The old oak tree issue at the Southern Outlet has opened up an interesting bit of history closely tied to the Hobart City Council. And more than a touch of irony with it. For the oak tree land was, or could have been council property – but it didn’t want it.
The council connection goes back to the time when the Southern Outlet was built and there was the need to have the land between Davey and Macquarie Streets to provide a link (the section generally known as the “couplet”) between these main suburban thoroughfares. On the land acquired was the home of a former long-serving Hobart alderman, and twice Lord Mayor, Sir Archibald Park. His house was demolished to make way for the couplet.
But the Park property also included the small open area with the oak tree, and this land wasn’t needed for the Outlet link. There’s some conflict of opinion on just who subsequently owned the area and disposed of it as being surplus to requirements – that it was the council’s (which was more likely) or alternatively that it was the state government’s.
But whatever the situation, the council decided it didn’t want it, so it was sold to the owner of the Gothic heritage house immediately behind.
There was local opinion that the HCC could have turned it into a delightful little corner park, adding to the picturesque setting for the entrance to South Hobart, The council thought otherwise. The irony is that the council has since become involved in protracted negotations to buy back a bit of the land it previously had, or could have had.
Sir Archibald had a particularly long record of service to Hobart through the council, with aldermanic service from 1933 to 1940, then after World War Two from 1945 to 1959, becoming Deputy Lord Mayor 1948-50, Lord Mayor 1950-52, and Lord Mayor again 1954-59.
He was a cartage contractor and in the 1940s and 1950s A. R. Park and Son (which started in 1910 in what were still the horse and buggy days) was a major transport company, specialising in hauling beer for the Cascade Brewery.
Sir Archibald would probably have been horrified to see his venerable oak under threat from a modern road project.
The Old Bear’s first article, Tie A Yellow Ribbon Round The Old Oak Tree,HERE
