Lambton Park

Next month (November 2015) will be the 125th anniversary of the opening of the rotunda in Lambton Park in 1890. The park itself is older, and had a very uncertain beginning. The main difficulty was that much of the land east of Morehead St through to Hamilton was the “Newcastle Pasturage Reserve” or “Commonage”. Many people had built in this area without having any legal title to the land under their houses.

As early as 1871 Lambton Council was making application to the Minister for Lands to have some of the Commonage dedicated as a Park, but the legal uncertainties meant that nothing happened for years. The current site of Lambton Park began to be developed as a recreation ground in 1876, but without it being officially gazetted, the council and residents were reluctant to invest much time, money or effort into the park.

Frustration at years of government inaction finally came to a head in June 1883. At a public meeting, Mayor Thomas Croudace led the way in addressing the principal problem of what to do with the residents who had built houses on the park site. He offered cheap sites in the new subdivision between Pearson and Kendall streets, arranged for financial compensation, and even the physical relocation of their houses. The offer must have been good, for two weeks later the paper was reporting that …

“The work of removing houses from the proposed Recreation Reserve is still going on, under the supervision of his Worship the Mayor of Lambton, who has a large staff of men, together with teams of horses, engaged in the work. Four have now been removed bodily on rollers; their appearance and transit through the streets is a novelty and causes quite a sensation.”

Eventually 43 houses were moved, development of the park then progressed rapidly, and its future was finally assured when the government gazetted the land as a public park on 21 May 1887.

Lambton Park
Lambton Park 1908. Ralph Snowball. University of Newcastle. Living Histories.

Lambton Park 2015
Lambton Park 2015

The article above was first published in the October 2015 edition of the Lambton Local.

Additional Information

The pivotal role of Thomas Croudace in establishing Lambton Park is memorialised in an inscription on the park gates erected in 1918 on Morehead Street. (Note that Croudace was actually Mayor of Lambton 1883 -1885, and again in 1893.)

Inscription on gate pillar of Lambton Park: “Thomas Croudace Mayor 1884-5 Founder Of This Park”

Newspaper articles

Article Date Event DateNotes
12 Sep 1871
8 Sep 1871
Petition from ratepayers asking Lambton Council to request the Government to allocate 6 acres of land at Griffith's Flat as a public recreation reserve. The residents have already stumped,cleared and leveled the ground. Griffith's Flat is the area around the southern section of Verulam Rd, as shown shaded in purple below.
GriffithsFlat
10 Oct 1871
6 Oct 1871
Council to survey the area of ground at Griffith's Flat requested by the residents as a recreation reserve.
4 Nov 187112 acres surveyed at Griffith's flat. The young men fond of cricket have cleared the area of trees and stumps.
18 Jul 1872
16 Jul 1872
Minister favourable to granting application for reserve, but still nothing done.
23 Nov 1872 Discussion on the legal problem of the Commonage, and a call to have some uninhabited area of the Commonage reserved for public recreation.
6 Jun 1874
2 Jun 1874
Lambton council passes a motion "That the application to the Minister for Lands, made some two years ago, for a piece of land on Griffiths' Flat for recreation ground for Lambton be renewed, and the Minister be urgently requested to grant it without further delay."
1 Apr 1876"For some time past a number of young men have been engaged clearing away the scrub from a portion of the Commonage at the low end of the township, for the purpose of making a cricket ground. They have now nearly finished their work, and the ground looks very well."
22 Mar 1877
20 Mar 1877
Lambton council to make yet another application to the government for Griffith’s Flat to be dedicated as a recreation ground.
2 Apr 1877 Newspaper suggests that the Griffiths Flat site is too distant from town, and suggests that the council should request the site adjoining the east end of town (the current park location) instead. This site is already being used as a cricket ground.
9 Oct 1877Brass band performance on the new recreation ground. If the Council had a legal claim upon the land, more improvements would be made.
27 Jul 1878 Council intends to fence the new recreation ground bounded by Morehead St, Elder St and Howe St, to prevent people building houses on it.
5 Sep 1878
3 Sep 1878
R.A.A. Morehead, manager of the Scottish Australian Mining Company writes to the council indicating that the company is willing to forego its rights to the land, and co-operate with the council in getting the land dedicated.
14 Nov 1878St Leon’s circus operating on the new recreation ground.
25 Dec 1880
21 Dec 1880
Minister for Lands refusing to grant any land for a recreation ground “until the Commonage question was settled”.
17 Mar 1882
13 Mar 1882
Council meeting discussing the proposed recreation reserve, including a description of the boundaries of the 35 acre site. Much of the meeting was taken up with the principal problem of what to do with the residents who had built houses on the Commonage land where the park was proposed.

One suggestion was to dedicate the whole proposed area, and allow the residents to remain, but with a condition that they not be allowed to make any improvements and "that the houses be allowed to decay by the effusion of time." Presumably the thinking was that as the houses fell into ruin the occupants would eventually abandon them and that in the end the whole area of the recreation ground would become available.

A second suggestion was to allow the residents to remain by reducing the size of the recreation ground by "three chains" (66 yards) on the Elder, Morehead and Howe St sides. This would have resulted in a park 35% smaller than the current park, as shown below.

LambtonParkSmallFootprint
23 Aug 1882A letter from the Department of Lands stating that “respecting the appropriation of an area of land at Lambton for public recreation, I have the honour to inform you that the necessary provision will be made”. This turned out to be a bit of an empty “honour” as it was nearly five years later that this promise was finally fulfilled.
20 Jun 1883
18 Jun 1883
The pivotal public meeting, chaired by Mayor Thomas Croudace, in which the principal difficulty of what to do with the residences on the park site was finally resolved. Mr Croudace, on behalf of Lambton Colliery resolved to assist residents who would need to move by
  • Giving £100 towards compensation.
  • Subdividing the land between Pearson and Kendall streets and selling the allotments for £10 - approximately one third their true value.
The meeting also resolved to raise funds from the community for compensating residents.
21 Jun 1883Already £50 has been collected from public subscriptions towards the compensation fund.
23 Jun 1883Mr Melville, the local member of the state parliament indicates that if the residents willingly remove from the park site then he will get the site gazetted, but there is little hope that the Government will contribute to the compensation fund.
29 Jun 1883Houses are being removed from the park site. “Mr. Croudace kindly sent men and horses to assist in the removal, and proffers assistance in removing others.”
6 Jul 1883 “The work of removing houses from the proposed Recreation Reserve is still going on, under the supervision of his Worship the Mayor of Lambton, who has a large staff of men, together with teams of horses, engaged in the work. Four have now been removed bodily on rollers; their appearance and transit through the streets is a novelty and causes quite a sensation. The removal, of course, causes inconvenience to the owners of the houses for the time being, but this they appear to bear cheerfully, seeing that a public benefit in the shape of a recreation ground will ultimately be the result.”
16 Jul 1883 Entertainment night in the Music Hall for the purpose of raising money for the compensation fund.
8 Jul 1884“The amount of money spent in removing houses; fencing and improving the reserve up to the present is over £600. For about £500 of this the residents are indebted to the liberality of the Lambton Company and their manager.”
8 Apr 1886
6 Apr 1886
After years of doing nothing, the Government is about to gazette the Lambton Recreation Reserve, but some correspondence from the Mines Department alerts the Council to the fact that the government is about to dedicate the wrong piece of land! They were going to gazette the small area of land on Griffiths Flat that the council had requested 10 years previously in 1877, not the current recreation ground adjacent to Lambton township.
31 Dec 1886
28 Dec 1886
The park is still not yet dedicated but already it “has been fixed with a sawn picket fence, cleared, drained, borders trenched and planted with trees and shrubs.” The Government promises a £150 grant when the ground is dedicated, which prompts the Lambton Mayor to caustically reply that he expects that time “judging from past experience may be five years hence.”
9 Jul 1887
21 May 1887
“The land at Lambton, which was dedicated for the purposes of public recreation on 21st May, 1887, is to be a public park within the meaning of the Public Parks Act of 1884, and is to be known by the name of Lambton Park.”
31 Oct 1887
27 Oct 1887
Public meeting to present a testimonial to Thomas Croudace for his work in establishing the park.
  • 43 houses needed to be removed from the site.
  • A total of £1004 spent by the Scottish Australian Mining Company on the park. £472 on removing houses from the reserve; £260 on timber and fencing; £272 on making and improving streets.
In his return speech, Mr Croudace "recollected the time when the late Dr. Hill had told him that they would never get typhoid fever out of Lambton till they had that part of the Commonage now known as the park thoroughly drained. They should urge their representatives in the Council to carry on tree-planting, also lay out plots for flower beds in the western part of the reserve, and to prevent cattle running upon it."
21 Jul 1890At the Commonoge Land Court hearings, Thomas Grierson noted that: "The persons who removed from off Lambton Park bought land in Kendall-street, Croudace-street, Elder-street, De Vitre and Pearson streets, and he knew, as a matter of fact, that they paid from £10 to £12 per lot - some lots with frontages of 33 1-3ft, depth 102½ft. This was in 1884. The inducements given by the company for them to remove off the park were that they bore the expense. They also supplied new timber for buildings at cheaper rates than ordinarily."
29 Feb 1936Lambton's Model Park.
"It conforms in every respect to what is expected in a park where the principal purpose is to provide a restful, isolated atmosphere within pleasant, harmonious surroundings. Lambton Park measures up to these qualifications. Indeed, the chief ingredients of its charm are to be found in its natural beauty, allied with its healthful, convenient situation."

List of newspaper articles on Trove about Lambton Park

2 thoughts on “Lambton Park

  1. I am 73 and lived in Howe street the park was a great place to be I can say that
    Looking at all the rubish people is no different to what we put up with now.
    If one looks no further Lambton Pool as boy I can remember the people
    that raised all the money The Bells Randles Simpson’s Payne’s and all other
    business in and around Lambton year after year and the People who gave to
    have this Swimming Pool.
    But one cannot find this in the History one will only find Newcastle Council and
    that is a different Story this happened in the 1950 – 1960

    • I was 9 years old when Lambton “Olympic” Swimming Pool was opened on the 26th January 1963. Some of my memories related to the pool are:-

      Residents of Lambton, and other suburbs, raised money to go towards the construction of “The Pool”. Raffles and community events were held. The pool was open daily till about 9pm. It cost sixpence for kids to enter ( I think). You bought a token off the person at the entrance and used it in one of the turnstiles. In 1968 I heard The Beatles song, Revolution, for the first time on the jukebox at the kiosk. It really blasted out. On cold days we would warm ourselves by standing with our backs to the buildings brick walls. I’m sure the change rooms had lockers for rent, which was smart. I visited the pool in the early 1980’s but there were no lockers.

      I had swimming lessons prior to the pool opening. My mother and I would catch a bus from Lambton to Hamilton, then another bus from there to Merewether Baths. It seemed to take ages, and I was so happy when the Lambton Pool finally opened.

      The pool was a big part of my life back then. A few friends and I would visit it almost every weekend. I’d pray that the weather would be fine. If there was light rain I’d plead with my mother that it was nothing, but as it was about a 3k walk to the pool, my mum would invariably say no. I doubt that nine year old kids are allowed to roam around suburbs and visit a pool nowadays without having an adult or older teen so supervise them. Different times.

Leave a Reply

Comments on this site are moderated and will not appear until approved by the website owner. Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *