‘Cremorne Gardens’ once occupied some ten acres of land in Melbourne’s inner city suburb of Richmond. The gardens were bound by Cremorne Street to the East and the Railway Line to the West, as well as Balmain Street as its Northern Boundary, with the Yarra River as its Southern Perimeter.
Extracts from an Article written by Mr AW Greigh in 1910 serve best to describe this delightful playground designed for the pleasure and enjoyment for Melburnians, the many attractions it once housed, and the ultimate demise:
” . . . Hemmed in by factory building and railway embankment, with narrow streets, huddled tenements, and untidy, vacant spaces, there is little that is attractive about the south-western corner of the city of Richmond at the present day. Yet here, within the area bounded by Gwynne, Balmain, and Cremorne streets, and the river, once flourished a famous playground of Old Melbourne, and about these dingy lanes linger interesting, historical associations.
The Cremorne Gardens of Richmond may be said to be the direct offspring of their older prototype on the banks of the Thames, since their originator, James Ellis, drew his inspiration from actual experience as lessee of the London Cremorne between 1846 and 1849. About the beginning of 1853 Ellis made his appearance in Melbourne as a dance-room proprietor, and in the winter of that year opened the afterwards notorious “Salle de Valentino.” At the same time he set to work to convert a bit of Swamp land on the banks of the Yarra, just beyond the “Government Paddock,” into a colourable imitation of his former realm at Battersea. The swamp lent itself readily to the formation of a “lake,” and for the rest “parterres of rarest flowers, natural grottoes, and artistic fountains” soon replaced the primeval scrub. Thus were Cremorne Gardens born, and in September, 1853, thrown open to the public “for promenade and refreshment,” no charge being at first made for admission . . . “
Source: Excerpt – Argus (Melbourne, Vic) – Article ‘Cremorne. – Old Play-Ground of Melbourne’ – by A.W. Greig – published 30th April 1910
Source: Excerpt – ‘The Chronicles of Early Melbourne – 1835 to 1851 – Vol I’ – by Garryowen – published 1888
” . . . Music, dancing, and fireworks were the principal attractions, but, according to contemproary accounts, these did not succeed in drawing a crowd of more than five or six hundred pleasure-seekers at any time throughout the day. Doubtless the couple of miles tramp through the bush which attendance involved militated against the immediate success of the Gardens. To overcome this difficulty of access, a small steamer known as “The Gondola” was put on the river, to be followed a few years later by the “Expert,”‘ “Pride,” and “Despatch” of the Upper Yarra Steamboat Company. Omnibuses also began to ply from Melbourne and Collingwood, and by 1855 the visitor to Cremorne could travel either by land or water, the fares being a shilling and sixpence respectively.
For two seasons only Cremorne Gardens remained in the hands of their founder, the customary amusements of music and dancing being varied by entertainments of the circus variety. Christmas, 1855, saw them under the management of P. Scott. Ellis retiring to the position of a suburban hotelkeeper, his observations at Cremorne having probably led him to the conclusion that purveyors of spirituous refreshment had a more profitable occupation than those who catered for public amusement . . . “
” . . . In the spring of this same year Cremorne Gardens were taken over by a firm whose names will never be forgotten in the theatrical annals of Victoria – George Selth Coppin and Gustavus Vaughan Brooke. “We have jointly purchased,” says Brooke in a letter of this period, “the Cremorne Gardens, about two miles from Melbourne. It contains ten acres of land, laid out as a botanical garden, and part of it devoted to a collection of Australian birds and animals. There is a nice house which will be used as a hotel and a large dancing platform, quite equal to the London Cremorne. We have laid down a gasometer, and the gardens will be down a gasometer, and the gardens brilliantly illuminated. We have also built a theatre for concerts, vaude-villes, and ballet, and there is a large sheet of water, on one side of which will be an immense picture representing the city of Naples and the eruption of Mount Vesuvius which will be accompanied by continuous discharges by fireworks . . . “
Source: Excerpt – Argus (Melbourne, Vic) – Article ‘Cremorne. – Old Play-Ground of Melbourne’ – by A.W. Greig – published 30th April 1910
Cremorne as a Zoo & Statue Exhibit
” . . . The Cremorne of this period deserves remembrance as something more than a mere pleasure resort. Coppin’s trip to Europe in 1857 resulted in the addition of an educative feature in the shape of the first collection of statuary exhibited in Australia, while the zoological department was enriched by the importation of gazelles, monkeys, and other animals. Here also were carried out some interesting experiments in acclimatisation, including the introduction to the State of white swans (in January, 1858) and of goldfish . . . “
Source: Excerpt – Argus (Melbourne, Vic) – Article ‘Cremorne. – Old Play-Ground of Melbourne’ – by A.W. Greig – published 30th April 1910
The First Balloon Flight in Australia at Cremorne – 1st February 1858
Source – The Melbourne “Punch” – published 26 Feb 1857
” . . . The recently increased interest in the art of aerial navigation makes it worthy of note that the first successful balloon ascent made in Australia took place in the grounds of Cremorne on Monday, February 1, 1858. After partial inflation at the Melbourne Gasworks the balloon was conveyed to the gardens with the assistance of a horse and cart and about 10 men, and its distension completed from the Cremorne gasometer. Messrs. Brown and Dean, two specially imported aeronauts, then prepared to ascend but at the last minute an escape of gas was discovered, which rendered it doubtful whether the balloon would support their combined weight. Accordingly Dean ascended alone leaving the earth shortly before 6pm, and drifting northwards came to ground near the Plenty road, seven or eight miles from Melbourne.
Balloon ascents, however, partake too largely of the nature of free shows to be particularly profitable to their promoters, and the year 1858 seems to have been a period of decadence for Cremorne . . . “
Source: Excerpt – Argus (Melbourne, Vic) – Article ‘Cremorne. – Old Play-Ground of Melbourne’ – by A.W. Greig – published 30th April 1910
Financial Woes . . .
” . . . Early in 1860 the affairs of Brooke and Coppin came to a crisis, and we find their advertisements, including an invitation for tenders for the lease or purchase of the Theatre Royal, Olympic Theatre, and Cremorne gardens. On the 26th of February of this year the partnership was dissolved, Brooke taking over the sole control of the Theatre Royal, while Coppin retained Cremorne and devoted his energies to its restoration to popular fashion. The season, which was opened on December 12, 1859, saw increased facilities provided for the patrons of the Richmond pleasure-ground. The Melbourne and suburban railway, of which Coppin was a director, having now been completed as far as the banks of the river. A Cremorne station was erected just north of Balmain-street, and special late trains were run to convey passengers back to town at the conclusion of the nights entertainment. This station was closed after the middle of 1862, but relics of the old platform were in existence up to a comparatively recent period. The “Pantheon” theatre now rose to a position of some importance, and became the scene of regular dramatic productions, in which Coppin himself did not disdain to take part on occasion. The collection of animals was also further augmented, and we had mention of an ourang-outang, dancing bear, camels, and even of lion cubs born in captivity in March 1862. Notwithstanding all these increased attractions the gaiety of Cremorne was doomed to extinction . . . “
Source: Excerpt – Argus (Melbourne, Vic) – Article ‘Cremorne. – Old Play-Ground of Melbourne’ – by A.W. Greig – published 30th April 1910
Cremorne Gardens Close
” . . . Its proprietor was involved in financial difficulties, and early in 1863 he announced that, a “suitable offer having been received for the grounds, their career as a place of entertainment would be closed. With characteristic spirit he wound up the season with two free nights, the final attraction being the feats of the of the Brothers Weiland, “flying trapezians” and on the night of Saturday February 7th 1863 the gates of Cremorne closed behind the last of the many thousands who had sought entertainment within its walls . . . “
Source: Excerpt – Argus (Melbourne, Vic) – Article ‘Cremorne. – Old Play-Ground of Melbourne’ – by A.W. Greig – published 30th April 1910
To the utter dismay of George Coppin, the purchaser of Cremorne Gardens, Dr JT Harcourt, transformed the beautiful gardens into a private lunatic asylum which opened in the May of 1864. The Asylum was transferred to the government in 1867:
” . . . Licensed by the Government in 1867, remained a select establishment for the mentally afflicted, never accommodating more than a score or so of patients, for a full twenty years. A dismal destiny indeed to overtake the playground of the people . . . “
Source: Excerpt – Argus (Melbourne, Vic) – Article ‘Cremorne. – Old Play-Ground of Melbourne’ – by A.W. Greig – published 30th April 1910
First Bowling Match
” . . . yet even this pail of gloom is broken by a momentary flash of light when we learn that the first bowling match recorded to have been played in Richmond took place on a lawn at Cremorne by the courtesy of Mr Harcourt on December 12, 1868 . . . “
Source: Excerpt – Argus (Melbourne, Vic) – Article ‘Cremorne. – Old Play-Ground of Melbourne’ – by A.W. Greig – published 30th April 1910
Subdivision – ‘Cremorne Estate’
” . . . The asylum was closed and its inmates transferred to institutions directly controlled by the State near the end of 1884.
This was the passing of Cremorne, for the hungry raw of the land-boomer gaped wide for the long-fenced-off corner of a populous suburb, and very little time elapsed before “Cremorne Estate” was marked off into building allotments and brought under the hammer. The first sales were held in January and February, 1885, when 270 building allotments, ten cottages, and two “family residences” were submitted to public auction by Messrs Walslab and Sons, under instructions from “the Hon. Thomas Bent, M.L.A., and J. S. Vickery, Esq.” . . . “
” . . . Very few evidences of the gardens remain to the present day . . . “
” . . . the “Rotunda”, the last of which, together with the remains of the “Pantheon,” probably dispappeared with the “materials of four large wooden buildings” which were sold for removal in January 1885 . . . “
” . . . A solitary fountain lingered until late years forlorn and dry amid the mushroom growth of cottages around it, and even to-day the sewerage excavator may come across fragments of piping which belonged to the wter or gas systems of Cremorne. The most tangible relics are two or three fragments of the old stone wall which bounded the gardens on their landward side . . . “
Source: Excerpts – Argus (Melbourne, Vic) – Article ‘Cremorne. – Old Play-Ground of Melbourne’ – by A.W. Greig – published 30th April 1910
Helpful Hints:
– This Historic Site once occupied the area from Cremorne Street to the Railway Line, and, from Balmain Street to the Yarra River – obtain Directions here
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