​FRIENDS OF BEDFORD PARK Spring Hill, Brisbane  Qld  Australia  4000  

Bedford Park, located on the corner of Love Street and Water Street, Spring Hill, and also known as Bedford Playground and Spring Hill Playground was established in 1927.  It is State Heritage listed and was named in honour of (Mary) Josephine Bedford in 1959, an early Brisbane philanthropist.

One of three inner city playgrounds, Bedford Park demonstrates early twentieth century philosophies of child care, particularly in relation to the importance of adequately providing for children in poorer communities to provide a better chance of their future success.  The park is important as an integral example of the small number of open parks in the CBD and Spring Hill area.  The playground demonstrates the principal characteristics of early model playgrounds formed by the Playground Association of Queensland and influenced by similar American models.  Unlike the large recreation parks constructed in the United States for the whole community, the playgrounds established in Queensland by the Playground Association were planned on a smaller scale, focussing solely on children and providing a playground and usually a field house.  In most instances the inner city playgrounds were associated with an adjacent kindergarten or creche, and this is thought to have been due to Mary Josephine Bedford's involvement with the Creche and Kindergarten Association. 

This group formed in 1907 with the purpose of instituting and maintaining day nurseries and free kindergartens for the children of the poor in Brisbane. Like the Playground Association, the Creche and Kindergarten Association were successful in achieving local and state government sponsorship and funding as well as funding from various national philanthropic trust funds. The success of these two organisations can be rightly said to be due to the tireless and strategic work of Mary Josephine Bedford.  Miss Bedford remained an active participant of both the Creche and Kindergarten Association and the Playground Association until her death in December 1955.  It is clearly through her extensive letter writing, evident in archival files on both organisations, that they achieved their successes.

The park features: the Spring Hill World War II Memorial Hall, opened in 1945, to commemorate the lads of the Paddington, Spring Hill and Fortitude Valley playgrounds who served during WWII.  The hall is now the Spring HIll office of Communify Qld. There are established shading trees, an electric barbecue, sports field, fitness station, a covered concreted picnic area, a range of children’s play equipment, free accessible tennis court, a half-court, limited off street parking and it is also fully fenced.  The park is important as an integral example of the small number of open parks in the CBD and Spring Hill area.  Bedford Park was constructed on the former Spring Hill porphyry quarry site, established in 1860. Stone from the Spring Hill quarry was thought to be used in construction of the early Brisbane Normal School and other early Brisbane buildings. The quarry was closed by the early twentieth century and also offers a rare glimpse of ‘untamed’ landscape in inner city Brisbane.  (Extract from Qld Heritage Register).