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Princes Park Cultural Management Plan

Project typeCultural management plan (CMP) Princes Park Grandstand
Project scheduleJune, 2021
Contractor nameAmanda Jean (Heritage Architect)

Council is undertaking a detailed assessment of the Princes Park Grandstand to develop an affordable, staged plan of works to restore and conserve the historic recreation facility for the future.

The CMP was recommended in 2002 as part of the Princes Park Conservational Analysis and Master Plan.

In October, 2020 Council released a tender for a consultant to prepare a Cultural Management Plan (CMP) for the project, with the tender awarded to local heritage architect Amanda Jean.

Ms Jean has completed several of Council’s previous heritage advisory projects, including the Maryborough Municipal Outdoor Pool Complex CMP. Ms Jean has extensive experience in heritage assessments for the local, regional and state contexts across many built forms including civic structures.

This work has commenced and includes Historian Charles Fahey from La Trobe University who is currently undertaking a historical survey of the construction of the Grandstand and its part in Maryborough public life.

A community information sharing session was also held on Thursday 1 April where community members were encouraged to bring along any pictures of the reserve and share memories and use of the reserve.

The grandstand facility consists of an external stepped seating area raised over a brick base (which housed the original change rooms and storage at ground level). The under storey contains the Maryborough football and cricket club social rooms, change rooms and toilets. The grandstand pavilion is a timber framed building with a corrugated iron roof and ornate timber decorations to the eaves and gables.

The Draft Plan will be made available for the community to review and provide feedback in May, 2021 with the final version expected to go to Council in June.

Background:

The Princes Park Grandstand is listed by the Victorian Heritage Register (VHR), as a heritage place (H1880) and the heritage management of the place is administered under the Victorian Heritage Act 2017. The site is also covered by the Heritage Overlay HO166 Princes Park.

The 1895 grandstand in Princes Park is of architectural significance as an important design of the long established and notable architectural firm, Thomas Watts and Sons.

The grandstand uses extensive turned wood decoration and is an early example of all timber decoration that became more widespread in late Victorian and the Edwardian period.

The Grandstand is the only example of this type of building by Thomas Watts and Sons, and was modelled on the 1886 South Melbourne grandstand designed by William Elliot Wells which was destroyed by fire in 1926 and a similar grandstand at Victoria Park, Collingwood which was demolished in 1966.