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A
Park for the People
how Pipemakers Park came to be...
From the document: 'Pipemakers Park Heritage
Conservation Analysis and Plan' - prepared for Melbourne Parks and Waterways
by Melbourne's Living Museum of the West, July 1996.
The study area was rezoned from ‘General Industrial’ to ‘Proposed
Public Open Space’ in 1976, but it was many years before the area
was developed as public open space. A number of individuals developed
landscape plans for the study area as parkland. 1.
However, a major dispute, sustained community protest and outcry and,
finally, government intervention occurred before any work began on the
development of a park.
By 29 December 1978 Melbourne & Metropolitan Board of Works were
the owners of the study area, according to the records of the Titles
Office. The Humes firm was winding down its operations at Maribyrnong
and had vacated the site by June 1980. The City of Sunshine were the
owners of an ‘L-shaped’ piece of land at the southern end
of the study area), within Crown Allotment 8, Section 21, Parish of
Cut Paw Paw, which they had purchased from the Commonwealth of Australia.
They also were managing a public reserve, known as Thompson Reserve,
adjoining Van Ness Avenue, within the western portions of Crown Allotments
8 and 9.
The Board of Works apparently had the expectation that the City of Sunshine
would re-imburse the Board for the 1.1 million dollars it had paid Humes
Ltd. for the site. The City of Sunshine indicated that it would only
be willing to pay re-imbursement of $750,000, the City of Sunshine’s
estimate of the value of the site. A dispute ensued between the Board
and the City of Sunshine as to whether the city should pay any monies
in reepect to the land, and if so, how much. It is worth noting that
by 1979, the City of Sunshine had an appointed Commissioner, as its
elected Council had been dismissed not long before. Commissioner Alec
Gillon refused to pay the 1.1 million and argued that the State Government
should contribute to the cost, Sunshine Council had already been buying
areas of open space and the Humes site would be used by people from
all over Melbourne. The dispute was referred to the Minister for Planning
Mr Lieberman. Meanwhile considerable damage was done in the study area
as a result of vandalism.
Late in 1981, the Board of Works introduced an amendment to the Metropolitan
Planning Scheme, Amendment No.157, which sought to re-zone a portion
of the study area from ‘Proposed Public Open Space’; to ‘Residential’.
This received a large number of objections and very considerable coverage
in the metropolitan and local press. 2.
Letters to the editor, a petition to parliament,
deputations to ministers and telegrams to key people were among the
strategies followed by those endeavouring to ‘save’ the site,
for its historical significance and its potential as future parkland.
Among those represented at the public hearing in relation to Amendment
157 (10,12 March 1982) were local groups such as the Maribyrnong Residents’
Association and the Sunshine & District Historical Society, academic
historians, architects, planners, lawyers, teachers, environmentalists
and conservationists. The National Trust and the Royal Historical Society
of Victoria opposed the rezoning. The M.M.B.W. stated at this hearing
that it did not want the site and that it was of no metropolitan significance.
An application to the National Trust resulted in the classification
of the bluestone buildings in the study area. 3.
At a hearing of the Historic Buildings Council, the owners, the Board
of Works, opposed registration of the bluestone buildings. However,
a recommendation was made to the Minister that the buildings be added
to the Register of Historic Buildings. Because of new legislation and
the establishment of two registers, the final stage of the registration
process resulted in the bluestone buildings being added to the Government
Buildings Register.
Amendment No 157 never went ahead. The Board of Works, under a new Chairman,
Ray Marginson, provided fencing for the bluestone buildings , which
were being severely vandalised, and commissioned an investigation and
conservation report in relation to the study area. Melbourne’s
Living Museum of the West came into being in July 1984 and approached
the Board of Works in October 1984, regarding use of the complex of
bluestone buildings for its future activities. Negotiations regarding
this proposal took several years .
The Board of Works convened a public meeting in Maribyrnong in 1985
to assess support for a range of options in relation to the study area.
The Board also advertised for expressions of interest regarding development
of the ‘Humes site’. The Commonwealth Employment Program provided
funds for a team of people who worked on the site. The State Government
and Federal Government agreed that a major Bicentennial project would
be allocation of monies to waterways. This included a grant of $2million
for works along the Maribyrnong River and a grant of $2 million for
work on the study area, as ‘historic parkland’. Community
groups contributed to initial tree planting and had represention on
the project steering committee.
Bicentennial
Project
Bicentennial Project Site inspection with MMBW and staff from the Heritage
Unit, Department of Planning & Environment, discussed restoration
of buildings, and removal of some Humes period sheds. There were recommendations
that architectural plans and a photogrammetric survey be carried out
(as originally proposed in 1982-3) and that an oral history about the
site be prepared. This meeting also recognised that ‘the early
portion of Building 6 and Building 7 combine to allow an interpretation
of the development of Humes manufacturing processes during their occupancy
of the site. 4.
It does not appear that the photogrammetric survey was ever carried
out, although various 35.mm and medium format standard photography was
undertaken during the building program, even though the need for the
photogrammetry was confirmed several times in correspondence from both
the MMBW Waterways & Parks division, and the Heritage Unit of the
Department of Planning and Development.
As part of the development plan, an ‘Investigation and Conservation
Report’ 5.
was commissioned, which,
while not carried out in consultation with the Historic Buildings Council,
confirmed the significance of the 19th century buildings. Subsequent
correspondence from the Historic Buildings Council also stressed the
significance of the later Humes structures.
The overall landscaping was initially designed as part of a student
project by Stephen Scott of RMIT, who was subsequently commissioned
to carry out further work by the MMBW. 6.
Many of Scott’s design concepts were incorporated
in later landscape designs by MMBW landscape architect, Jacinta Bartlett.
7.
Other architectural opinion on the site seemed to conflict. For example,
An architectural assessment by Graham Fisher concluded that no buildings
on the site were of sufficient importance to warrant preservation .8.
[The Melbourne & Metropolitan Board of Works purchased the site
in 1978 from the Humes Pipe Co. for use as public open space at the
request of the Sunshine City Council on the understanding that it would
be transferred to the Council on agreement to reimburse the Board. As
agreement was not reached, the Board remained as owner.] Initial development
options were considered including use as a local park, development of
an industrial museum and use of buildings for community programs.
A program of works was recommended by the PRPR committee which included
stabilisation and preservation of the bluestone buildings; preparation
of a detailed development plan; building a landing stage, works depot,
and toilet block; refurbishing part of the Humes pipe works as a sample
of the pipe production process; and outfitting the bluestone buildings
to a limited extent to allow public use. All but the last two were subsequently
carried out, primarily as part of the $2 million Bicentennial development
grant. An assessment of potential commercial operations in the park
was carried out in 1988
9. and a feasibility report
for interpretive developments of Building 7 was carried out for the
MMBW in 1991.
10.
The development of nature conservation areas has also been part of the
strategy for Pipemakers Park, and a report on the management of wetlands
was prepared in 1991. 11.
As part of its operations in the park, Melbourne’s Living Museum
of the West carried out an Interpretation Plan for the park in 1990.
12.
1.These
included Don Marsh (1974), Rudolph Arends and Brian Stafford (1981).
2. 473 objections to the re-zoning were received. For examples of press
coverage, see ‘The Battle over the bluestone’, Herald, 11
December 1981, p. 9; ‘‘Re-zoning a threat - river locals’,
The Sun, 22 December 1981, p.44; ‘Land Proposal is unmitigated
gall’, The Mail, Footscray, 8 December 1981 (leader); ’Residents
condemn river land zoning’, Essendon Gazette, 16 December 1981,
p.1; ‘River Fight intensifies’, Footscray Advertiser, 28 January
1982; ‘‘Save river site call’, Sunshine Advocate, 3 February
1982, p.1. For examples of letters to editors, see the Age, 26, 28 January
1982; Sunshine Advocate, 16 December 1981.
3. National Trust File no. 4730. Dr Alan Beever represented the National
Trust at the re-zoning hearing and the H.B.P.C. hearing.
4. Humes site, Maribyrnong, site visit 11 October 1984 (Ray Tonkin,
Geoff Lawler Heritage Unit, Department of Planning & Environment,
Peter Hornidge, Wendy Jacobs, MMBW]. MMBW file 731/329/0043.
5. Rod Elphinstone, Humes Historic Site
6. Stephen Scott, Humes Pipe Works Lower Maribyrnong, RMIT, 1985; Stephen
Scott, Landscape Master Plan, Hume Pipe Works, Department of Landscape
Architecture, Faculty of Architecture and Building, RMIT, November 1985.
7. Jacinta Bartlett, Pipemakers Park -former Humes Site - Van Ness Avenue
Maribyrnong, Status Report, MMBW 16/12/1988.
8. Guildford Bell & Graham Fisher, Architects, ‘Humes Factory
Site, Architectural Assessment of Buildings’, report to MMBW, December,
1984.
9. Ernst & Whinney Services. Final Report, Commercial Use of Pipemakers
Park, report to MMBW, December 1988.
10. David McCabe Design Pty Ltd & Nina Stanton & Associates
Pty Ltd, Feasibility Report, to MMBW, December 1991.
11. Chris Riseley, Wetlands at Pipemakers Park, Recommendations for
management, report to MMBW, 8 February 1991.
12. Gary Vines, Draft Interpretation Plan for Pipemakers Park, Melbourne’s
Living Museum of the West, 1990.
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