Parklands

Our parklands contain 430 hectares of open space located in the geographic heart of metropolitan Sydney, and are one of Australia’s largest urban parklands.

A lasting legacy of the Sydney 2000 Olympic and Paralympic Games, the parklands have been designed and built on land formerly used by government industries including the State Abattoirs, State Brickworks and Commonwealth Department of Defence.  

The majority of the physical landscape of the Parklands has been deliberately designed and constructed to create a series of different places consistent with a planned concept design.  Works through the 1980s and 1990s remediated former industrial land and restored degraded remnant habitats in an internationally recognised leading environmental remediation and urban renewal project.

The different places and spaces within the parklands include:

• Picnic areas and playgrounds in Bicentennial Park, Blaxland Riverside Park and Wentworth Common
• Sports fields at Wilson Park
• Freshwater wetlands, estuarine wetlands and creek systems that support abundant wildlife including internationally migratory bird species and endangered frogs 
• The Olympic legacy site of Archery Park, where archery events were held during the 2000 Olympics
• Four kilometres of water frontage to the Parramatta River and Homebush Bay
• The historic Newington Armory – a precinct listed on the NSW State Heritage Register that contains over a hundred heritage buildings and an operating narrow-gauge rail system, that is part of the former Royal Australian Navy Armament Depot
• The 47-hectare Newington Nature Reserve, that supports critically endangered Sydney Turpentine Ironbark Forest, mangrove forest and endangered saltmarshes
• The Brickpit of the former State Brickpit that is important habitat for endangered frogs and other wildlife, and which contains a 300ML water storage reservoir for our recycled water scheme,
• Public open space on the remediated waste mounds of Kronos Hill and Woo-la-ra, and bioremediation systems for the safe treatment of leachate generated some of our ten legacy landfills
• A large collection of public art works spread throughout the parklands, as well as an art gallery and artists in residence studios
• Extensive walking trails, cycling paths, boardwalks and bird hides

Over half of the 430 hectares of parklands is managed for nature conservation – the parklands support over 250 native animal species, protected mangrove forest, and three endangered ecological communities.  This rich biodiversity makes an important contribution to the economic and social values of the Park through enriching visitor experience, providing a living classroom for environmental education programs, and attracting businesses and residents seeking proximity to nature.

The statutory Parklands Plan of Management provides the management framework for the Parklands.  It identifies the purpose and objectives for each area and the public access and land use regime that applies, in order to protect social, environmental, heritage, and other values.

Today, the parklands are playing an increasingly important role as both a local park and as a significant regional park destination for a growing city.  Over 2.8 million people visit the parklands each year to engage in a variety of leisure, sport, social, cultural, educational and nature based experiences.