Inveresk Park is located within the junction of Beresford Road, Merley Road and Dickson Streets in Strathfield. The park was dedicated as a public garden and recreation open space and ownership transferred to Strathfield Council in October 1943.
The park was created from a sub-division of the grounds of the house ‘Inveresk’, Coventry Road Strathfield. The house ‘Inveresk’ was built c.1906 and owned by George Begg Vickery (1865-1938). Vickery was the son of Ebenezer Vickery MLC (1827-1906), a prominent and wealthy businessman with interests in mining, farming, philanthropy and politics. After his father’s death in 1906, George Vickery took over as manager of the family businesses. Vickery was also a keen amateur microscopist and a member of the Royal Society of New South Wales. George Vickery upon his death in 1938 was one of Australia’s wealthiest men, leaving an estate of £435 826 upon his death.
After his death, his son Ottamar developed plans to subdivide the grounds of ‘Inveresk’ for residential development. After developing various plans, Vickery opted to donate to Strathfield Council, a sizeable public recreation area. In appreciation of this gift, Council offered Vickery naming rights of the new park and suggested ‘Vickery Park’. Vickery, however, preferred ‘Inveresk Park’, the name of his father’s home in Strathfield.
Inveresk Park supports one of the last remaining remnants of Sydney Turpentine Ironbark Forest in innerwestern Sydney and is an Endangered Ecological Community (EEC). Isolated individual Eucalyptus longifolia (Woollybutt), E. moluccana (Grey Box), E. fibrosa (Broad-leaved Ironbark) E. globoidea (White Stringybark) and Turpentine provide nest hollows for cockatoos, parrots and lorikeets and nectar for some honeyeaters, mainly Noisy Miner and Red Wattlebird (Strathfield Fauna Study 2017).
Inveresk Park is a heritage Item on the Strathfield LEP (Item I178) and is significant for its historical associations with the Vickery family and its environmental features.
Reference
Jones, C, ‘Inveresk Park’, Strathfield District Historical Society Newsletter, March 2005
LandArc Landscape Architects, Significant Tree Register, Strathfield Council 1985
LATE GEORGE B. VICKERY. (1938, September 3). Townsville Daily Bulletin (Qld. : 1907 – 1954), p. 2. Retrieved June 26, 2018, from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article62174472
Notice of intended distribution of estate – Ottamar Vickery.- Supreme Court NSW (1980, September 26). Government Gazette of the State of New South Wales (Sydney, NSW : 1901 – 2001), p. 5090. Retrieved June 26, 2018, from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article231163697
Strathfield Council, “Dedication of Inveresk Park”, Strathfield Council meeting minutes, 3 December 1940
Mr G B Vickery, The Sydney Morning Herald, Wednesday 22 June 1938, page 8. Retrieved April 3, 2019, from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article17483084
G. B. VICKERY’S WILL (1938, September 9). The Corowa Free Press (NSW : 1875 – 1954), p. 3. Retrieved June 26, 2018, from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article239354651
