Rogers Memorial Reserve Cumberland Road Pascoe Vale, Melbourne Victoria

The Rogers Memorial Reserve was purchased by Council c.1928 along with others for public recreation purposes, funded by a £50,000 loan to the local council.  The reserve was first known as Raeburn Reserve, and renamed the Rogers Reserve c.1938, after Councillor Harry Rogers who served as the Chairman of the Coburg Council Parks and Gardens Committee and was a firm advocate of creating new parks within the municipality.

Works on the reserve commenced approximately in 1938 when school children from nearby Pascoe Vale State School planted trees in the reserve for Arbor Day “ under the supervision and to a design by the City Curator …”. It is not known if any of these trees survive, although the Cherry Plum and Monterey Cypress may date this period.

A First World War Memorial Drinking Fountain (c.1916), originally erected on the south-east corner of Pleasant and Gyles Streets, was relocated to its current location in Rogers Reserve fronting Cumberland Road in 1948 and was used to commemorate those who had served in the subsequent Second World War also. This memorial is a small granite memorial comprising a stepped base, a lower section with engraved plaques bearing the names of those from the Pascoe Vale community who served in the Great War 1914-1918.

Memorials to later conflicts were added to the memorial space over time.  These include memorials to Korea, Malaya, Borneo, South Vietnam, and United Nations Peace Keeping Forces.  An Aleppo Pine (Lone Pine) was planted to the south of the memorial c 1999-2000. 

An Olive Tree was planted by the Pan Cretan Association of Melbourne to the west of the memorial space in 2012 and is “dedicated to the Australian and Greek Men and Women who fought gallantly and sacrificed their lives on Greek Soil for freedom and Democracy in the Second World war during the Battle of Crete”.