The Borderlands: A brief history of Glen Iris Park
- scraze
- Nov 14
- 8 min read
The Glen Iris Park we know today is a historic name given to a collective of sports ovals, accompanying car parks, and a wetland sandwiched between the Glen Waverley Railway Line and Monash Freeway to the east, High Street to the north, Muswell Hill to the west and Dunlop Street and the Malvern Valley Golf Course to the south.
It’s safe to say that today, despite the constant freeway traffic noise and the high-density powerlines, the entire expanse looks the best it ever has since the time of the Wurundjeri.
But back in their day, it was a very different place. Then it was a fertile and low-lying wetland, populated by tea-trees and large River Red Gums that kept the topsoil from washing away when the creek running through it flooded. KooyongKoot, as the Wurundjeri called it, was prone to regular flooding events that rejuvenated fish stocks and the plant life kangaroos and wallabies fed on.
The arrival of British settlers in 1836 saw the creek become colloquially known as Gardiner’s Creek and the area Glen Iris Valley. They hacked down the native plants and trees to install fences, pasture, orchards and market gardens. The once beautiful KooyongKoot became a litter-strewn disease-bearing drain and sewer. The Wurundjeri who survived this devastating onslaught either moved inland to the Dandenongs or ended up on missions for their own “protection”.
Unfortunately, the degradation begun then would take well over a century to even begin recovering.
The dividing line
The only constant over the years was how the Creek was always the historic dividing line between two local government areas. To the east was the Shire of Boroondara (called the City of Camberwell from 1914) and to the west, the Shire/City of Malvern. In the mid-1990s, these were expanded and re-named Boroondara and Stonnington.
But the creek always remained the physical, economic and ideological border between them.
The Glen Iris Valley began to urbanise in the early 1920s. For the City of Camberwell, their share of the Valley was a chunk of boggy wasteland in the far-flung and scarcely populated South Ward. Its councillors begrudgingly inspected it once a year and rarely thought about it the rest of the time.
But for the City of Malvern, the Valley was important green space. By the turn of the 20th century, it presented valuable recreational opportunities in a rapidly developing suburban district that directly connected down High Street to the City’s administrative heart on Glenferrie Road.
It is no surprise then that the City of Malvern drove the creation of the area that became known as Glen Iris Park.
The beginning of the Park
The lands of Glen Iris Park began their European settlement life not as a parkland at all but as part of a large estate with a mansion situated about where Waverley and Malvern Roads intersect today.[1] By 1888, eager to make some pounds on the impending Glen Iris Railway Line, the Estate owners sub-divided the western hillside section closest to the train station into villa and business sites.
The early relationship between the Shires of Malvern and Boroondara tended towards fraught civility with flare ups of acrimony. Most of this was caused by financial tension over who would pay for the ongoing maintenance of the High Street bridge that traversed the Creek and connected the two districts.
Glen Iris Park began with a rare act of unity when, in 1896, the two Shires teamed up to apply to the Victorian Government for the permanent reservation of two acres of land bordering High Street.[2] Their success did little to resolve their concurrent dispute du jour over who would pay for the High Street Bridge’s sole lamp.
Perhaps as a gesture of good will, Boroondara Shire threw a bit of money towards landscaping the new High Street Reserve and then promptly forgot all about it.
Malvern, on the other hand, developed more concrete plans for its usage. With the train from the City now arriving at nearby Glen Iris Station, the Council devised a plan to create the “Eastern Recreation Reserve”, comprising of the land between High Street and Wattletree Road down to the Creek. Despite difficult economic circumstances caused by the 1890s depression, they invested in fencing, landscaping and employing a caretaker to maintain it, including the small cottage situated on it.[3] If they could ignore the deplorable state of the creek down the hill, this gave visitors a reason to visit Glen Iris on the train.
In 1905, the Victorian Government passed the Water Act 1905. This ensured creeks and waterways that had previously been privately owned, like Gardiners Creek, were now Crown land. It established the State Rivers and Water Supply Commission to manage all the State’s water needs. Now with over 100,000 acres of waterway to manage, it would be some years before the Commission turned its attention to cleaning up Gardiner’s Creek and taking on Boroondara and Malvern’s borderlands.
A sporting utopia
Despite the state of the creek, with the opening of the Prahran tram in 1915 down High Street to Glen Iris Station, Malvern decided to purchase an additional 30+ acres around the High Street Reserve to create sporting ovals. This greatly expanded the opportunity for men to play sport just at the time they needed it.
For servicemen returning to a world that did not wish to acknowledge the psychological scars of a terrible war, sport became an important emotional outlet and a way to reconnect with their communities. By 1918, men began playing the first games of cricket on the new Glen Iris oval (the T H King Oval today). Although it still required a lot of work and battles over funding, this would begin an association with cricket that continues today.
Meanwhile, more comprehensive plans for recreation emerged through the formation of the Glen Iris Valley Recreation Club by a group of residents of East Malvern, Gardiner, Glen Iris and Darling. In 1921, they approached Malvern Council for a parcel of land in return for finding the money to develop it for bowling greens, tennis courts, croquet lawns and building a clubhouse.[4] At first, they had their eye on what would become Hedgeley Dene Gardens. Then Malvern Council offered a large tranche of land between Glen Iris and Darling Railway Stations. Eventually, they acquired a chunk of land sandwiched between Brixton Rise, on the north side of High Street, and Gardiner’s Creek.
From that time on, Malvern began buying more land further south along its side of the creek, including a playing field at Basil Street (Basil Street Reserve), and the first chunks of land that would eventually become the Malvern Valley Golf Course.
As you can see above, don’t make the mistake of thinking these sports grounds were the beautifully manicured and appointed ovals we see there today. Quite the opposite. Glen Iris was still rural enough that users of the sports grounds regularly complained to Council about wandering cows and sheep on the sports fields well into the 1930s.
By 1928 Malvern’s expanses of sporting fields attracted many teams. Below is an extract from the 1928 Parks & Gardens Committee Minutes indicating that Malvern was even prepared to let SOCCER be played there, no doubt to the horror of the soccer-haters over in Camberwell.
Meanwhile, the City of Camberwell was watching Malvern’s recreation development with some alarm. Its side of Glen Iris was now beginning to urbanise too. Residents wanted their own recreation space and were agitating for Council to build bridges over the Creek so they could use Malvern’s sports grounds. There was more bickering with Malvern over having to pay for them.
Worried it would be outdone, Camberwell coughed up for its own oval on its side of the Creek up near High Street. It called the land “Glen Iris Reserve” and the oval “Glen Iris Oval No.2”. This unhelpfully distinguished it from Malvern’s “Glen Iris (South)” and “Glen Iris Oval”.
The terrible floods of 1934 meant the Victorian Government finally got around to implementing some engineering into Gardiners Creek to try and contain it during heavy rain. This helped the sports grounds around High Street survive but further south, the Camberwell side of the borderlands on the opposite side of Darling Park (now the Dorothy Laver Reserves) were left as pasture for the next several decades.
Naming the Reserves
It took a few decades before each of the reserves earned themselves a distinguishable name from the old “Glen Iris” moniker. They were both named after long-term Councillors at around the same time. Coincidence? Maybe.
Eric Raven Reserve
The former “Glen Iris Oval No. 2,” was renamed Eric Raven Reserve in December 1965 after the long-term Camberwell Councillor and Mayor. Raven was a staunch supporter of local sport, driving the abolition of the Council’s anachronistic ban on playing sport on Sundays until he retired.
T H King Oval
The original Glen Iris Oval, T H King was a long-term Malvern Councillor and Mayor, first elected in 1933 and still on council by 1952. I’m yet to find when the name changed but you can see from this pre-freeway street map below from the 1970s, that the oval is still not marked as T H King.
You can also see from this map on the right that the Glen Iris Valley Recreation Club is right in the crosshairs of the impending freeway. But don’t worry, they sold up and bought a chunk of land near the Riversdale Golf Club (another survivor of urban development) on High Street Road in Mount Waverley, where they are still going strong today.
The Glen Iris Park Wetlands
The lovely park area between T H King Oval and Darling Park is called the Glen Iris Park Wetlands.
According to Stonnington Library: “The Glen Iris Park Wetlands were established along Kooyong Koot/Gardiners Creek following construction of the South Eastern Arterial Road Link [in the mid 1980s]. The wetlands consist of three separate water bodies of various size and character, linked by bluestone channels, and a weir on Hedgeley Dene Drain. The wetlands were filled in spring 1989 with vigorously spreading aquatic plants and extensive fringe plantings of indigenous trees, shrubs and ground floor species. Fallen dead trees, nesting boxes and an island were incorporated into the wetlands development to provide birdlife with safe nesting sites. The wetlands were lined and packed with clay obtained free of charge from the Chadstone Shopping Centre development. This clay lining, necessary to minimise leakage, was completed by May 1989. The three lakes were allowed to fill naturally to a depth of one metre. After the timber boardwalk and viewing deck were completed, more water was pumped from Gardiners Creek and aquatic plants were added. The Glen Iris Park Wetlands were officially opened on behalf of Mayor Cr. Barry Fenton by Cr. George Pepperell on the 14 April 1991.”
These days, the old Glen Iris Park is part of a linear network of parks and ovals accompanied by cycling and walking paths that stretch all the way to the City. Begun in the 1920s, it is enjoyed by tens of thousands of people every year. But it was never intended as a public amenity. Instead, the three councils of Malvern, Camberwell and Hawthorn teamed up to buy the land to stop “unsavoury” people occupying it.
But that’s a whole other story.
References
[1] "Land Sales," Advocate, 3 November 1888.
[2] Strahan, Lynne, Private and Public Memory: A History of the City of Malvern (Hargreen Publishing Company, 1989). 6
[3] "Malvern Shire Council," Prahran Telegraph, 5 April 1890; "Malvern Shire Council," Prahran Telegraph, 24 June 1893; "Malvern Shire Council," Oakleigh Leader, 7 May 1898.
[4] Cooper, John Butler, The History of Malvern (Melbourne: Specialty Press, 1935). 229
Thanks for sharing.
My parents bought a block of land and started building a house in Raymond St. Ashwood in 1963 and we moved there in 1964. I went from Collingwood Tech to Jordie Tech in 1965 &1966.
(Then to RMIT in 1967, and Ashwood High to do Matric.)
The teacher I respected most was Miss Appleby who taught Pure Maths, plus and Calculus & Applied Maths. WOW!!
FYI while in my early teens and being a cadet, I would carry a .303 Lee Enfield Rifle on the trains from Victoria Park Station (via Flinders/Princes Bridge Stations) to Jordanville Station without any kerfuffle.
How times have changed!
BTW I'm trying to get a copy of the Publication "Once there was…