History Mystery Monday: What was Buckley Park before it was Buckley Park?

 

Buckley Park is a wonderful green space in Essendon, home to a tennis club, bowls club and the Essendon Doutta Stars football club. But it wasn’t always a space for recreation and has been through many changes- what used to be on the land that we now call Buckley Park?

Post European settlement, the land was granted in 1850 to Mr William Hoffman, one of the few Germans living in the area at the time. It was bounded by Hoffmans Road, Keilor Road, Buckley Street and Hedderwick Street. The allotment was later known as Buckely Park Estate and was quite a large bit of land, most of which was used for grazing. Hoffman built his original residence in 1867, and named it ‘Butzbach’ after a town in Germany. It was a lovely large bluestone homestead, near what is now the corner of Nimmo Street and Spencer Street.

A section of the original Doutta Galla County of Bourke Parish Allotments, drawn and reproduced at the Department of Lands and Survey, Melbourne, Victoria. Courtesy of the State Library of Victoria.

Buckley Park Estate was cleared and subdivided for housing in 1883, and the Butzbach residence was purchased by the Croft family in 1884. It was quite the place to be for social events such as weddings and garden parties! An article in the Melbourne Punch from 1888 describes a fine event at the estate attended by 150 juvenile guests- it included a merry-go-round, and dancing until the late hour of 10pm!

By 1915, the residence was again sold, and purchased by Edwin Graves and occupied by the Graves family. He renamed the residence ‘Benalta’ at the outbreak of World War I. The residence remained Benalta until its demolition in 1949.

In 1935, blocks at the northern end of Buckley Park Estate were purchased by Essendon Council, in order to create a recreational reserve for local residents. A lot of debate went on throughout the war time years regarding the use of the Buckley Park land- there has been reference to some 90 fibro-cement war cottages built on the site, as accommodation for workers at the Ammunition Plant during world war two. Developers were keen to clear the land post-war in order to build a housing estate, but the land was eventually set aside for the original purpose of providing a green space for the local community.

From the late 1940s, Buckley Park began its transformation into the recreation reserve that was much needed by the community at the time, and that we still enjoy now.