HistoryOn Wednesday 11 November 1891 a letter from William Henry Newman was published in the ''Orange Leader'', requesting that the Minister for Lands give consideration to providing a park for the people of East Orange. The letter states:
" the matter, as I informed you, was settled pending the reduction per acre by Mr McLachlan of £30 or £40. That gentleman has reduced the price to £50 per acre. I would respectfully urge the granting of this park to the inhabitants while the opportunity is offered to secure the only piece of land suitable for the purpose. You will, I assure you, confer a great and lasting boon upon the people of East Orange'.
The area had been a traditional Aboriginal meeting place and a point of blanket distribution from 1851 onwards.
Newman Park, named after its champion, was planted out with exotic oak, elm, cypress and pines in the 1890s.
Following World War I, the principal of the East Orange Public School, Mr Arnold T Caldwell arranged for a group of returned soldiers to take part in the planting of a Memorial Avenue in Newman Park adjacent to the school. During the early years after the planting, vandals destroyed the name plates attached to each tree signifying who it was planted for. At one time Council considered removal of the avenue, but a very strong protest by the RSL saved the trees.
In August 1978 A memorial plaque set on a large basalt stone donated by the Orange Sub branch of the RSL of Australia and Orange City Council was unveiled to replace the plaques. It commemorates 16 former East Orange Public School Students who were killed in action during World War I
Herbert Henry Argall, Preston Edwin Argall, William Robert Clive Beasley, Oswald Cecil Jeffrey Baylis, Thomas Meynell Curtayne, William Joseph Coppock, Walter Thomas Cornish, Harold William Corkett, Arthur James Dein, John Arthur 'Jack' Earls, Edwin Hercules Fardell, Robert Clyde Jones, George Edward John Seers, Ernest Edward Tandy, Hector Edward Williams, William Alexander Woods.
Newman Park has been the venue for East Orange Public School's Anzac Day services for many years.
* Miller, J., Holmes, D., and Honey, A. (2001) [http://www.ofhg.com.au/publications.htm ''Orange a vision splendid'' ]. Orange City Council, Orange NSW.
* [http://www.orangesignificantscapes.com.au/ Survey of Orange Significant Landscape Features]
