Batman Park Melbourne Victoria Australia; Revisited 2005, Festivale pictorial guide

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Batman Park

Visit to an Old Friend

Batman Park was one of the first places I visited when I began the database that has become the Pictorial Guide. It was a popular spot with local office workers, mainly the legal and stockbroking types who worked in the Spencer Street end of Collins Street.

Batmark Park, Melbourne, Australia, photograph (c) Ali Kayn 2005; 520x390

Batman Park, from Spencer Street, Melbourne, Victoria. Photograph (c) Ali Kayn, 2005

With the many changes to Melbourne -- more inner city livers, a busy World Trade Centre (one of the few places in Melbourne capable of handling meetings of 1,000 or more), Exhibition Centre, Convention Centre (does that include the World Trade Centre? I never am sure) and of course, the Crown Casino.

Batman Park, beside the Yarra River, Melbourne. 316x237

Batman Park, Melbourne; photo (c) Ali Kayn 2005

Yes, I admit I received some criticism for referring to Ron Robertson-Swann's Vault as the Yellow Peril, the name people knew it by when it was erected in the Melbourne City Square. It no longer stands in Batman Park, moved on with the redevelopment of the Southbank Precinct.

Besides grass, trees, and Melbourne's own old muddy, the Yarra River, the focal point, sadly, is the Helipad.

It's very exciting to have the news choppers landing if you're sipping coffee across the river or a family tourist group, but Batman Park is far less functional and liveable as a park with the nasty rotor blade winds whipping picnic plates to the ground. Mind you, the helipad gives the seagulls a lovely waterfront resting place.

Melbourne Exhibition Centre and Crown Casino seen across the Yarra River from Batman Park, with helipad in the foreground. Photograph by Ali Kayn, 2005; 260x195

A big surprise of this visit was the view of Jeff's Shed (the Melbourne Exhibition Centre named by the locals for a past premier) from Batman Park. That's one of the joys of travelling around with a digital camera, the odd glimpses that show the context of Melbourne -- the river, the coffee places, the slow old river and the gardens amongst the buildings and railway tracks.

See also: Guidebook entry, Batman Park
Original visit, 1996.

by Ali Kayn

Items of Interest: Yarra River, nearby Enterprize Park, Old Customs House (Immigration Museum), Sealife Aquarium, Southbank Precinct

Just the facts:

Batman Park, Melbourne inner city

Small riverside park opposite the Southbank Precinct and Crown Casino. Near to Melbourne Exhibition and Convention Centre. Helipad. Next to Enterprize Park. Visit March, 2005
Visit 1996

Getting there:

Corner Spencer and Flinders Streets, Melbourne. City Circle tram or any tram along Flinders Street going towards Spencer Street - then walk under railway bridge or walk from Southern Cross Station or Flinders Street Station.