pipemakers park

The site, now known as Pipemakers Park, is located off Van Ness Avenue, Maribyrnong (see visit / contact us for further details).

The park comprises approximately eight hectares, bounded on the west by Thompson Reserve, on the north by Van Ness Avenue, on the east by the Maribyrnong River and on the south by the former Commonwealth Defence Department land, now the Edgewater housing estate.

Pipemakers Park is owned and managed by Parks Victoria. The Park is in the City of Maribyrnong and the suburb of Maribyrnong (formerly part of the City of Sunshine).

Thompson Reserve is a council-owned park adjacent to Pipemakers Park, and along with other Council and Commonwealth-owned land adjoining the Parks Victoria land on the south side of the park, is managed by the City of Maribyrnong in co-operation with Parks Victoria.

Melbourne's Living Museum of the West occupies the historic bluestone buildings for its office, resource centre and exhibition space. These buildings are leased from Parks Victoria.

The site is located on the flood plain and escarpment edge of the Maribyrnong River Valley, with some buildings coming within a few metres of the river bank. Several of the buildings have floor levels below the 'one in a hundred year flood levels'. Entrance to the site is from Van Ness Avenue, at the junction with Gordon Street and Warr’s Road. This is also one of the entrances to Highpoint City Shopping centre, which is built in the former bluestone quarries at the top of the escarpment to the west of the park.

This site was the location of several significant historical industrial enterprises including an early boiling down works, railway engineering foundry, one of Australia's earliest and largest meat canneries, the first meat freezing works in Australia, and one of the first reinforced concrete pipe works in Australia. Evidence of each of these stages can be found in documentary records, surviving structures and archaeological evidence. For more information about the history of Pipemakers Park go to park history in the exhibitions section.