From sportsfields to 'hoodlum hangout'; changing face of Wollongong's MacCabe Park

At family festivals kids make themselves dizzy rolling down the hill over and over.

At the music festivals held in the park from time to time, it offers punters the ability to scope out the show without joining the hordes at the front of the stage.

Read more: Wollongong council saves up to make its own Central Park

But that highlight of a hill isn't a natural feature - it's man-made.

The exact time all that dirt was piled high is unclear but historical aerial photos show it's there in the late 1970s.

Most likely it was built to create a natural amphitheatre around the stage at the southern end of the park.

You know, the stage that almost never gets used.

But changing plans have long been part of MacCabe Park's history.

The park was named in honour of Henry MacCabe, one of the many who died in the 1902 Mt Kembla mining disaster.

For the first 30-odd years of the site it was used for sporting purposes, with a tennis court at the northern end, a cycling track and a combined football field and cricket pitch at the southern end.

In the late 1950s, with people flocking to the suburbs and wanting sports infrastructure there, it made less sense to have sporting fields in a CBD park.

Though change was slow; in 1958 council was considering placing an Olympic swimming pool in the park.

After much argy-bargy between council and various community groups it was decided the park would get a pool - which never actually happened.

While council made up its mind just what it really did want to do with the park, it turned the northern section into a temporary car park in 1959.

City businesses wanted it to be permanent - and take the form of an underground car park. Council backed it, until the state government said it was a dumb idea.

However, it's not until 1975 that aerial shots show the cars have been removed from MacCabe Park.

By the late 1970s, the pathways through the park had appeared, as had that big hill.

However, there were still a few hiccups along the way for MacCabe Park.

In 1984 there was a push to make the park the site of the city's new performing arts centre.

Four years later, council was considering MacCabe Park could be the home of a skateboarding bowl.

Through the 1990s it gained a reputation as a place of under-age drinking and a "hoodlum hangout", according to the Mercury.

In 2000 a plan to allow development at the park was fought off by locals who had come to love the "green heart" of the city.

Our news app has had a makeover, making it faster and giving you access to even more great content. Download The Illawarra Mercury news app in the Apple Store and Google Play.