Uplands Park A Magical Place
Apart from A.A. Milne’s One Hundred Acre Wood I can’t imagine a more magical urban wildwood retreat than Oak Bay’s Uplands Park in greater Victoria, especially its meadows of brilliant blue spring camas and long shafts of golden grass waving in the late summer. Drifting among islands of blackberry bushes in autumn and trudging along muddy trails in winter is a delight. However, one cannot wander through the park and not ponder what circumstances created such a haven — locked into a suburban setting — and who had the foresight to preserve its natural state.
No specific plan ever existed. This magical place resulted from diversion of design, the economic flow during and following two world wars, federal and municipal bylaws, and a referendum involving the ratepayers of Oak Bay.
In 1907, Winnipeg developer William Hicks Gardner, of Oldfield, Kirby,
