Moonee Ponds History
Moonee Ponds is a suburb of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, 7 km north-west from Melbourne's central business district. Its local government area is the City of Moonee Valley. At the 2018 Census, Moonee Ponds had a population of 127,883
Moonee Ponds is home to Queens Park and the Moonee Valley Racecourse.
Moonee Ponds Name:
Moonee Ponds according to The Argus in September 1934, was first known as Moonee Moonee Ponds
which meant 'plenty of small flats'. The same paper quoted a Marl L. Meagher, who suggested that the name derived from John 'Lang' Moonee, a former British soldier who was Crown grantee of allotments now incorporated in and around Moonee Valley Racecourse. It is also claimed that 'Moonee Moonee' was an aborigine attached to the Mounted Police who died in the Wimmera in 1845.
2 Sep 1845 – Mumbo returned to HQ and reported the death of his comrade Moonie Moonie after an absence of five months with Mr. Powlett’s party at the Wimmera (VPRS 90, PROV). There are
Mount Alexander Road was named as its original destination was to the Gold Fields of Mount Alexander, now known as Castlemaine. Thousands of hopeful prospectors poured into Melbourne after gold was found in Victoria in 1850.
The Clocktower Centre was originally constructed as the Essendon Mechanics' Institute 1879. The total cost was expected to exceed £4,000, Thats $770,000 for 2016. Mayor John Parry proudly opened the institute on 21 September 1880.
By November 11th 1913, the foundation stone for the renovated hall was laid and reopened to the public on the 14th July 1914 by Mayor Cr. J. F. Henderson. By 1930 the tower had been built and a place was allocated for the clock to be installed.
In 1973 it was decided to be turned into a Community Centre, on January 16th 1978, a fire took place, the fire burnt much of the interior but was fortunately brought under control before causing any further damage, it was rebuilt in 1979 and some of the original features were kept, the tower is the only original structure remaining today. Today it is primarily used as a large theatre. As well as serving for some international, interstate and local functions, the centre has a number of conference rooms.
It is named after its prominent clock tower.
Queens Park, Moonee Ponds
Queens Park used to be called Victoria park, after Queen Victoria. The War memorial is located at the corner of Kellaway Ave and Mount Alexander Road. The War Memorial is a large obelisk that commemorates those who have served in the World Wars.
Following the discovery of gold in Victoria in 1851, travellers heading for the goldfields met here because fresh water was available in the lagoon. Queens Park was originally used as a water reserve for travelling stock. It was also known to fortune seekers as the first camping ground on the way to the gold diggings.
The War Memorial
The curators cottage, a curator is a person who looks after gardens. The cottage was built in 1890.
Burke & Wills
1860
On 20 August 1860, the Burke and Wills expedition camped near here on the first night of their journey. The name Queens Park was selected to honour and commemorate the Golden Jubilee of Queen Victoria. Around Queens Park, you will find Elms, Pepper Trees, Bunya Bunyas, Moreton Bay Figs, Flame Trees and more. The two cannons at the corner of Pascoe Vale Road and Kellaway Avenue were presented to the citizens of Essendon in 1906. The old curator’s cottage dates back to 1891.
Burke & Wills Campsite
Cross Mount Alexander Road opposite the bowling club. On the median strip, you will find a cairn marking the spot where Burke and Wills camped on the first night of their fateful journey in 1860. There was once a large gum tree here under which they sheltered for the night. One last stroll around Queens Park will also lead you to another visual marker dedicated to the Burke and Wills expedition, before returning to your point of origin at the War Memorial.
The Bourke and Wills stone marker
Bourke and Wills full story
Bourke and Wills Tree 1860
Moonee Ponds Creek
The Moonee Ponds Creek is a creek and major tributary of the Yarra River running through urban Melbourne, Victoria, Australia from northern to inner suburbs.
It is rural in its upper sections near Greenvale, passing across basalt plains around Woodlands Historic Park, just north of Melbourne Airport. Towards its mouth it is hemmed in by the Cenozoic caps of Essendon and Royal Park before joining the Yarra River.
Through the heavily urbanised areas it flows through it is best characterised as a concrete stormwater drain.
It winds its way through the suburbs of Westmeadows, Meadow Heights, Tullamarine, Broadmeadows, Gowanbrae, Glenroy, Strathmore Heights, Oak Park, Strathmore, Pascoe Vale, Pascoe Vale South, Essendon, Brunswick West, Moonee Ponds, Ascot Vale, Flemington, Parkville, North Melbourne (where its artificially widened section is named Railway Canal) before joining the Yarra River at Melbourne Docklands.
History
Before European settlement, the Moonee Ponds Creek was the home of the Wurundjeri People of the Kulin nation. Though there are no written records it is probable that the creek takes its name from an indigenous inhabitant Moonee Moonee, who, along with Tullamareena, burnt down and escaped from the first Melbourne gaol in 1838.
The Port Phillip area was first settled by Europeans in 1835. The first land sales in the area of Strathmore on Moonee Ponds Creek were made in 1843 and 1845.
The creek formed a series of marshy ponds on the floodplain, with extensive salt water marshes near its entry to the Yarra river known as Batman's lagoon. With rapid development of Melbourne due to the Victorian gold rush in the 1850s, the swamp quickly became a receptacle for waste waters from Flemington, North Melbourne and Parkville.
In 1879 Batman lagoon was drained and filled to make way for the North Melbourne railway yards at its northern end. At its southern area, the filled in marshes were called Dudley Flats, where impoverished people scrounged building material from the land-fill tip to build shelters and huts during the 1930s depression.
In the 1890s the lower Moonee Ponds Creek was used as a canal for barges carrying coal to the North Melbourne Locomotive Depot.
In 1950s and 1960s the Melbourne Metropolitan Board of Works (now called Melbourne Water) realigned and concreted the creek from Strathmore to Flemington Road, in an attempt to stop periodical flooding.[3] The modifications were part of extensive urban development of the lower floodplain. For much of its length through the northern suburbs it is now characterised as a concrete stormwater drain that parallels the Tullamarine Freeway.
In 1998 the Moonee Ponds Creek Co-ordination Committee Inc (MPCCC) was founded to oversee planning, restoration, education, and development of guidelines and policies aimed at protecting and enhancing the Creek and its tributaries. The MPCCC members are each of the four councils (Hume, Moreland, Moonee Valley and Melbourne) and the Friends of Moonee Ponds Creek. MPCCC also has excellent working relationships with Melbourne Water, Parks Victoria, Department of Sustainability, Department of Primary Industries and Port Phillip and Westernport Catchment Management Authority.
Court House
The former Essendon Court House was built in 1890 and was in operation as a Court House until the mid 1970s Located on the corner of Kellaway Ave and Mt Alexander Rd.
The former Essendon (Moonee Ponds) Court House, designed by Public Works Department district architect S.E. Bindley and constructed in 1889.
It is architecturally significant as a successful and complete design in the style associated with public buildings of that era and compares to Moonee Ponds railway station.
The significance of the building is enhanced by a similarly near original Construction dates Architect/Designer Other Names Hermes Number Property Number interior and furnishings.
The Former Court House is now a beautiful Museum run by the Essendon Historical Society
Essendon Historical Society
The Incinerator / Art House
The Essendon incinerator complex at 180 Holmes Road, Moonee Ponds was built in 1929-1930 and operated until 1942.
The City of Essendon commissioned world-renowned architect Walter Burley Griffin and engineering company REICO in 1929 to build a state of the art and world-leading incinerator. They wanted a building to house the furnaces that would burn the city’s waste but not look like an industrial facility.
Griffin’s proposal achieved this by following the principles of Prairie School architecture that were developed earlier in his career in Chicago with local architects including Frank Lloyd Wright. His aim was to create a building that fitted harmoniously into its environment.
The two surviving buildings comprise a large reverbatory incinerator building with three incinerator units and distinctive 8m high chimney, and an adjacent two-storey plant-store and workshop building. The incinerator is constructed of reinforced concrete and brick, rendered externally. This building is dominated by its asymmetrical, terracotta tiled roof. Three furnaces survive internally, largely intact.
In its time REICo incinerators established a new standard in the effective disposal and management of municipal waste through incineration, as well as providing vastly improved working conditions for the related council staff.
The plant-store and workshop building was designed and constructed under the supervision of the city surveyor for the City of Essendon.
It survives substantially as designed, although there have been minor modifications to the interior and some original features have been removed. The iron gate to Holmes Road is believed to be original.
The incinerator complex is architecturally and historically significant for its important associations with the Griffins and with Eric Nicholls, who ran their Melbourne office. Its distinctive design is representative of the decorative interests of the Griffins. The designs set a new standard in Australia in the design of industrial buildings that could be accommodated within developed municipal areas rather than being banished to the unpopulated fringe. It is significant in terms of both its architectural expression, and its integration to the topography of the site and character of the surrounding built environment.
The complex is historically and technologically significant as the earliest surviving of the thirteen incinerators in Australia designed by Griffin's office and Nicholls, and is the only surviving Griffin incinerator in Victoria. It is believed to be the most intact of six surviving incinerators by Griffin's office. It is one of just three reverbatory incinerators surviving in Victoria. The incinerator is the only surviving RIECo reverbatory incinerator in Victoria.
The City of Essendon’s new building was lauded for its beauty and effectiveness and used until it was decommissioned in 1942. It was left to deteriorate until 1984, when the City of Essendon reopened the facility as a community theatre before closing again after a few years due to funding issues. Its arts legacy was not long forgotten though, with the site undergoing a conservation program, reopening as a multi-arts facility in 2004 as the Incinerator Arts Complex.
The venue was renamed the Incinerator Gallery in 2011 and refocused on a new plan to establish it as a premier visual arts destination in Melbourne’s West.
What's going on at the Gallery
Time Line
Maribyrnong River Valley Settelment
Boiling Down Works
Joseph Raleigh established a boiling down works on the banks of the river in the 1840s. the buildings were adapted to the Melbourne Meat Preserving Company works in 1868, and then taken over by Humes Pipe in about 1911. In the 1980s the MMBW purchased the site and developed it as parkland and home to the Living Museum, opening in 1984
Pipemakers Park is located in the inner western suburbs of Melbourne in the city of Maribyrnong, on the western bank of the Maribyrnong River near Highpoint Shopping Centre. The park was created on the site of a former pipe works and meat preserving company, and retains historic buildings adapted to a museum and interpreted industrial ruins.
The park was formerly managed by Parks Victoria but in 2014, Maribyrnong City Council took over management of this and the adjacent Burndap Park and Frog Hollow.