Vale Park, South Australia

Vale Park Adelaide, South Australia
View towards Vale Park
Vale Park
Coordinates	34°53′15″S 138°37′28″E
Population	2,452 (SAL 2021)
Established	~1840 (pastoral) ~1959 (residential)
Postcode(s)	5081
Location	4 km (2 mi) NE of Adelaide
LGA(s)	Enfield (until July 1970) Walkerville (from July 1970)
State electorate(s)	Torrens
Federal division(s)	Adelaide
Suburbs around Vale Park: Manningham Hampstead Gardens Klemzig Broadview, Collinswood Vale Park Klemzig Walkerville Royston Park Marden

Vale Park is a suburb of Adelaide in the Town of Walkerville, South Australia. It is located northeast of the Adelaide city centre between North East Road and the River Torrens, astride Ascot Avenue, part of the A17 highway which is the major eastern ring route bypass of Adelaide.

Vale Park was originally a private subdivision named after Vale House, the home of Philip Levi, a pastoral pioneer.

History

Vale House, built c.1841

Vale Park was first established on the western side of current-day Ascot Avenue (section 478), as an extension of the growth from Walkerville, and was known as North Walkerville. Sir John Morphett originally owned the section, but later settled at Cummins, South Australia. Vale House was built around 1840, and still stands today next to its gatehouse, making it the oldest residential building in South Australia. After settling there in 1843, the land eventually passed to Philip Levi in 1853. Historical figures associated with the property include Colonel Frome, Levi and his descendants, Sir Richard Chaffey Baker, George Downer, Edward Meade Bagot, John Barker, flour miller W.R.S. Cooke, and West End Brewery founder W.H. Clark. The land was primarily settled by Philip Levi, an early pastoralist of South Australia. The Levi property is located at the bottom of Lansdowne Terrace, adjoining the River Torrens. In the 1930s the area started to be referred to as Willow Bend, after a nearby poultry farm. Development began to increase in the early-to-mid 20th century, when allotments were advertised.

The eastern section of Vale Park (section 479) was originally known as Hamilton, after Robert Hamilton, who purchased the land from Robert Thomas in 1842. Hamilton was a publican in the city. He owned the first house built in the area: Hamilton House, which was demolished in 2017. Hamilton was later declared insolvent and mentally ill; he was committed to the Adelaide Destitute Asylum. Allotments were advertised for the township of Hamilton; however, the original subdivisions were unpopular because the land was thought to be too far from the city. Bordering the property of George Fife Angas, Hamilton was home to a few farmers and gardeners, but its population was sparse. Later, market gardens, vineyards, almond fields and horse trotting tracks were the main uses of the land until the early 1960s.

The suburb of Vale Park was developed throughout the late 1950s through to the early 1970s, in the Enfield Council area. The primary years of development were 1959–1962. In 1970, Ascot Avenue was constructed with a bridge across the River Torrens, replacing Lansdowne Terrace as the main thoroughfare, which changed the nature of the suburb, as it was effectively split in half, resulting in a distinct variance in the character of housing on both sides of the suburb, also in part because of the originally differing council boundaries. Today the land value in Vale Park is very high. Much of the original housing stock of the suburb has been undergoing demolition and renewal since the 2010s, with subdivisions of varying degrees occurring as a result of urban infill.

Many of the streets today bear the names of people associated with the history of the area. Hamilton Street is named after original landowner Robert Hamilton Stanley Tonkin (5 June 1911 – 19 February 1986), a former carpenter, and his wife Joyce (26 November 1916 – 18 January 2007) farmed flowers (long-stem carnation and hyrdrangea), using them for events, as well as almonds. William Chase, a leathermaker (20 October 1873 – 17 June 1956) and his wife Eva (15 September 1876 – 24 September 1962) also grew almond trees. Redford Clisby (29 July 1867 – 1 February 1957) was a carpenter and joinery owner in Gilberton. Edward Washington (11 January 1923 – 24 December 1984) was another market gardener in the area, and the family house still stands on Wallace Street. The Harris family owned a large almond field and were fruitgrowers; one of the patriarch's daughters married Hugh Wallace (13 September 1897 – 1 December 1970). The Harris family house is heritage listed and is on Ilford Street. The Webster family owned horse trotting tracks and a pony club. The Stewart family were market gardeners on the banks of the Torrens.

Geography and Services

River Torrens at Vale Park, c.1970s

The part of the River Torrens between Ascot Bridge and the end of Fife Street was originally marshland caused by a sharp meander; to preserve the continuity of the government-owned reserve beside the river, later the site of the Adelaide O-Bahn and Torrens Linear Park, the river was artificially diverted in 1968–1969, and now forms a straight line between these points.

Vale Park Primary opened on 3 August 1964. As of 2023, 392 students were enrolled at the school. The main high school in the area was Marden High School, on Lower Portrush Road, which opened in 1971, but due to the falling student population in South Australia at the time, became an adult re-entry school only in 1992. As a result, the zoned high school became, and is still, Charles Campbell College, Paradise.

Administration

Vale Park lied in the Enfield Council area until it was annexed in 1970. In December 2020, after a councillor's motion, the Town of Walkerville began considering consultation for a suburban boundary realignment in the suburb. In 2021, it was proposed that the side of the suburb west of Ascot Avenue, be subsumed by Walkerville, and only the eastern side retained as Vale Park. This was put to public consultation in August 2022, but was rejected and abandoned by council on 17 October 2022.

The suburb has lain with the following electoral districts:

State-level:

• 1956–1970: Enfield
• 1970–1993: Gilles
• 1993–2002: Torrens
• 2002–2014: Norwood
• 2014–2018: Dunstan
• 2018–present: Torrens

Federal-level:

• 1949–1955: Sturt
• 1955–1969: Bonython
• 1969–1993: Adelaide
• 1993–2013: Sturt
• 2013–2019: Hindmarsh
• 2019–present: Adelaide

See also

• List of Adelaide suburbs