The garden city received a new park yesterday as part of the effort to make the Docklands more liveable. Planning Minister Richard Wynne, Melbourne Lord Mayor Robert Doyle and AFL legend Ron Barassi Jnr officially opened up the park named after Barassi's father.

Barassi Snr played as a rover for the Melbourne Football Club between 1936 and 1940. Within weeks of being a member of the 1940 premiership team, Barassi Snr was posted overseas, as a volunteer, to serve in the Australian Army’s Second World War campaign in North Africa. He was killed in action at Tobruk in 1941.

The park’s name was chosen after a public vote in September 2014. The $15 million first stage of the park, which is located in north-west Docklands at the Bolte Bridge end of Docklands Drive,  includes a sports field, pavilion, playground, barbeques and a walking circuit.

The park will be owned, operated and maintained by the City of Melbourne, which is encouraging any Docklands-based sports clubs to express their interest in calling the park home.

"Docklands is only 60 per cent finished but has already attracted more than $10 billion worth of investment, and with it, thousands of new residents," said Wynne. "Ron Barassi Snr Park is a new milestone for Docklands, making it a more liveable and healthy place to call home."