Melbourne Golf Courses

The Royal Park Golf Club, formed in 1903, has been the nursery for many golfers who went on to make a mark in the golfing world, including Peter Thomson (club champion at the age of 16, in 1945) who won the Open Championship (sometimes known as the British Open) 5 times, Gus Jackson and Mick Ryan.

Royal Park is the largest of Melbourne’s parks, covering 188 hectares. The large open spaces make it hard to believe you are still in the city but the excellent facilities mean it’s a popular place for recreation and relaxation.

Whether walking or cycling through grassland and woodland, surveying the city skyline from expansive hilltops, kite flying by day or star gazing by night, visitors will find much to enjoy in Royal Park.

Designed as native bushland, Royal Park contains interesting remnants of the area’s indigenous vegetation, with an abundance of eucalyptus and casuarina trees.

Today, it is being progressively converted into an Australian landscape with a wetlands habitat and water recycling project planned for the future.

Royal Park was an important Aboriginal camping ground and fell within the territory of the Doutta Galla people, with whom John Batman made his infamous land deal in 1835. Described by Batman as being, ‘thinly timbered with gum and wattle and she-oak’, the development of parkland and grazing on the site erased most of the natural vegetation. Royal Park is a remnant of a much larger reserve of 625 hectares (2 500 acres) set aside for recreation purposes by Governor Latrobe in 1854. On his last day in Melbourne he permanently reserved the area now known as Royal Park.

The first agricultural farm of about 35 hectares was established here in 1858. In 1860 Burke and Wills set out from Royal Park to cross the continent from south to north. Perishing on the return journey, they became heroes and a cairn now marks the departure point of their ill-fated expedition.

In 1868 and again in 1878 the size of Royal Park was reduced for housing allotments. In the 1880s more land was lost to make way for trams, trains and roads.

The Zoological Society was first given 8.25 hectares on the present site of Olympic Park in 1857. In 1861, as the Zoological and Acclimatization Society, it moved to Royal Park. The 12.5 hectares, granted and fenced in this area, have belonged to the Zoological Gardens ever since.

In more recent times the enclosures have been re-designed to resemble the animals’ natural habitats. The zoo is open every day of the year from 9am to 5pm.

The Park was used for the stationing of troops in both the First and Second World Wars. Camp Pell remained after the war and the army buildings were used as temporary housing until 1960. The Urban Camp now uses the one remaining structure to provide accommodation for rural school children and other groups (for information about accommodation at the Urban Camp visit: www.urbancamp.org.au). In the intervening years another 2.5 hectares were transferred to the Royal Children’s Hospital.

Thousands of Australian troops were stationed here for training in 1927 in readiness for the official opening in Melbourne of Australia’s first Parliament.

In 1933 Melbourne City Council and the Victorian Government signed an agreement where in return for maintaining the sites of the western and eastern markets, Melbourne City Council was to improve and maintain several city areas, including Royal Park. The Council was to spend $50 000 over five years improving the park and $10 000 annually maintaining it.

The Netball Association opened its $128 000 stadium in 1969. This stadium was replaced in 2000 by a $27 million State Netball and Hockey Centre with improved facilities for players and spectators.

In the 1970s the City of Melbourne took over the Royal Park Golf Club for public use, an attractive Australian Native Garden was opened, barbecues and picnic tables were added, a site was chosen for kite enthusiasts, and horses were available for hire. In the same decade Grace Fraser designed a garden of Australian plants near the Gatehouse Street entrance. Its trees, shrub beds and pond make a beautiful spot for a picnic. As with most Melbourne parks, recreation and games were an early feature. Today cricket, football, lacrosse, baseball, tennis and golf are played in the Park, which is also home to the State Hockey and Netball Centre.

From its earliest years, Melbourne’s largest park developed in piecemeal fashion. Since 1984, when a Master Plan was prepared to unify the fragmented landscape, thousands of trees and shrubs have been planted to evoke a natural woodland, such as John Batman encountered in 1835.

The Royal Park Master Plan, adopted by Council in 1998, guides the future development of the Park. To view the Master Plan in full, please click on the link on the right.