(Not) Royal Park: Recovering the Enduring Importance of a Kulin Nations Gathering Place for Culture, Health, Wellbeing and Healing.

Royal Park, Parkville, an area of windswept and open parkland just north of central Melbourne, has a long and complex history that has been well documented in historical studies and cultural heritage reports. Set aside early in the colony after La Trobe and his council petitioned for an area of 2560 acres to be reserved for “public advantage and recreation” and named in honour of the distant English monarch, it was quickly whittled down to 700 acres after gold was discovered. Land was needed for housing, experimental agriculture, a zoo, psychiatric asylum and hospitals in the rapidly expanding colony and this empty patch of land in close proximity to the town centre seemed suitable for ready appropriation. Later, during both world wars, it was used for a military camp that was subsequently taken over for low-cost housing, which became a notorious slum, before it was reclaimed as an area for sport and open space.