Churchill National Park, National park in Lysterfield South, City of Casey, Australia
Churchill National Park is a 271-hectare national park in the City of Casey, 31 km southeast of Melbourne, adjacent to Lysterfield South. It protects woodland and forest that shelter eastern grey kangaroos, swamp wallabies and 173 bird species, including the Australian wood duck and Pacific black duck. With neighbouring Lysterfield Park it forms a 1,668-hectare reserve in the Dandenong Valley.
The land was once the police corps headquarters for Aboriginal trackers and grazing land for police horses, later called the Dandenong Police Paddocks. In the 1920s local stone was quarried for road metal, a water channel was cut to Dandenong and a power line easement was granted. The area was set aside as Dandenong National Park in 1939, gazetted on 12 February 1941 and renamed Churchill National Park in 1944 after Sir Winston Churchill.
The park's name honours Sir Winston Churchill, to whom it was dedicated in 1944, three years after it opened as Dandenong National Park. Before that, the land was the police corps headquarters for blacktrackers and grazing ground for police horses, known as the Dandenong Police Paddocks. Visitors today walk the Channel Track beside the old aqueduct and watch birds by the dam on the northern boundary track.
The park can be accessed via Churchill Park Drive and offers picnic facilities and walking trails open from early morning until sunset. Wear good footwear and stay alert for kangaroos and other animals that may be encountered along the paths.
The old quarry in the park's northwest corner holds remains of the Scoresby Tramway, built by the Dandenong Shire Council in 1912 to carry crushed rock; wagons ran by gravity for most of the route and horses pulled them where the ground levelled out. Quarrying lasted about three years and the tramway was removed afterwards.
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