page_title: Hazelwood Park, South Australia
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: Hazelwood Park, South Australia / History
caption_attribution_description: English: First Creek running through Hazelwood Park, Adelaide, South Australia in 1920.
context_page_description: Hazelwood Park is an upper class suburb in the City of Burnside, Adelaide, South Australia with a census area population of 1,717 people. The suburb is about 5 kilometres east of the Central business district. Hazelwood Park, a suburban park inside the suburb, is the major attraction in the suburb. This includes the Burnside Swimming Centre, a popular site in the summer. Much of the remainder of the suburb is residential but there is a small shopping area along Glynburn Road on the eastern edge. The area was first settled by Europeans in 1848 but has seen many community changes over the years.
  The suburb is split in half by Greenhill Road, to the north there are residential dwellings and the park. To the south and east are the foothills of the Mount Lofty Ranges with continued residential properties. Hazelwood Park is bounded to the north by Knightsbridge Road, to the east by Glynburn Road, to the south by Cooper Place and to the west by Devereux Road and a line along the back of the blocks between Hazelwood and Tusmore avenues.
context_section_description: Prior to European settlement, the area that is now Hazelwood Park was part of the traditional lands of the Kaurna people, that stretched from Port Broughton to Cape Jervis. The surrounding area (including the suburbs of Leabrook and Erindale, along with portions of the current suburbs of Burnside) and Hazelwood Park, was originally known by the name 
  Knightsbridge when a village was laid out under that name in 1848. The village was laid out in section 298 in the land between First and Second Creeks. Unlike other more brilliantly designed early villages (such as Beaumont) Knightsbridge was laid out by a Captain Hall, originally from Port Adelaide. He simply divided the land into eight blocks and ran Knightsbridge Road through them. Much of the land was sold to timber merchants, who quickly made use of the suburb's thick bushland. The first house in the suburb, which remains to this day on 12 Hazelwood Avenue, was built by George Taylor, a local grocer, in 1854. Named Knightsbridge House, it was unique in having much of the ground floor situated half-underground to cope with the fierce Australian summers. The total property owned by Taylor amounted to thirty-three acres, which included much of today's suburb. He returned to England in 1856 and leased the property out.
  Notably, an orphanage was established on the land by the Sisters of St. Joseph, a Catholic Organisation. They cared for forty to sixty children on the property between the years 1875 and 1887. The orphanage was known for providing much care to the children, with the Adelaide daily the Register noting that 'the good Sisters of St. Joseph were perfect slaves to these children'. With better accommodation provided at Woodville, the orphanage moved and the Knightsbridge farm attempted a sale, but was once again leased out. In the years 1888 to 1950 it was a large dairy farm under the Coote family. The remaining part of section 298, much of it owned by a Mr Debney and not part of Knightbridge Farm, was further subdivided in 1880 and became the village of Leabrook.
  The remainder of today's suburb of Hazelwood Park, south of Greenhill Road, was originally known as Linden. It lent its name to today's suburb of Linden Park, and it is notable that Linden Park's name remained so, even after Linden became part of Hazelwood Park. Linden had some of the best arable land in the area, and was a highly sought-after area. 
  After World War II, with Adelaide rapidly expanding both in the metropolitan region and in the hills area various plans were laid out to replace the windy and dangerous Mount Barker Road. One of these proposals was the Burnside-Crafers Highway, which envisioned leaving Greenhill Road once reaching Hazelwood Park. It was then to pass through Hazelwood Park and Beaumont, wind around the hills of Waterfall Gully and then go over Eagle On The Hill to Crafers. The Burnside Council put much effort into this proposal, widening Linden Avenue (which runs NW to SE) in preparation for the highway. The proposal was eventually rejected in favour of upgrading Mount Barker Road and Linden Avenue remained a huge out-of-place road running through an otherwise peaceful suburb. After years of drivers racing down the 2 km long avenue, the Burnside Council constructed a large median strip in 2005. 
  The actual Hazelwood Park was acquired by the State Government free of charge in July 1915, and gazetted as a 'pleasure resort'. This came from the old Hazelwood estate, owned by the Francis Clark family. They had acquired a residence and 50-acre estate named "Grove Cottage" from Thomas Burr in 1853 and re-named it "Hazelwood", which reflects the name of the school in Birmingham founded by Rowland Hill (postal reformer), a brother of Caroline Clark. The Burnside Council sought to acquire the park from the State Government after finding notes from a government meeting in 1944 that were to see the park sold to a private owner. The Mayor of Burnside at the time, George Bolton, had a grand vision for what the park should become; notably in the construction of an Olympic-sized swimming pool
caption: First Creek flowing through Hazelwood Park, 1920
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