Chelsworth Park, on the Yarra River floodplain, is on the land of Wurundjeri Woi-wurrung people. Formerly a dairy farm, the reserve is under the umbrella of Banyule City Council, and leased and maintained by Ivanhoe Grammar School.

The school is part of the Associated Grammar Schools of Victoria, which this year celebrates its 100th anniversary. Hence the logo-artwork that adorns what was presumably the former scoreboard on the main ground at Chelsworth. (Nice use of an obsolete facility, we reckon, and a touch more interesting than the blank black ‘roller door’ visage of the newer scoreboard.)

One of the ground’s tenants is, not surprisingly, Old Ivanhoe Grammar Football Club. In their first game, back in 1964, they kicked the first goal of the game. And no more.  A year later they were Grand Finalists in F Division Amateurs. (Nowadays – well, last year – they were in C Grade of the Victorian Amateur Football Association.)

A smaller ground near  a local scout hall has a simple old-fashioned scoreboard, bearing some discreet graffiti, plus  Ivanhoe Grammar’s crest and  historic motto: Fidelus usque ad mortem translates to Faithful even unto death. (The school’s motto these days, Courageous and kind, is perhaps a little less daunting for younger students.)