Flagstaff Gardens - History

History

With the establishment of Melbourne in 1835, the first deaths in the colony were buried on high ground between William and King Streets, in what was colloquially called Burial Hill. The hill had panoramic views of the small colony, the Yarra River and Port Phillip.

• 1838 - Melbourne cemetery was marked out in what is now the Queen Victoria market, and burials continued at that location.
• 1839 - Superintendent Charles La Trobe first included the site as part of the green belt encircling Melbourne which included Batman's Hill, Carlton Gardens, Fitzroy Gardens, Treasury Gardens and the Kings Domain.
• 1840 - a flagstaff was erected on the hill as part of a signalling system between the town and ships in the Port of Melbourne. The flagstaff proved too small and the following year a fifty foot (15 m) flagstaff was erected.
• 11 November 1850: site of announcement of Victoria’s Separation from the Colony of New South Wales, resulting in celebrations with a huge bonfire with about 5,000 townspeople in attendance.
• 1853- establishment of the Melbourne cemetery
• 1857 - cutting excavated to ease the gradient of King Street. This created the bluestone retaining wall of the high bank along the western boundary.
• 1857-1863 - A Magnetic Observatory and Weather Station was established by Georg von Neumayer on the hilltop. William John Wills worked here as an assistant before being appointed to the Burke and Wills expedition. The observatory moved to the Kings Domain when the Melbourne Observatory was established, as iron in the buildings surrounding Flagstaff Hill were affecting Neumayer's magnetic observations.
• 1860s - the telegraph supersedes signalling by flags.
• 1862 - West Melbourne residents petition the government to turn the hill into public gardens or recreation reserve. Clement Hodgkinson, the Deputy Surveyor-General in charge of city parks, prepared a plan for the gardens and directed its implementation.The Fitzroy and Treasury Gardens were also designed by him.
• 1871 - Memorial to Melbourne’s pioneers erected.
• 1873 - Gardens permanently reserved
• 1880 - establishment of path network, lawns, trees and flowerbeds.
• October 9, 1917 - the City of Melbourne was appointed responsible for the Flagstaff Gardens.
• 1918 - children’s playground established, one of the first in Melbourne.
• 23 March 2004 - gardens formally added to the Victorian Heritage Register.