[1] From March 1857, the York Agricultural Society was given the right to use the land adjacent to the south of Macartney Street as a showground “until required for other purposes”.
The York Municipal Council’s response was to declare and establish Avon Park on the land to the north of Macartney Street on 20 August 1891.
The ceremony of opening the new public park in this township was performed on Thursday afternoon last by the Mayor (Mr. W. Dinsdale) in the presence of the members of the Municipal Council and a few other citizens.
[9] There were suggestions that the council should swap land on the other side of the railway line to be used for the Fair which would allow Avon Park to be extended southwards.
[10] In November 1893, public baths were erected adjacent to Avon Park,[11] “which have proved a boon and convenience to the community and visitors to our township”[12] In May 1894, lots 9 and 10 were vested in the Municipality, but at the annual meeting of the York Agricultural Society at the Castle Hotel in December 1894, there was almost unanimous approval to once again seek to acquire lots 9 and 10 from the Municipality.
[13] Edward Read Parker, who was one of the few Society members who did not agree to the acquisition, wrote a letter to the paper taking the position of ratepayers against the “alien institution [seeking] to usurp the occupation of their only water-side pleasure ground.”[14] Another correspondent accused the Society of trying to “rob the ratepayers of the only piece of river frontage they possess…..why does the committee set to work and change its position to a more suitable one and not one located in the very centre of our principal business thoroughfare”.