Alistair Knox Park, an oasis of peace and beauty. Covered under National Trust of Australia (Victoria) Landscape Significance and Heritage Overlay, Nillumbik Planning Scheme. Published: Nillumbik Now and Then /​ Marguerite Marshall 2008; photographs Alan King with Marguerite Marshall.; p173 It is hard to imagine that the Alistair Knox Park, an oasis of peace and beauty beside busy Main Road, Eltham, was once the township’s rubbish dump. It was only in the 1970s that the tip was transformed into this beautiful six hectare space, which later earned it a National Trust Landscape classification. Before its life as a dump, the area was used for small farms. Thanks largely to the foresight and efforts of local environmental builder Alistair Knox, the park was designed sympathetically with the character of the wider Eltham landscape. Then, appropriately, the park was named after Knox, who was an Eltham Shire Councillor from 1971 to 1975 and Shire President in 1975. The park designers were four major forces in the urban bush landscape garden –Knox, landscape designer Gordon Ford, artist Peter Glass and landscaper Ivan Stranger. The National Trust citation for the park, originally called Eltham Town Park, includes the Eltham railway trestle bridge and the Shillinglaw Cottage. The citation states ‘the semi-natural setting of the parkland provides a landscape which is evocative of the history of the area’. Manna Gums (Eucalyptus viminalis) and Candlebarks (Eucalyptus rubida) are significant features. Most of the park’s construction was directed by Bob Grant, Superintendent of the Parks and Gardens Department for the Eltham Shire Council. First plantings occurred in Arbour Week in 1973, then the lake and botanic area were completed in 1975, with Federal Government funding, and the toilet block in 1978. Bounded by the Eltham railway line, Panther Place, Main Road, Bridge and Susan Streets, the park is in a valley about a kilometre wide overlooked by steep hills at the east and west. The Diamond Creek flows through it and the picturesque historic timber trestle railway bridge edges the north. Informal plantings of Australian indigenous and native species in open and undulating grassed settings blend with the natural landscape of the Diamond Creek to the west. The bush-style plants, particularly around the creek, balance with open lawns, paths and a cascade flowing from a small lake to another below. A footbridge over the creek leads to the park’s west. The park includes an adventure playground and barbecue areas. The park stands on part of the land bought from the Crown in 1851 by Josiah Holloway, who subdivided it into allotments and which he called Little Eltham. Most of the land was subdivided into residential lots, but the creek valley, on which the park stands, was subdivided into farm-size lots, used mainly for orchards and grazing. One of the earliest owners was John Hicks Petty, who in 1874 bought a plot from Holloway. Other families who owned properties in that area, included Rees, Clark, Waterfall, Graham, Hill and Morant. In 1901 the railway was built through the area. Jock Read, an Eltham resident since around 1920, remembers several farms in the 1920s and ’30s that occupied the site of today’s park. A poultry farm, which extended from present day Panther Place, was owned by the Gahan family. Next to that farm was another for grazing cattle owned by Jack Carrucan. Beside this was land owned by John Lyon. A doctor lived beside this, and at the north-west corner of Bridge Street and Main Road stood a memorial to the soldiers who died in World War One, which was later moved to the RSL site. Mr Read also remembers other farms and orchards west of the creek In the early 1960s the Eltham Council began buying these farms and in the late 1960s turned the areas east of the Diamond Creek into a garbage tip. When this was filled above the creek’s flood plain, the tip was moved to the west of the creek.This collection of almost 130 photos about places and people within the Shire of Nillumbik, an urban and rural municipality in Melbourne's north, contributes to an understanding of the history of the Shire. Published in 2008 immediately prior to the Black Saturday bushfires of February 7, 2009, it documents sites that were impacted, and in some cases destroyed by the fires. It includes photographs taken especially for the publication, creating a unique time capsule representing the Shire in the early 21st century. It remains the most recent comprehenesive publication devoted to the Shire's history connecting local residents to the past. nillumbik now and then (marshall-king) collection, alistair knox park, eltham

Roll of 35mm colour negative film, 7 stripsKodak GC400-8diamond creek, eltham, floods, wingrove park

Roll of 35mm colour negative film, 7 stripsKodak GC400-8diamond creek, eltham, floods, wingrove park

Part of a presentation on "Significant Trees, Wildflowers and Local Gardens" by Russell Yeoman to the 10 November 2004 Eltham District Historical Society meeting35mm colour positive transparency (1 of 36) Mount - white (Pakon)significant tree, wingrove park, eltham

35mm colour positive transparency Mount - Black and Whiteeltham, shire of eltham, sign, wingrove park

Part of a slide show presentation "A Trip Down the Diamond Creek" by Russell Yeoman to the Eltham District Historical Society meeting of 14 Nov. 200135mm colour positive transparency Mount - Black and Whiteeltham, alistair knox park, art in public places, ernst fries, public art, surveyor of suburban environs (1991)

The Heidelberg School Artists Trail was established in about 1999 with about 52 signs across four local governemnt areas including Nillumbik and Banyule. It extends from Heidelberg through Eltham and Warrandyte and to the Dandenongs. It features signs depicting paintings of artists in the location in which they were painted. This one acknowledges "On the Eltham Road", 1906. Transcription of the text states: "In this cheerful rural landscape, Walter Withers has captured the spirit of early Eltham. Eltham was a quiet, sleepy village, where geese wandered up the main Road and the locals either walked or rode their horses or bicycles around the township. Walter Withers was known to load up his bicycle with his collapsible easel, folding stool, paint box, water bottle and canvases, and would head off for a day’s painting. He was also known for his walking, as was his family, and they became known as the ‘Walking Withers’ Part of a slide show presentation "A Trip Down the Diamond Creek" by Russell Yeoman to the Eltham District Historical Society meeting of 14 Nov. 200135mm colour positive transparency Mount - Black and Whiteeltham, alistair knox park, heidelberg school artists trail, on the eltham road, public art, sign, walter withers

35 mm colour positive transparency Mount - Agfacolor Service (Blue)eltham, floods, wingrove park

Colour photographeltham, alistair knox park, art, classical landscape, cliff burtt, sculptures

Colour photographeltham, alistair knox park, art, sculptures, ernst fries, surveyor of suburban environs (1991)

Postcard showing two views of people walking dogs through the park. Mel: 21 J6eltham, alistair-knox-park, walking, trail, postcard

Black and white photograph reproduced on p96 of 'Pioneers & Painters' Shire of Eltham Pioneers Photo Collection, no. 684 (duplicate of hard copy held at Eltham Library)pioneers and painters, sepp, central park, eltham

Iron sculpture by Cliff Burtt welcomes visitors to the Gateway of Eltham. It was constructed of Corten Steel in 1994 and won the Eltham Public Art Award in 1996. “Award winning sculptor, Cliff Burtt, often references the geometry of architectural forms in his bold, minimalist public sculptures. In this corten steel work the repeated arches of the temples of antiquity are in dialogue with the nearby spans of the railway trestle bridge that cuts through the Eltham parkland. The formality of the architecture is offset by the organic sweeps of the top profile of the work, which playfully acknowledges the hilly topography of the region” – Highlights from the Nillumbik Art Collection Two colour photographs of iron sculptureclassical landscape, sculptures, art, parks, alistair knox park, eltham, cliff burtt, public art

Digital copy of colour photographfred mitchell collection, 2015, kangaroo ground, eltham war memorial park, war memorial tower

Digital copy of colour photographfred mitchell collection, 2015, kangaroo ground, eltham war memorial park, war memorial tower

Digital copy of colour photographfred mitchell collection, 2015, kangaroo ground, eltham war memorial park, war memorial tower

Digital copy of colour photographfred mitchell collection, 2015, kangaroo ground, eltham war memorial park, war memorial tower

Digital copy of colour photographfred mitchell collection, 2015, kangaroo ground, eltham war memorial park, war memorial tower

Digital copy of colour photographfred mitchell collection, 2015, kangaroo ground, eltham war memorial park, war memorial tower

Digital copy of colour photographfred mitchell collection, 2015, kangaroo ground, eltham war memorial park, war memorial tower

Digital copy of colour photographfred mitchell collection, 2015, kangaroo ground, eltham war memorial park, war memorial tower

Digital copy of colour photographfred mitchell collection, 2015, kangaroo ground, eltham war memorial park, war memorial tower

Digital copy of colour photographfred mitchell collection, 2015, kangaroo ground, eltham war memorial park, war memorial tower

Digital copy of colour photographfred mitchell collection, 2015, kangaroo ground, eltham war memorial park, war memorial tower

New bronze plaques installed for the November 2001 re-dedication of the memorial. In 1999 flour floodlights were installed to illuminate the tower for a short period each night, courtesy of a Telstra grant.shire of eltham memorial park, driveway, kangaroo ground, floodlights, kangaroo ground tower, lighting, shire of eltham war memorial

New bronze plaques installed for the November 2001 re-dedication of the memorial. In 1999 flour floodlights were installed to illuminate the tower for a short period each night, courtesy of a Telstra grant.shire of eltham memorial park, driveway, kangaroo ground, floodlights, kangaroo ground tower, lighting, shire of eltham war memorial

New bronze plaques installed for the November 2001 re-dedication of the memorial. In 1999 flour floodlights were installed to illuminate the tower for a short period each night, courtesy of a Telstra grant.shire of eltham memorial park, driveway, kangaroo ground, floodlights, kangaroo ground tower, lighting, shire of eltham war memorial

New bronze plaques installed for the November 2001 re-dedication of the memorial. In 1999 flour floodlights were installed to illuminate the tower for a short period each night, courtesy of a Telstra grant.shire of eltham memorial park, driveway, kangaroo ground, floodlights, kangaroo ground tower, lighting, shire of eltham war memorial

Five-fold DL size colour brochure printed both sides2015, eltham festival, program

Was reclaimed and developed into part of Eltham Town Park, later Alistair Knox Park.Digital copy of colour photographfred mitchell collection, 1968, main road, alistair knox park, eltham town park, eltham tip