The hidden stories of Flagstaff Gardens

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MUSIC: Backbay Lounge Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

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MORE INFORMATION

My website: https://philipmallis.com

Royal Historical Society of Victoria Walking Tour of Flagstaff Gardens: https://www.historyvictoria.org.au/product/flagstaff-walking-tour/
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SOURCES
https://philam.github.io/videonotes/flagstaffgardens

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I acknowledge the traditional owners of the lands on which this video was filmed, the Wurundjeri Woi Wurrung people. I pay respects to Elders past, present and emerging, and their extensive and continuing connection to land, water and country.

One of the biggest natural features in the city is Flagstaff Hill here in the north-western part of the CBD. This 7.7 hectare site is bounded by King Street, Dudley Street, William Street and La Trobe Street and is very popular. It has lots green space, recreation facilities and historic sites. It’s often overshadowed by its more famous cousins – the Fitzroy, Carlton and Treasury Gardens, but it still played a big role in the early European settlement of Melbourne and continues to influence our city today. Prior to all this being built of course, the people of the Boonwurrung and Woiwurrung nations lived here, who called this place ‘Bre-jerreny-wun’. I’m also pleased to announce that this video is brought to you by NordVPN. VPNs unlock heaps of new opportunities on the internet, like accessing content that’s not available where you live, and helps to maintain your security and privacy by masking your identity. There are heaps of VPN providers out there, but I both use and recommend NordVPN. This is because of its commitments to privacy, extensive features and cross-platform capabilities. If this all sounds great, you can check out a special offer – 4 months extra for free on a two year plan using this code on the screen now – nordvpn.com/coffeepalace. And with this you also get access to discounts for other services to protect your files, through Nordlocker, and your passwords, using Nordpass. They also offer a 30 day money-back guarantee, so you can try it risk-free. Again, you can check out the link in the video description below to get those 4 months free in a two year plan. And now back to today’s topic. After the establishment of Melbourne in 1835, conditions in the early years of the colony were pretty grim, and the sea voyage here even grimmer. So high on the list of priorities was a place to bury the dead. This is how Flagstaff became the first informal cemetery for the settlers – quickly becoming known as ‘Burial Hill’ – although only seven people were interned here between 1836 and 1837 – the first being Willie Goodman, the son of James Goodman, on 13 May 1836. After 1837 it was closed and new burials were moved to Melbourne’s first official cemetery nearby – which today is much of the Queen Victoria Market. At the time Melbourne was still a small settlement, and the only means of transport and communication to almost anywhere else was by boat. As a result, the height of the hill and its beautiful views over Port Phillip quickly became noticed by authorities for maritime uses. So in 1840 a signal station was built here. This was to relay messages between ships in Port Phillip and the shore. And this is where Flagstaff Hill gets its name. A tall flagstaff flew flags that showed arriving ships and also had a bulletin board where the latest shipping news was published for people to look at. It also had a black ball raised on the staff, that was dropped at noon as a time signal for people to set their clocks. As a result, it became a popular place for people to hang around when ships arrived. If you wanted to be the first to hear the latest news and information – informally known as ‘News from the Bay’ – then this would be the spot to wait. This appears to have created Flagstaff Hill as a sort of informal town square with events and gatherings happening all the time throughout the 1840s and 50s. This included regular performances by a visiting British Army band of the 40th Regiment in a rotunda, formal ceremonies like swearing in new governors of Victoria with 21 gun salutes, and even reports of duels – although I haven’t been able to find any evidence of this. This then is how it came to be associated with one of the most important events in Victoria’s modern history – Separation Day. This was when Victoria formally became its own colony, separate to New South Wales. Flagstaff was the first place where news arrived confirming, that after many years of lobbying, Victoria had finally received Royal Assent to separate from those pesky northerners, on 11 November 1850. It’s hard to overstate just how happy people were to hear the news – there was an immediate four day public holiday, fireworks, official openings, parties and heaps of other public celebrations across the entire colony. Today there is a plaque and memorial here to recognise the important role that Flagstaff Hill played in this momentous series of events. This was built in its centenary in 1950. There is a lot more to talk about Separation Day so I will do a video at some point talking about this in more detail. As for Flagstaff Hill, the signal station and its flagstaff were decommissioned in the mid-1850s. This was because newspapers were becoming the most popular way to share news, despite some public outcry. The flagstaff itself was actually badly damaged while being dismantled and snapped, with only the topmost fragment being reinstalled. Soon after this is when the next use for the hill was found. After extensive lobbying by visiting German physicist Georg Balthasar von Neumayer for using the now-vacated space, the Flagstaff Observatory began operating in March 1858. It was a pioneering piece of scientific equipment and a lot of important work took place here, including a full magnetic survey of Victoria and regular weather observations. But for some reason one of their neighbours decided that it would be a great place to set up a sawmill in 1859. And to make matters worse for the Observatory, a quarry was built too – some of the gravel of which was used to pave nearby streets. Yet nother disruption for the poor scientists was the construction of iron houses nearby which caused disturbances to their delicate magnetic instruments and observations. This then sparked discussions about moving to a better spot – which happened in 1863 when the Melbourne Observatory was built next to the Royal Botanic Gardens, parts of which are still there today. As for Flagstaff Hill, this is the point where it began its long journey to becoming the beautiful gardens that they are today. With the departure of the observatory, some began considering how else the land could be used. After some political agitation by local residents and groups, Flagstaff Hill was formally designated as a park. It seems to have been called ‘Flagstaff Hill Reserve’ – at least informally – before ‘Flagstaff Gardens’ became the official name in an 1873 Act of Parliament. The original gardens were designed by the Assistant Commissioner for Crown Lands and Surveys, Clement Hodgkinson, who designed many other gardens around Melbourne, including the Fitzroy Gardens. It took some time to completely build the gardens to the full plans of Hodgkinson , and they weren’t fully finished until 1880. But when it was finally done, the former cemetery now boasted paths leading through a park, together with a dense collection of trees, ornamental gates, statues and at least one pond. But over time these were changed or removed – and today none of the sculptures remain, many of the paths are different and the ponds are gone. Part of the reason for the removal of the statues and sculptures may actually have been complaints from some residents. Angry letters to local newspapers worried about depictions of naked or semi-naked human bodies, such as this one from 1869, bemoaning the, quote, "bad taste of the introducers of such images" and the "immoral tendency of our youth" Other complaints soon followed, including letters about the apparently poor state of footpaths and outraged condemnations of the council about the types of trees they had planted. There were also persistent complaints in the late 19th and early 20th centuries from some of the upper crust of Melbourne society about the perceived illegal activities and, quote, ‘undesirable’ persons who apparently loitered in the park. Flagstaff Gardens then continued to be used as a gathering place. Events, musical performances and even auctions were held here throughout the late 19th and early 20th centuries, including at the bowling club that was first built in 1878. The first major proposal and controversy was only a few years after the gardens were established. In 1868, the Melbourne City Council planned to build new public baths on part of the park to cater for the rapid increase in population. But a group of local residents formed a committee to lobby against the proposal, claiming various objections. Among them was that it would bring the great unwashed public too close to their pure and clean neighbourhood for comfort, as several residents at a community meeting stated that, quote, "the residents of West Melbourne cleansed themselves before leaving their homes". Later in 1908, a proposal to rename the area to Batman Gardens, after John Batman, failed to get support, and soon afterwards in 1913, the remaining parts of the original flagstaff were blown down by wind. Then in 1918 the gardens narrowly avoided being at least partially converted back into a cemetery. An Act of Parliament had authorised the expansion of the Queen Victoria Market onto what was the Old Melbourne Cemetery – which you’ll remember was the replacement for Burial Hill back in 1837. One condition of the expansion was that the early settlers buried there would be relocated, and the Market authorities wanted to move 196 of them into Flagstaff Gardens – effectively replacing the playground, which had only very recently been built, with tombstones. After vigorous protests, the Market made the move smaller – from 196 people to just 50, and consolidated into 10 stone memorials. But there were still a lot of people against this, which ended up with the Council eventually deciding to move the remains of about 600 people in the Old Melbourne Cemetery to Fawkner instead. The memorial to John Batman was the only one that remained, which is still at the Market to this day. Afterwards though, there was ongoing agitation to build a new memorial called the "Temple of Pioneers" in Flagstaff Gardens as a consolation. Several changes that did go ahead though were gradual alterations to the original garden design. This is why Flagstaff Gardens today has quite a different look and feel to Fitzroy Gardens – which was, as we mentioned, designed by the same person in the same era. Many of the trees were removed and replaced with grass and low shrubs, while other items, like the statues and the pond, were simply removed altogether. This was mostly done through the 1930s. One final story that I’d like to share is from 1856. This was during the height of the Goldrush and people were very much on the lookout for any opportunity to strike it rich. So one Sunday on 10 August 1856 a practical joker quietly distributed brass filings in a gravel pit, that can look like gold, located on the west side of Flagstaff Hill near King Street. Word of a rich discovery of gold spread quickly and by 2pm that afternoon, hundreds of people descended upon Flagstaff Hill with shovels, kitchen forks, sticks, parousels, and even their bare hands all hoping to share in the spoils. Newspaper and eyewitness accounts describe men, women and children in their Sunday best, having recently come from church, on their hands and knees digging through soil, gravel and mud. The hoax did not come to light until later when testing showed that the so-called nuggets and gold dust were in fact no such things. Today Flagstaff Gardens are busier than ever. According to Melbourne City Council, it is the most intensively used park in the municipality by area. The ginko tree planted near the caretaker’s cottage is the largest in Victoria, and there are many other beautiful trees. Two Italian cypresses remain from the time that this was Burial Hill and the small memorial at its peak to commemorate Separation Day is still there. There is a stone memorial built to commemorate the seven original people buried here, whose bodies were moved to Fawkner Cemetery in 1871. Although often overlooked as the poor cousin of Melbourne’s impressive collection of inner city parks, Flagstaff Gardens has stood the test of time and is a beautiful place to be. And if you’re interested in learning about the Gardens, the Royal Historical Society run walking tours – I’ve included a link to their website in the description below. Thanks for watching! If you enjoyed it and would like to see more, please subscribe to my channel to stay up to date on future videos. Thanks again, and I’ll see you next time!