Fibreglass crocodiles and pirated DVDs: Whatever happened to Caribbean Gardens?

It was a slice of kitsch, tropical exotica that added a dash of colour and a frisson of excitement to suburban eastern Melbourne in the 1960s.

The year, to be precise, was 1966, and Arch Spooner had told the Women’s Weekly that his dream was to transform his family’s large plot of land at Scoresby “into a kind of local Disneyland”, replete with a lake dotted by fibreglass crocodiles, elephants and hippopotamuses.

Early days: The family had bought the land in 1945, and in the 1950s opened the Caribbean Boat Factory. Later, the 1.2-kilometre-long Lake Caribbean was constructed to test new boats.

In the mid-1960s the Spooners opened the gardens and lake to the public on Sundays. It soon became a hub for local waterskiing and locals selling goods out of their car boots.

Bargains galore: In 1976, Caribbean Gardens and Market opened. The increased market space for vendors and traders - in the form of a 2.6-acre pavilion - could cater for up to 1,000 stalls.

The site then morphed into the first amusement park in Melbourne’s eastern suburbs, featuring a miniature railway, chairlift, Japanese gardens and small zoo.

Weird and wonderful: Among the key fixtures at the gardens were a supersized chef’s head mounted on top of the site’s main restaurant and a giant fibreglass pirate.

Rampant piracy: By the 2010s, the markets had become a honey pot for those wanting to load up on cheap pirated movies. In 2013, the ABC reported on a Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) study into copyright infringement, which highlighted the Caribbean Gardens and Market as among the world's most notorious markets for selling pirated DVDs.

End of an era: After more than 60 years of operating every week, the market closed permanently on July 1, 2020, due to the financial impact of Covid.

The Spooner family has since acquired more land around the site and developed the 500-acre office precinct Caribbean Park.

Events are still held within the grounds of the old gardens and market space, with Event Central catering to a wide variety of attractions, including music festivals and industry expos.

Many memories: Several elements of the original gardens, market and amusement park still remain, including the fibreglass picnic umbrella seats. They are, like the distant memories of the park’s heyday, a little faded.