SAVE NORTH PARK - SAVE OUR HISTORY

Dear Neighbours, Community Members and anyone else that cares about our histroy...

Another historical building and gardens is under threat of development. North Park Estate is a 130 year old Essendon Landmark.  Situated at 69 Woodland St Essendon, the beautiful mansion & its magnificent gardens are now under threat of subdivision, development and sale with a current permit application that is sitting with Heritage Victoria.

We must preserve OUR HISTORY so that the Australian Community can benefit from it.

This is not a normal development.  A gated community is being earmarked creating an irreversible precedent in the Moonee Valley Area in terms of mass, scale and the disregard for buildings and trees marked with heritage significance.

A submission to divide the property into 4 lots has been made to Heritage Victoria.  The main building, although not being demolished, will be sold off as one lot. The building of 27 townhouses that are 3 stories high plus basement, along with an office block and an apartment block will carve up the surrounding gardens and obscure this magnificent property.

Built in 1888 and set on the highest point in Essendon, it was once owned by Alexander McCracken (First President of the VFL, First Secretary of Essendon Football Club, and brewer who joined forces with 5 others to found Carlton & United Breweries).  North Park was later owned by Daniel Whittle Harvey Patterson (director & chairman of BHP).  Currently it is owned by the St Columban Mission Society. 

The building and its surrounding gardens are recognised on the Victorian Heritage Register as being of architectural, historic & aesthetic importance to the State of Victoria..

120 trees (some of significance) are to be cut down to make way for the development.  These trees are home to an abundance of local protected wildlife including Ring tail Possums & Fruit Bats along with a plethora of birds.

The Save North Park Heritage Association (SNPHA) has been developed.  It is a group of passionate members of the community who will be engaging with experts in fields such as Heritage, Town Planning, Lawyers, Architects, engineers etc in order to be fully educated in order to fight this outrageous development.  Unfortunately all of this costs money.

Our request is for the Australian Community to rally as one and object to the proposed plans of development.  By making a donation of any size,  YOU,  also want to see this significant treasure be made available for community use and not subdivided and developed.  

Lastly... please help us reach our go fund me goal by sharing this to everyone you know. Spread the word... and help us be heard.  We appreciate any way that you can help, and in turn we hope to SAVE NORTH PARK for our future generations.

Please note:  Any money that is remaining at the end of our crusade will be donated to the Royal Children's Hospital in Melbourne.

Click on any of these links for further information and to see the proposed plans...  Website... www.savenorthpark.com   or on our FACEBOOK  and INSTAGRAM  Pages.