35-20 Urban Woodland in Victoria Park

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Way back in 1889 this urban woodland (in what was then Park 16A) was the site of the inaugural Arbor Day in Australia.

This was a predecessor to the Landcare movement. The first Arbor Day featured a massive communal act of tree planting.

About 5,000 schoolchildren were involved in a march from Victoria Square to this site in Park 16A, They were accompanied by the Police Band.

Today, this woodland undoubtedly includes some of the trees that were planted by schoolchildren on that day in 1889, as well as many others that were planted later.

The woodland consists mostly of mature river red gums and sugar gums, with some non-natives. The South Park Lands Landcare group has been removing exotic species from the woodland, to return it to a more natural environment.

This bitumen path on which you are now standing was once a main arterial road.

This was the original course of Beaumont Rd.

It ran on a diagonal line from the corner of Fullarton Rd and Greenhill Rd, up to near the corner of South Terrace and East Terrace where this Trail began.

In 1963 the road was relocated westwards, where it still exists. Fifteen years after the relocation, in 1978, the new alignment of Beaumont Rd was closed to through traffic. It's now used mostly as a car park.

The old alignment of Beaumont Road on which you are now standing is now a cycling and pedestrian path.

If you follow this path in a north-westerly direction you'll return to your starting point on the corner of East Terrace and South Terrace.