The Mount Evelyn Aqueduct Walk uses part of the Mount Evelyn Aqueduct which once cut the town of Mount Evelyn, Victoria, Australia, in two. The Aqueduct was decommissioned on 7 February 1972, but the high costs of purchase and filling caused Lillydale Council to repeatedly defer negotiations to purchase the land from the Melbourne and Metropolitan Board of Works (MMBW). History In 1974–75, the Shire of Lillydale offered to buy land for a central park in Mount Evelyn for a low price ($10,000) on the grounds that the people of Mount Evelyn had been disadvantaged in the past by the aqueduct splitting the town and residents being unable to connect to the water supply, but the Board was unresponsive. In 1974, the Board sold a portion of the land at the junction of the old O'Shannassy Aqueduct and the Silvan Outlet channel for the Melba Centre, but the $120,000 price set for the whole Aqueduct was too high for Council. In May 1979, a series of chance encounters alerted David and Jean Edwards to the possibility that the aqueduct land might be sold off for development or to adjacent landowners. The Property Officer of the Board of Works confirmed that offers had been invited from adjoining landowners in the "rural" section (from Hazel Street to Hunter Road), with replies due 10–16 July. Enquiries to the Lillydale Council indicated that the Board had applied for re-zoning, but response from the Shire was extremely guarded. A stay of action was sought after volunteers took a hurriedly framed petition to the Shopping Centre and schools, and presented 230 signatures to A. R. Patterson, the Board member representing eastern municipalities. At the Board meeting, immediate sales proposals were stalled, but the real work of raising the level of awareness of the aqueduct land as potential linear parkland had only begun. Many newcomers to Mount Evelyn were unaware that the aqueduct existed. Protection association The Mount Evelyn Environment Protection and Progress Association (MEEPPA) held a Public Meeting at Morrison House chaired by John Muys. Those residents from the Hazel Street/Priestly Crescent section were reassured that their properties (bisected by pipeline) would not be included in the Aqueduct Park. Meanwhile, East Riding resident and MEEPPA Vice-President Neil Pope was elected to the Lillydale Shire Council, giving the aqueduct park a voice inside Council, and a petition was presented to the Legislative Assembly with 1500 signatures asking