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A
Detailed History of Pipemakers Park
From
the document- 'Pipemakers Park Conservation Analysis and Plan',
Melbourne's Living Museum of the West, 1996
Geographic
Context
Pipemakers
Park is located in the Maribyrnong River Valley. It includes flood plain
and escarpment edge land. At the northern extreme of the park the river
meander approaches the foot of the western escarpment of the river.
This probably resulted in a small cliff on the river bank which would
have been difficult to traverse for anyone following the west bank of
the river (as later demonstrated by the considerable earth works required
for the construction of Van Ness Avenue). The historic buildings in
Pipemakers Park are located at the foot of the escarpment, and therefore
at the edge of the flood plain, and several have been set back into
excavations in the hillside.
At the top of the escarpment is the edge of the Keilor-Werribee plain,
characterised by deep layers of very dense bluestone, formed by lava
flows from effusive volcanoes to the north west between one and three
million years ago and known as the “Newer Volcanics”. At the
bottom of the escarpment are Tertiary sediments known as the “Red
Bluff Sand” and other volcanic layers known as the “Older
Volcanics” which underlay the basalt and have been exposed by the
cutting-down of the river valley. In some places the sediments show
colourful staining as a result of strong mineralisation. The flood plain
is formed from alluvial sediments - heavy clays, silts and some minor
gravel lenses known as the ‘Coode Island Silt’ - and lies
naturally about one to three metres above the normal high watermark.1
The banks of the river would have been under constant erosion and sedimentation,
prior to the construction of the artificial rock beaching in the 1930s.
Much of the flood plain in the park has been raised between one and
two metres, by the dumping of fill and factory waste.
The river is tidal adjacent to the park, and remains so up to a once
natural ford at Avondale heights, about 18 kilometres from the mouth
of the river. The flood plain is still regularly inundated every seven
to ten years, with major floods in 1906, 1911, 1916, 1947, 1974.
1.Geological
Survey of Victoria, Melbourne Sheet, SJ55-1. Mines Department 1974.
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