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Albert Richardson Reserve and Bushfire Memorial

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Corner of Marong Road and Happy Valley Road, Ironbark VIC 3550

Explore other locations around this area using our interactive map

Features

  • Bushfire memorial
  • Undercover picnic area
  • Free electric barbecue
  • Picnic tables
  • Bench seating
  • Grassy lawn
  • Toilets
  • Rubbish bins
  • Located right alongside the Victoria Hill Mining Reserve
The Albert Richardson Reserve and Bushfire Memorial is a great little park located right alongside the fascinating Victoria Hill Mining Reserve. With excellent visitor facilities and educational display, this park makes a great place to stop by for a picnic lunch followed by an educational afternoon exploring the mining history at Victoria Hill along with the Black Saturday bushfire memorial. 

Picnics and barbecues at the Albert Richardson Reserve


This small reserve makes a fantastic place for a picnic or barbecue, with fantastic visitor facilities located right alongside the road and adjacent to the unmissable Victoria Hill Mining Reserve

An undercover picnic area features an electric barbecue and shaded picnic table, with further tables and seating spread across the adjacent grassy lawn. 

This park also features a modern toilet block and rubbish bins.

Black Saturday Memorial


An artistically designed display wall features a memorial remembering the catastrophic Black Saturday fires. It displays the following text:

On Saturday, 7 February, 2009, Victoria experienced an unprecedented and catastrophic event as firestorms raged through much of the state. For many, this day will forever be remembered as Black Saturday.

In Bendigo, the Bracewell Street fire, as it came to be known, swept quickly and with little warning through the north-west of the city. Powered by wind gusts of up to 80 kilometres per hour and temperatures into the mid-40s Celsius, the fire took the life of one resident, along with numerous pets and wildlife. It destroyed 58 homes, countless sheds and outbuildings, cars, boats and caravans. 

In a few short hours it devastated an area of almost 500 hectares, threatening to spread to the city's CBD, and changed the lives of so many residents forever.

Less than two kilometres north-west of this site, Bendigo resident Mick Kane tragically lost his life - fighting, like so many others - to save the home and family he loved under impossible circumstances. Many residents were forced to flee for their lives or watch their precious homes and possessions burn. 

Bendigo remembers all those whose lives were so devastated on Black Saturday, and who fought back with immense courage and optimism in the face of adversity. 

In the face of unprecedented disaster, Bendigo banded together like no other time in its history. This memorial acknowledges the bravery and ingenuity of our emergency service workers, including our firefighters, police and ambulance service; the local residents who banded together in horrific circumstances, not only to fight the fire, but support one another in so many ways; the many relief and aid organisations, recovery agencies, counsellors, businesses, media outlets and caring citizens who gave so generously in the days, weeks, months and years following Black Saturday. 

See also

  • Victoria Hill Mining Reserve - located right behind this park, featuring a poppet head lookout, a stamp battery, walking tracks and lots of information signs.


 

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