Formerly part of the Inner Circle Railway line, the land at this site became the site of a significant community protest by the Carlton Association in 1970, who had been lobbying for the abandoned railway land to be turned into a park. After the site was chosen for redevelopment as a warehouse by the multinational Kimberly-Clark, 20 construction unions enacted a ban on works on the site, in support of the Carlton Association. The development pressed ahead with scab labour, leading to conflict on the site, with the Federal Secretary of the Builders Labourers Federation Norm Gallagher, arrested and jailed for attempting to prevent works from taking place. The development was abandoned, and the park was named after Gallagher along with Melbourne City Councillor Fred Hardy who had supported the community action. The success of the "black ban" spurred their wider adoption by the BLF to protect Melbourne's heritage, including the Regent Theatre, City Baths, and the Windsor Hotel. More recent proposals in 2014 to transform parts of the park into a community garden also attracted protest due to concerns about the enclosing of private plots and limiting public space access.
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