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 Warrs 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.