The Greater Shepparton Heritage Advisory Committee wants to hear your recollections as it works towards designing and installing interpretive heritage signs within the city’s Victoria Park Lake precinct.
In 1853, the area was home to a mounted police camp before grazing cows inhabited the land in the 1880s.
Then, in the early 1900s, the park was named in honour of Queen Victoria before an ornamental lake was proposed at the site.
As the 20th century progressed, sporting greens, fields and courts were added, along with a public swimming pool (including waterslides and competition-height diving boards), a caravan park, watersports clubs, a skate park and playgrounds that have seen many transformations, with equipment including that old steam engine Bella to the flying foxes on the foreshore today.
The Apex Club even hosted dances on the island in the lake’s centre in times gone by.
“I remember the time I used to go there as a child when there were seesaws, swings, slides, monkey bars,” GSHAC signage sub-committee member Robyn Slee said.
“We’re chasing up as much information as we can.
“There were speedboats and kiting, and stories about it being a swamp.
“There was the service station that was there, lots of other things, softball was played there.”
The GSHAC signage sub-committee has installed 62 plaques on heritage buildings in Greater Shepparton as part of its Blue Plaque program, and says the Victoria Park Lake precinct also needs heritage interpretation, given its historical and cultural importance and its popularity as a community recreation and tourism hub.
It is currently seeking submissions from the community, so that it can provide “concise historical information and photographs depicting the evolution of the Victoria Park Lake Precinct” for the signs, which will be installed at six points around the lake.
Each sign will also include a QR code for more information and have a different theme, including a historical significance map of the lake precinct, the John Pick park and playground area, sporting and recreational history, cultural significance, First Nations and the Raymond West Swimming Pool.
The aim is to provide the area with enhanced heritage awareness, support tourism and visitor engagement, educate school and community groups and preserve cultural heritage for future generations.
To share any historical information or memories about Victoria Park Lake, contact the Shepparton Heritage Centre on 03 4831 8659 or email info@sheppartonheritage.com.au
