 the buildings were adapted to the Melbourne Meat Preserving Company works in 1868, and then taken over by Humes Pipe in about 1911.In the 1980s the MMBW purchased the site and developed it as parkland and home to the Living Museum, opening in 1984.The park sits on the floodplain of the Maribyrnong river below a steep escarpment of the western basalt plains.