History
It was the site of the Williamstown Racecourse from 1864-1940, which was closed in 1940 to make way for an army camp during World War II. The site was extensively modified by land filling and site development; and known as the Altona Sports Park before its current name was adopted.
The remnants of the Williamstown Racecourse Grandstand and a palm tree at the entry to the Grandstand still remains. A 4-metre sculpture called Requiem for a Champion, created by the artist Yvonne George, featuring a bronze stint perched on top of a galloping horse, was installed to commemorate the location of the former Williamstown racecourse.
Read more about this topic: Altona Coastal Park
Famous quotes containing the word history:
“I am ashamed to see what a shallow village tale our so-called History is. How many times must we say Rome, and Paris, and Constantinople! What does Rome know of rat and lizard? What are Olympiads and Consulates to these neighboring systems of being? Nay, what food or experience or succor have they for the Esquimaux seal-hunter, or the Kanaka in his canoe, for the fisherman, the stevedore, the porter?”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“It takes a great deal of history to produce a little literature.”
—Henry James (1843–1916)
“In history the great moment is, when the savage is just ceasing to be a savage, with all his hairy Pelasgic strength directed on his opening sense of beauty;—and you have Pericles and Phidias,—and not yet passed over into the Corinthian civility. Everything good in nature and in the world is in that moment of transition, when the swarthy juices still flow plentifully from nature, but their astrigency or acridity is got out by ethics and humanity.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)