Remembering Bill Potts

August 2023 marked 30 years since the passing of Bill Potts, whose legacy is still felt throughout the City of Burnside’s local parks and reserves today.

Born in Newcastle upon Tyne in 1917, Bill served in the Royal Engineers during the Second World War and was evacuated from Dunkirk, captured in North Africa, and escaped captivity from a POW camp in Czechoslovakia during the Soviet’s westward advance in 1945.

In the 1950s Bill emigrated to Australia and he became the City of Burnside’s first Director of Parks and Gardens, a position he held from 1959 to 1982. During his tenure he was instrumental in leading works in many parks and reserves including Hazelwood Park, Tusmore Park and Michael Perry Botanic Reserve.

For Bill’s son, Ian, this ongoing legacy is felt in more ways than one.

‘Dad was a racer; we have that sort of racing blood… I was raised in that racing household,’ Ian said.

‘I remember driving around the Wayville Showgrounds for the Royal Show, just around the main arena on the dirt track getting sent sideways a little bit, thinking “This is pretty fun!”

‘The funny thing is he was really into cars whereas I was more into racing dirtbikes growing up, but I also had an appreciation of the cars.’

In the 1960s, Bill purchased and completed the assembly of an HRG 1500, which had been a collection of parts in 1939, assembled as a chassis for export in 1947, and never fitted with a body.

‘This car, along with four or five others, came to Australia in a chassis form, just a rolling chassis,’ Ian said.

‘So, my father designed the body on the Le Mans model and there was an Italian coachbuilder in Adelaide who used to work for Maserati. My father got in contact with him, and he built the body and that would have been around 1968, ever since then it’s been in the family.’

After completing his education at Norwood High School, Ian followed in his father’s footsteps and worked at the City of Burnside from 1979 to 1989, learning the ropes in landscaping and completing further education at TAFE. Today Ian operates his own landscape gardening business.

Ian said he has fond memories of working at the City of Burnside during his father’s tenure, and that Bill was well respected by his peers.

‘He was a people person, everybody liked him,’ Ian said.

‘He respected all his workers, and they respected him. It was a big team effort; it wasn’t just him.

‘My father had an eye for detail and perspective, he was more interested in civic landscaping on a big scale rather than gardens.’

Bill Potts passed away in August 1993 and is commemorated at the Bill Potts Memorial Garden in Hazelwood Park, featuring a magnificent Moreton Bay fig tree as its centrepiece with ornamental planting beds in the surrounding area.

Meanwhile, Ian continues to hold warm memories of his father and plans to keep the HRG 1500 close by as a family member.

‘When I drive by Greenhill Road and I look over at Hazelwood Park it fills me with so much pride, knowing how much my father contributed to this place,’ Ian said.

‘He always said to me in Australia he spent most of his time getting water into the garden, whereas back home he spent all the time getting water out of the garden because it just rained so much.

‘He really was nature’s gentleman.’