- Johnstone Park, Geelong
Johnstone Park is a
landscaped garden inGeelong, Victoria ,Australia . It is bounded by Railway Terrace, Gheringhap Street, Little Malop Street, Fenwick Street, and Mercer Street. The park is surrounded by civic buildings including theGeelong Town Hall ,Geelong Art Gallery , GeelongLibrary , Geelong Law Courts, and theGeelong Railway Station . Awar memorial andbandstand feature in the centre of the park.History
The area occupied by Johnstone Park was originally known as "Western Gully", a
watercourse that drained towardsCorio Bay . In 1849 adam was built at the downstream end of the gully, near the present Gheringhap Streetroundabout . The dam was fenced off in 1851 after at least one person and several horses drowned.The area was made into a
park in March 1872, named after former Geelong mayorRobert De Bruce Johnstone . The park stretched from Gheringhap Street to Latrobe Terrace. In December that year the first bandconcert was held by the Geelong Artillery Corps band. Aoctagonal wooden bandstand was erected in the park during November 1873.The "Belcher Fountain" was installed near the park in 1874, in the middle of the Gheringhap Street roundabout. The
fountain was a gift to the City of Geelong from former MayorGeorge Frederick Belcher .The park was divided in 1872 when the Geelong
railway was extended south to Winchelsea in 1876. Afootbridge was provided across the railway line. Johnstone Park was further reduced in size in 1887, when the Gordon Technical College was built on western part of the park across Fenwick Street.1915 saw the
Geelong Art Gallery built upon the Little Malop Street side of the park. A war memorial was built in the park in 1919 to remember the local lives lost inWorld War I . The memorial consisted of a row of columns on Railway Terrace, a new bandstand in the centre of the park, and the peace memorial beside the art gallery. The bandstand is listed on theVictorian Heritage Register .The "Belcher Fountain" was relocated to Johnstone Park in 1912 when the roundabout was altered for the introduction of
trams to Geelong, being moved back to its original location in 1956 with their withdrawal. The fountain was again moved in 2006 for the purpose of restoration and relocation. It was re-installed in 2008 near its original location at the north-east corner of the intersection of Malop and Gheringhap Streets.
=References
*Peter Begg (1990). "Geelong - The First 150 Years". Globe Press. ISBN0-9592863-5-7
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