City Park, Launceston

Located in the heart of Launceston, close to the CBD, is the beautiful City Park, featuring magnificent mature shrubs and trees, many of English origin. Features of the park also include displays of annual flowers, a Japanese Macaque Monkey enclosure, the John Hart Conservatory, a duck pond, a ‘senses’ garden, monuments, the historic Albert Hall, a BBQ area, the City Park train, a children’s playground and toilets.

The history of City Park started with the allocation of an allotment for the Government Cottage (now demolished) in 1807 at the base of Windmill Hill. In the 1820s, the Launceston Horticultural Society acquired the neighbouring allotment to the immediate west of the government gardens for use as a botanical garden. Originally called the People’s Park, City Park was developed as gardens by the Launceston Horticultural Society and in 1863 was handed over to the Launceston City Council.
In 1891, the Albert Hall was built on the north east corner of the park to house the Tasmanian Industrial Exhibition. The exhibition area enclosed a large corner of the park under temporary structures attached to the Albert Hall. A miniature railway was also set up within the park for a short time during the exhibition. Over the ensuing years the park has been used to hold many important exhibitions, social gatherings, musical and cultural events, public meetings and is famous as the location for Festivale, a popular annual food festival held every February… all of which continue to be held there in present day.

In 1965, Launceston became sister city with Ikeda City in Japan. As a gift, Ikeda City gifted the Launceston City Council with an exhibit of Japanese Macaques. The Japanese Macaque (Macaca fuscata), is an Old World monkey species native to Japan. Sometimes known as the snow monkey because it lives in areas where snow covers the ground for months each year, no primate, with the exception of humans, is more northern-living, nor lives in a colder climate. Macaques have brown-grey fur, red faces, and short tails. The macaque can cope with temperatures as low as -20°C. Macaques mostly move on all four legs. They are semi-terrestrial, the females tend to spend more time in the trees, while the males tend to spend more time on the ground. They are also great swimmers and have been reported to swim over half a kilometre.
To see more of the Monkeys, Monkey's at City Park