thumb|Sunset at Royal Park
The Royal Park is a urban park located in the suburb of Parkville, north of the Melbourne CBD, in Victoria, Australia. The park is the largest of Melbourne's inner-city parks.
The Melbourne Zoo, established in 1862 as the Royal Melbourne Zoological Gardens, is located on a site within the park. The park includes many sporting facilities including the Royal Park Golf Course, football and soccer ovals, baseball and cricket pitches, State Netball & Hockey Centre, tennis courts, and cycling and walking paths.
On the corner of Gatehouse Street and Royal Parade there is a native garden. There are wide vistas of grassland and lightly timbered areas with eucalypts, casuarina, and acacias. A wetlands area was developed in 2005.
The Melbourne City Council has administered the park since 1934 and operations are informed by a master plan. In 1860, the park was the departure site for the Burke and Wills expedition; and during both World War I and World War II, the park was used as a major military camp, training ground, mobilisation, and deployment site.
The park is located on the traditional lands of the Wurundjeri Woi-wurrung people.
Wildlife
The park is home to many native animals such as possums, and a rich variety of birdlife which includes: Pacific black duck, chestnut teal, white-faced heron, brown goshawk, collared sparrowhawk, Horsfield's bronze cuckoo, Australian hobby, galah, red-rumped parrot, eastern rosella, superb fairy-wren, white-plumed honeyeater, spotted pardalote, white-browed scrubwren, grey fantail and red-browed finch.
The park is home to a regionally significant population of White's skink (Egernia whitii) and a section of habitat is maintained specifically for this species.
Sporting fields and facilities
The park is home to the State Netball & Hockey Centre, which hosts games in the trans-Tasman netball and international hockey matches. The nine-hole Royal Park Golf Club is notable for being the place where Peter Thomson first learnt his craft.
The park has many open sporting fields including the Brens, Flemington Road, McAlister, Poplar, Ransford, Ryder, Walker East, Walker West, and Western ovals, the Ross Straw Field, and several tennis courts and clubhouses.
History
Early history, to 1933
thumb|Melbourne city skyline panorama, as seen from Royal Park
In the early years of European settlement Wurundjeri campfires were sometimes seen in the vicinity of Royal Park, although the Yarra people generally preferred camping beside the Yarra River or Merri Creek.
thumb|Royal Park's grassland oval from above
In 1850, the Victorian Colonial governor Charles La Trobe set aside as a reserve for parkland and open space. In 1852, parts of this were sold to become part of the new suburbs of Carlton and North Melbourne. Also that year, some of the land become the Melbourne General Cemetery. 1853 saw part of the reserve become the home of the University of Melbourne.
On 5 May 1854—the last day of La Trobe's service in office Further excisions followed for roads, Upfield railway line (1884), Melbourne Zoo horse tramline (1890), Royal Park psychiatric facility (1907), West Coburg electric tramline (1925), and the University High School (1929). The park was used for military encampments during World War I.
Modern history
thumb|[[Royal Children's Hospital, Melbourne|Royal Children's Hospital, viewed from the park]]
Further excisions occurred including for Camp Pell (1942), the Royal Melbourne Hospital (1944), the Royal Children's Hospital (1957, and returned to parkland in 2013 Sections of the old hospital were demolished and restored as of parklands. Additional facilities, including a new playground, was installed in the park.
<!-- WP:BOLD = hide content for the time being. Seems unnecessary. ==== Master Plan design competition ====
Following many years of agitation by resident groups and various failed planning attempts, in 1984 the Melbourne City Council held a design competition that was judged by representatives of the Australian Institute of Landscape Architects, Royal Australian Institute of Parks and Recreation, Melbourne University's School of Environmental Planning, and the Council.
The winning entry by landscape architects Brian Stafford and Ronald Jones expressed a philosophy that the character of the Park was inherent in its form – 'a place where the earth swells, the dome of the sky soars overhead and the horizon beckons'. A sense of the landscape at the time of Europeans’ first encounter with it was to be evoked by planting indigenous species and enhancing the park's spacious quality, principally through a process of 'editing' rather than adding new features. The aim was 'to provide a park for persons rather than machinery, for individual public activity rather than restricted private institutions, and for psychological recreation as well as physical activity'.
The plan proposed extensive planting of indigenous trees, while the expansive hilltop in the park's south-east was to be cleared and planted with native grasses. A network of walking and cycle paths was proposed, along with works to reduce the impact of traffic and parking, including closing through roads, rebuilding a large section of Macarthur Road as a tunnel, and reorganising car parks.
The plan was greeted with consternation. Sporting groups were concerned with a potential loss of facilities; the Zoo administration wanted more parking rather than any attempt at control; there was concern for maintenance of motor routes; and The Age highlighted the intent to 'rip out' exotic trees. Council adopted the Master Plan – in principle and subject to various qualifications – after three years of debate.
The first works to implement the plan were completed in the early 1990s. Two new ovals were graded near Flemington Road to allow removal of the sports grounds, changing room and car park perched on the hilltop in the park's south-east, which now has uncluttered views of Melbourne's skyline. A new pond was formed, featuring rockwork by the landscape designer Gordon Ford.
A new layout for access and parking around the Zoo was finally agreed upon after a decade of negotiation between the Council and Zoo. Reorganization of the car parks, closure of various roads, development of forecourts to the zoo's main entry and extensive new plantings were completed in 1997.
A formal review of the Master Plan commenced in 1996. This included extensive public consultation that identified overwhelming support for the principles established by the winning entry in the 1984 Royal Park Master Plan Design Competition. The Master Plan as reviewed endorsed the objectives of the 1984 document and introduced proposals such as a major wetland water recycling project west of the railway line; approved by Council in November 1997. After the games, the site developers, Australand and Citta Property Group, were to further develop the site, provide for additional parkland, develop 200 homes for public housing and ta 100-bed aged-care facility. Opponents criticised the building of the village citing the destruction of more than 1,000 trees, demolition of four hospital buildings pending a heritage listing, and denigration of the heritage value of the remaining buildings, a lost opportunity to return a development back to public parkland, and privatisation of public lands.
Sporting groups criticised security arrangements for the athletes' village with large sections of the park and sporting grounds having security fencing erected for the exclusive use of athletes. This disrupted many community sporting associations from their regular use of sporting facilities.
Transport
The Upfield railway line travels through Royal Park with Royal Park station being a convenient stop for the Melbourne Zoo.
A light rail for trams runs through the park, which is served by route 58 to both West Coburg and Toorak. The route 19 tram runs up Royal Parade, to the east of the park, which operates northbound to North Coburg, and southbound to Flinders Street station. Two tram routes also run up Flemington Road, to the west of the park. The routes 57 and 59 operate in a northbound direction to West Maribyrnong and Airport West respectively. Both routes operate to Flinders Street station in a southbound direction.
The Capital City Trail for cyclists follows the railway line through Royal Park from the Moonee Ponds Creek Trail at Flemington Bridge, past Melbourne Zoo, and under Royal Parade along the converted Inner Circle railway line to Princes Park.
Gallery
<gallery>
Royal Park Melbourne.jpg|Burke and Wills expedition cairn with the Melbourne skyline
State Netball Hockey Centre.jpg|State Netball & Hockey Centre, 2017
Fruition by Matthew Harding.jpg|Sculpture in the park, 2024
White-naped Honeyeater (21434114525).jpg|White-naped Honeyeater in the park, 2015
</gallery>
See also
- Parks and gardens of Melbourne
- Heritage gardens in Australia
- List of heritage-listed buildings in Melbourne