Victoria Park

Victoria Park is a heritage-listed park at 454 Gregory Terrace, Spring Hill & Herston, City of Brisbane, Queensland, Australia.

It was added to the Queensland Heritage Register on 3 December 2007.

Victoria Park covers an area of 27 hectares of undulating land bordered by Gregory Terrace, Bowen Bridge Road, Herston Road, Queensland University of Technology (Kelvin Grove campus) and Victoria Park Road in the suburbs of Spring Hill and Herston. Named for the reigning British monarch at the time, Queen Victoria, the park was gazetted in 1875.Victoria Park provides recreational facilities such as cricket pitches, swimming pool and golf course (redesigned with a new clubhouse in 1974). It also provides much needed parking facilities during the annual Brisbane Exhibition (Ekka) held in the adjacent Brisbane Exhibition Ground. Victoria Park will be the Venue for Equestrian events at the 2032 Summer Olympics.

Victoria Park occupies undulating land which generally falls steeply from the ridge at Gregory Terrace down to the railway line, across the railway line, north to Gilchrist Avenue. The ridge offers expansive views across to the Old Museum, RNA Showgrounds (Brisbane Exhibition Ground), Royal Brisbane Hospital, University of Queensland Mayne Medical School, Victoria Park Golf Course, Red Hill, Mt Coot-tha and across to the Brisbane CBD and beyond.A pair of Brisbane Tuff entrance gate piers stand to Bowen Bridge Road. The tall stepped and tapered Brisbane Tuff piers have dressed stone bases and dado panels with quarry-faced stone corners. Decorative metal lamp holders crown the piers.The Park has large open grassed areas and is planted with mature figs, eucalypts, shade trees, ornamental trees, palms and planted beds. The Gundoo Memorial Grove of eucalypts stands to the south east end of the park.A freestanding, single-storey red face and rendered brick pavilion, former BCC Substation No. 4 stands to the corner of Gregory Terrace and Bowen Bridge Road opposite the Old Museum. The Substation addresses the corner at an angle to Bowen Bridge Road complementing that of the more prominent Old Museum to the northeast across Bowen Bridge Road.

The Substation building is rectangular in plan with a timber-framed tiled hip roof behind a rendered brick parapet with a moulded cornice. The elevations are characterised by arch openings, accented keystones and rendered lintels. The front elevation is symmetrical about a projecting central entrance porch in which a decorative crest bearing the lettering BCC sits within an arched doorway. The front elevation end bays are capped by gable fronts to the parapet. The side elevations have parapets with a central gable front. A number of small metal plaques are embedded in the lower part of the front elevation, to the riser of the front concrete stair and to the front stone fence.A random course quarry-face ashlar wall of Brisbane Tuff runs to the front of the Substation from the Gregory Terrace corner and around into Bowen Bridge Road terminating in a tall capped pier. A small flight of stone stairs flanked by low piers within the wall defines an entrance from Bowen Bridge Road.The railway and inner-city bypass run directly through the park from the south west to the north east and divide the two sections of the park. This division is approximately 150 metres (490 ft) in width throughout the park. The northern section of the park contains several sheltered barbeque and picnic areas amid large expanses of lawn and playing fields. Gilchrist Avenue has been made a cul-de-sac. A wooden and steel footbridge has been constructed over the lake from the end of Gilchrist Avenue over the lakes. The lake contains water-lilies and high grasses. At the east end of the lake is a bronze statue.

Victoria Park was listed on the Queensland Heritage Register on 3 December 2007 having satisfied the following criteria: The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history.Victoria Park is representative of important phases of Queensland's history. It was the site of an immigration camp in the mid nineteenth century. It was important during the Depression years as the setting for many government work relief schemes. It was the site of accommodation for war brides after the Second World War and also provided temporary accommodation for returned servicemen and their families.Victoria Park was the site of an important, scientific experiment in 1913. The Terrestrial Magnetism experiment was carried out worldwide by the prestigious Department of Terrestrial Magnetism of the Carnegie Institution of Washington to measure the earth's magnetism. The place demonstrates rare, uncommon or endangered aspects of Queensland's cultural heritage.Victoria Park contains Brisbane City Council Substation No. 4, possibly the earliest surviving unaltered substation designed by architect A.H. Foster in 1928. This Substation demonstrates the way in which architectural contributions to urban design in this period were building sturdy, practical and attractive structures on a domestic scale. It is representative of the period when electricity was introduced to Brisbane and is a good example of its type. The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places.The park is an example of the works of Harry Oakman, Director of Parks for the Brisbane City Council (1948-1963) who was the first purpose-trained landscape architect to be employed by a government in Queensland. The place is important because of its aesthetic significance.Victoria Park is significant for its aesthetic values. It is an area of landscaped parkland falling from a ridge offering expansive views in all directions. The park has large open grassed areas and is planted with mature figs, shade trees, palms and garden beds. The Gundoo Memorial Grove of eucalypts stands to the south-east end of the park. The place has a strong or special association with a particular community or cultural group for social, cultural or spiritual reasons.The park is a popular recreational reserve for organised sport and informal recreation. It contains many sporting facilities such as cricket pitches, tennis courts, golf course, bikeway and swimming pool.

Saunders, Annette; University of Queensland. Applied History Centre (1999), Housing the people : Victoria Park camps 1945 to 1960, Applied History Centre, Dept. of History, University of Queensland, ISBN 978-1-86499-110-9