Heany Park Heritage

Heany Park Heritage created by Ray Peace

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Summary

An exploration of some of Rowville's lesser known heritage sites, including Heany Park Lake, and the remains of some early public utility infrastructure few have seen

Description

The walk is mostly on footpath, with a few detours into less urban surrounds, and also some of the area's best scenic views. The streets themelves tell some of the stories, but there are also links to early civil engineering works, recreational activities from times past, and also a dark chapter in Australia's history. Rowville today is a modern, well-developed suburb. But there are still some visible traces of the district's rural past, and a rich history of people who lived in Rowville when the area was still a remote rural district, as indeed it was not so long ago.

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Points of Interest

1. Wellington Village shopping centre

Start/Finish point, also water and toilets. The complex is still owned by the Gearon family, who had it designed to meet high environmental standards, and thus benefit the local community

2. Emerson reserve

While the reserve is recent, the large spreading oak tree is remnant flora, from a time when Rowville was mostly dairy farms rather than suburban homes

3. linking footpath

This recently completed section of path provides a link for walkers and cyclists in quiter, greener surrounds than adjoining suburban streets

4. Heany Park

This was the district's most popular swimming spot in the 1940s, frequented by thousands of people. The lake still exists today, but is no longer open to the public

5. Nocera reserve

This is optional with the barbed wire fence, but the reserve is council, not private. Inside is an access portal to the 1893 Belgrave-Dandenong water pipeline, and part of a 1920s aqueduct, plus views

6. Street names

Local street names carry their own story. Gearon Pde has been noted. There's also streets named for the former Kilcatten Park homestead, and the Golding family, who lived there for decades

7. Providence Place

This innocuous slope has been recently bulldozed. A series of pits lined this slope. In 1942, Lieut. Col George Knox used these for Army machine-gun training, as he expected a Japanese invasion here!