Generations of people have grown up next to the Darebin Creek Parkland that has
morphed from a weedy wasteland to an award winning bushland
The Darebin Parklands Association (DPA) is researching and writing a history of the Darebin Parklands. The parklands straddle the Darebin Creek between Alphington and Ivanhoe in north-east Melbourne.
We are looking for people to contribute stories about the parkland and the Darebin Creek. They may be childhood memories or first impressions or historical events. Go ahead, enter your story, don't forget to say when (year) it happened, and where in the parklands. Please include at least your first name.
Wednesday, July 7, 2010
1974 View from Pine Ridge across to railway bridge
Do you remember the parklands in the 1970s? Or perhaps the horses in Rockbeare Park?
My parents owned and operated a milk bar at 146 Grange Rd for a period around 1968 - 1972...the milk bar remains as a takeaway café today but the adjoining house has since been demolished. I have very vivid memories of the Darebin Parklands site - often used to ramble through it with friends or my elder sister - I would have been about 8/9 years old. My sister was a teenager obsessed with horses at that stage and would on occasion attempt to catch a horse in the paddock to ride it...with occasional success. The Alphington side of the parklands back then was a waste land of dreary paddocks from memory - we didn't often venture across the creek to Rockbeare Park....on at least one occasion several friends and I walked along the rail bridge depicted in the photo, there is a little platform on the side of the rails close to the central pillar which we would lie on as trains went by - once I recall myself and at least one other hanging from the railing of that platform by our hands. I visited the Darebin Parklands with my children several months ago and was astonished at the transformation - it is just unrecognisable. Just an incredible job.
My parents owned and operated a milk bar at 146 Grange Rd for a period around 1968 - 1972...the milk bar remains as a takeaway café today but the adjoining house has since been demolished. I have very vivid memories of the Darebin Parklands site - often used to ramble through it with friends or my elder sister - I would have been about 8/9 years old. My sister was a teenager obsessed with horses at that stage and would on occasion attempt to catch a horse in the paddock to ride it...with occasional success. The Alphington side of the parklands back then was a waste land of dreary paddocks from memory - we didn't often venture across the creek to Rockbeare Park....on at least one occasion several friends and I walked along the rail bridge depicted in the photo, there is a little platform on the side of the rails close to the central pillar which we would lie on as trains went by - once I recall myself and at least one other hanging from the railing of that platform by our hands. I visited the Darebin Parklands with my children several months ago and was astonished at the transformation - it is just unrecognisable. Just an incredible job.
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