Associated facilities included boat sheds and refreshment rooms, and sporting events were held on the lake.

A tramway was proposed to connect the suburbs of Heidelberg and Coburg, running past the lake, but the collapse of the land boom in the early 1890s ended that project.

[1] In 1914, Thomas Dyer Edwardes donated 34 acres (14 ha) of land to the City of Preston for the creation of a park.

Carlo Catani, the Chief Engineer of the Public Works Department, was approached to provide a plan for laying out the park.

Swimming in the lake was banned in 1939 due to heavy pollution, although people continued to do so and there were a number of drownings.