving houses which they built at this time,
such as Banyule (VHR H926) and Charterisville (VHR H1140) provide better evidence of their way of
life than do the remnants of farming activities carried out by them in the area at the time. Other
examples of substantial houses built by the gentry on large estates around Melbourne at this time
include Como House at South Yarra (VHR H205), The Hawthorns (VHR H457) and Invergowrie (VHR
9
Name: Warringal Parklands and Banyule Flats
Hermes number: 197066
H195) at Hawthorn and Woodlands at Greenvale (VHR H1612). All of these demonstrate the lives
of the early colonial gentry, were originally on large estates and being close to Melbourne are likely
to have been subdivided and used for food production at an early date.
Remnant landscapes of the Heidelberg School artists
The nomination also argues that the area has state significance for its association with the
Heidelberg School of painters. The famous images of the Heidelberg riverlands and its
surroundings have become some of the best known in Australian art, depicting open undulating
pastures with cattle grazing , bare hills with patches of woodland, rough grass, derelict orchards,
scattered huts, partially cleared wetlands, little vegetation along the river, and distant views
towards the Dandenongs. However the landscapes which we now see in this area differ
significantly from those depicted by the Heidelberg artists. Since the 1920s there has been
suburban development on the surrounding land, much regrowth along the river and plantings of
indigenous and exotic trees in previously open areas. The landscapes depicted in the paintings of
this part of the Yarra Valley in the 1880s-90s are therefore very different to the landscapes seen in
the same areas today. The parklands along the river are flanked by housing, the riverbanks are
well vegetated, the wetlands have been revegetated and there has been a great deal of planting
throughout the area. The landscape is now enclosed rather than open, with minimal views over
the area or out of it towards the distant hills.
The Heidelberg School painters are also remembered by the houses they occupied and painted in,
such as Charterisville at Eaglemont (VHR H1140), which was occupied by Walter Withers and
several of the Heidelberg School painters for a number of years; Southernwood, Walter Withers’
house and studio at Eltham (VHR H2235); Fontainebleau at Mt Macedon (VHR1980), the home of
Charles McCubbin from 1901-17, where some of his major works were painted; and Longacres
(VHR H1876), Arthur Streeton’s home and studio at Olinda, which also has a garden created by
him.
The paintings themselves are the best reflection of the landscape in this area as it was at the time.
The landscapes associated with the Heidelberg School painters are better demonstrated in parts of
the Yarra River Valley that have not been transformed into parkland, for example on the nearby
Viewbank estate and slightly further upstream, and in other parts of Melbourne not so altered in
recent years, such as the beach scenery around Mentone.
Association of the nominated area with the early history of the conservation movement in Victoria
The Loder and Context reports consider that the conservation movement in the area may be of
central importance in the history of the conservation movement in Victoria. But this has not yet
been researched or documented in such a way as to demonstrate significance at a state level for
the association between the nominated area and the early local conservation organisations. The
history of the movement could better be demonstrated by documentary archives.
Other parklands in the VHR
There are a number of parks in the VHR which have been used for recreation since the nineteenth
century and have been assessed as having historical, architectural, scientific and/or aesthetic
significance at a state level.
The Domain Parklands (VHR H2304) are of historical importance for their associations with the
early settlement of Melbourne and a with the British Colonial tradition of establishing a large
10
Name: Warringal Parklands and Banyule Flats
Hermes number: 197066
Government Domain surrounding the vice-regal residence. The place has close associations with
Government House, the Observatory, the Shrine of Remembrance and the Royal Botanic Gardens,
and includes memorials and statuary which reflect the links with the administration of the colony.
The Parklands have associations with important figures in Victoria, including Ferdinand von
Mueller, Government Botanist (1853-96) and first Director of the Royal Botanic Gardens (1857-73),
William Guilfoyle and others. They are of aesthetic significance for the extensive scale and
collection of plantings, landscape styles and features, and of scientific (horticultural) significance
for the outstanding collection of plants. They contain buildings and structures which are of
architectural significance. They are of social significance for the highly valued recreational role it
holds for Victorians, both residents and visitors.
Central Park at Stawell (VHR H2284) is historically significant for its long association with the
Stawell Gift, Australia's oldest, richest and most prestigious short-distance footrace, which has
been held at Stawell since 1898. The Gift reflects the importance of athletics events as a
recreational activity in the nineteenth century, and the continuing popularity of foot-racing as a
professional sporting event since then. Central Park is associated with the gold mining origins of
the town of Stawell, having been used by the miners as a cricket ground as early as the 1860s, and
the origin of the Gift lies in the running races held by the Stawell Miners' Association from 1873.
The grandstand at Central Park is of architectural significance as a rare example of a Federation
period timber grandstand.
Prince's Park at Maryborough (VHR H1880) is historically and socially significant being one of the
oldest recreation reserves in Victoria, first used as a cricket ground in 1857. The Highland Gathering
has been held on New Year's Day at the Park since 1859 and is claimed to be the longest
continuous sporting event in Australia. The 1895 Grandstand is of architectural significance as an
important design of the long established and notable architectural firm, Thomas Watts and Sons. It
is significant for its association with three important landscape designers in Victoria, Clement
Hodgkinson, William Guilfoyle and Hugh Linaker. The Park includes a collection of buildings and
structures now rare in Victorian reserves. The landscaped Lake Victoria, named in honour of Queen
Victoria's golden jubilee, and formed in 1883-5 by prison labour and altered in 1982 is a significant
landscape feature.
Wattle Park (VHR H904) at Burwood is the only example in Australia of a comprehensively
developed pleasure park established, owned and operated by a transport authority with the dual
aim of promoting its transport services and providing a recreational facility for the public. It
remains intact in its original 1920s form. It strongly reflect the stewardship of the park by the
Melbourne & Metropolitan Tramways Board from 1920, evidenced by the materials used to
construct the chalet, fences made from tramway rails and cables, a former tram waiting shelter
(now used as an office) and the redundant electric tram car bodies used as picnic shelters. Since its
inception Wattle Park has continuously served as a major recreation facility for a wide area of the
metropolis. Together with Royal Park and Studley Park, it is one of the three major inner
Melbourne parks that retain a natural bush setting. The 'Lone Pine' raised from a seed collected at
Gallipoli in 1915, and planted at Wattle Park in May 1933, is one of only four such plantings in
Victoria.
Tower Hill State Game Reserve (VHR H2114) near Warrnambool is of aesthetic significance, being
an inspirational landscape recognised for the beauty and uniqueness of its geological form and
natural vegetation from first European exploration and settlement of the region. It reflects more
than a century of changing attitudes to landscape in its evolving status and the character of its
11
Name: Warringal Parklands and Banyule Flats
Hermes number: 197066
environment. It was its iconic beauty that environmentalists sought to reinstate through their
replanting of native vegetation, the species having initially been identified from the detail of von
Guerard's painting. It is the earliest and an outstanding example of community programs to
reinstate native vegetation and re-create native habitat on cleared and degraded land. It is of
architectural significance for the innovative design of the Visitor Centre, designed by Robin Boyd in
1962 and completed in 1969.
In comparison to these examples Warringal Parklands and Banyule Flats do not have outstanding
cultural heritage value. There is little remaining fabric to provide evidence of their association with
early farming, or of their ownership by the Heidelberg gentlemen or farming by tenant farmers in
the mid-nineteenth century. The area has largely lost the landscape character depicted by the
Heidelberg School painters in the late nineteenth century, and there is scant evidence that the
place has state significance for its association with the early history of the conservation movement
in Victoria.
ASSESSMENT AGAINST CRITERIA
Warringal Parklands and Banyule Flats are significant for the following reasons, but not at the State
level:
Warringal Parklands and Banyule Flats are of local significance as a remnant of an important
agricultural precinct in the Heidelberg area. They were in continuous use for agricultural purposes
for more than a hundred years after European colonisation, and are intrinsically linked to the
development of the local area. They are significant as a subject of a number of important
landscape paintings from the Heidelberg School of artists. The Sill’s Bend area is locally significant
for its remnant vegetation which demonstrates its early use as an orchard. The sports ground, the
remnants of the trotting track around it and the perimeter plantings reflect the early twentieth
century recreational use of the site. The plantings from various periods reflect changing
philosophies of park design.
KEY REFERENCES USED TO PREPARE ASSESSMENT
Graeme Butler, ‘Heidelberg Conservation Study’, Part 1 – Heidelberg Historic Buildings & Areas
Assessment, 1985;
Context, ‘Warringal Parklands & Banyule Flats, VHR Nomination Assessment Report’, Prepared for
Banyule City Council May 2014.
Don Garden, ‘Heidelberg’, in the Encyclopedia of Melbourne, online edition at
http://www.emelbourne.net.au/biogs/EM00704b.htm.
Loder & Bayly and Marilyn McBriar, ‘Heidelberg Conservation Study, Part II, Historic Riverland
Landscape Assessment, 1985;
Allom Lovell & Associates in association with John Patrick, ‘Banyule Historic Places Study’, vol 3,
Landscape Citations, 1999.
12
Name: Warringal Parklands and Banyule Flats
Hermes number: 197066
ADDITIONAL IMAGES
Oval at Warringal Park
Sill’s Bend
Old fruit trees at Sill’s Bend
13
Name: Warringal Parklands and Banyule Flats
Hermes number: 197066
Bathing spot at Sill’s Bend
Arthur Streeton, ‘Spring’, painted 1890 at the above spot
‘The Yarra Heidelberg: boys bathing’ by Charles Conder 1890
14
Name: Warringal Parklands and Banyule Flats
Hermes number: 197066
Looking over Warringal swamp area & Beverley Road Oval from west
Warringal Parklands
Banyule Flats wetlands (left) and escarpment (right) where Banyule homestead is located
15
Name: Warringal Parklands and Banyule Flats
Hermes number: 197066
Banyule homestead (VHR H
Banyule Native Gardens
Sports oval on Banyule Flats (looking to the south)
16
Name: Warringal Parklands and Banyule Flats
Hermes number: 197066
Streeton Yarra Valley at Heidelberg 1888
Streeton ‘Near Heidelberg’ 1890
Streeton ‘Still glides the stream and shall for ever glide’ 1890
17
Name: Warringal Parklands and Banyule Flats
Hermes number: 197066
Walter Withers, ‘Tranquil Winter, painted 1895. The cottage survives north of Banyule Flats,
now surrounded by suburban development.
Photo of Yarra River near Heidelberg 1890
J S Prout, ‘Vale of Heidelberg’, 1847
18
Name: Warringal Parklands and Banyule Flats
Hermes number: 197066