It is all due to our Scottish ancestors!
1857 was the first year a Buninyong Highland Society was formed, and a year later the site we call the Soccer pitches, or "the old footy ground" was fenced to be a suitable place for the next "Highland Games".
The Royal connection comes in, when about 10 years later a young Prince Alfred (second son of Queen Victoria), the Duke of Edinburgh, visited Buninyong. He attended the games at the Highland Grounds, and it thereafter became known as 'Royal Park'.
The Buninyong Historical Society.
Visit the Buninyong Historical Society's web site, and find out the full story in an article by Anne Beggs Sunter called "The Buninyong Highland Society." (scroll down the page)
