
Parks histories
A walk in the park
Central Sydney’s parks have a fascinating history reflecting local events, industries and personalities.
Here you can find when a park was established, who or what a park is named after and the different uses of a park over time.
Parks in the local area are listed below alphabetically.
Image: Hyde Park, 1916 (City of Sydney archives, CRS 51/1815).
Name | About the park |
---|---|
Ada Place Playground | A pocket park occupying 3 terrace house sites in inner-city Pyrmont, an area now experiencing rapid population growth. |
Alexandria Park | Built on a former tip site, this park now boasts tennis courts and a children's playground. |
Arthur McElhone Reserve | In the front of Elizabeth Bay House, this park enjoys panoramic views down to the heads of Sydney Harbour. |
Arundel Street Playground | Stands on the spot where Parramatta Road originally crossed Orphan School Creek. |
Barcom Avenue Reserve | Located behind St Vincent's Hospital, Darlinghurst, the reserve is part of West's Bush where blankets were distributed to Aboriginal peoples in the early 19th century. |
Beaconsfield Park | A popular local park for this model suburb of the 1880s. |
Beare Park | A magnificent harbourside park along with strong associations with 2 of Sydney’s finest houses, Elizabeth Bay House and Boomerang. |
Belmore Park | In front of Sydney’s Central Railway Station, contains one of the city’s most spectacular single row plantations of London plane trees. |
Clyne Reserve | The site of prime residences in the 1830s, located above the Darling Harbour wharves. |
Cook + Phillip Park | Originally 2 separate parks, Cook + Phillip Park's major redevelopment in 1997 saw construction of a modern swimming pool complex. |
Eddie Ward Park | Named after the ‘firebrand’ MP for East Sydney 1931-1960. |
Edmund Resch Park | On the site of Resch’s Waverley Brewery, now redeveloped for apartment living. |
Embarkation Park | Overlooking the Garden Island naval base, a popular vantage point for Sydney’s New Year’s Eve fireworks. |
Ernest Pedersen Steps | Built in 1885 to link Avon and Burton Streets, Glebe, the steps were named in honour of an ALP alderman of the 1950s. |
Erskineville Oval | The home ground for the Newtown rugby league team from 1913 to 1954 and now providing training facilities for the South Sydney Rabbitohs. |
Fig Lane Park | The site of the 1970s ‘Battle of Fig Street’ opposing the North West freeway. |
Fitzroy Gardens | The favoured site for Sydney’s New Year’s Eve revellers from 1936 until 1976 when harbourside fireworks began. |
Foley Rest Park | Dr H J Foley Rest Park in Glebe is the site of the former ‘Hereford House’ and contains Glebe War Memorial. |
Frog Hollow Reserve | The site of a slum demolished in the 1920s which was home to the notorious Riley Street Gang. |
Giba Park | A magnificent cliff-top open space overlooking the former industrial foreshore, now rehabilitated into housing and parkland. |
Glebe Foreshore Park | Combines a number of existing parks with newly rehabilitated industrial sites to provide waterfront access for most of the peninsula. |
Green Park | The park in Darlinghurst contains the Gay and Lesbian Holocaust Memorial and the Victor Chang Memorial. |
Hansom Cab Place | A children’s playground named after the area’s former hansom cab stables. |
Harmony Park | Part of the Brisbane Street slum clearance of 1924 and after decades of neglect was converted to a park in 2006. |
Harry Noble Reserve | Part of Erskineville Park where a model housing scheme was built in 1938. |
Hollis Park | The proposed site for Kingston Public School but became recreational space for the grand terrace houses surrounding it. |
Hugo Street Reserve | The site of houses which became derelict in the Great Depression. It was converted to a playground in the 1950s. |
Hyde Park | Sydney’s oldest park contains the Anzac War Memorial, Archibald Fountain and Captain Cook Statue. |
James Street Reserve | Adjoins the former Wunderlich factory site, now the Surry Hills Shopping Village. |
James Watkinson Reserve | In front of Ways Terrace, Pyrmont, was saved from oblivion in the 1990s by a community campaign. |
Jessie Street Gardens | At Circular Quay, the former site of Custom House Chambers was created in 1989 in association with the Gateway development. |
Joynton Park | Entrepreneur Joynton Smith’s Victoria Park Racecourse and the British Motor Corporation factory were formerly on the site. |
Lang Park | Sydney’s first Anglican church was built here in 1798. |
Lawrence Hargrave Reserve | Built on the roof of Kings Cross car park in 1978 and named after the Australian aviation pioneer who lived nearby. |
Lewis Hoad Reserve | Named after the local boy who became the world’s number 1 tennis player in 1956. |
Lilian Fowler Reserve | Commemorates Australia’s first woman mayor and the first female member of the NSW Parliament. |
Macleay Reserve | Originally the eastern ‘wood walk’ of Alexander Macleay’s Elizabeth Bay House, now surrounded by historic twentieth century apartment buildings. |
Macquarie Place Park | Contains the obelisk erected by Governor Macquarie in 1818 to mark the place from which public roads in the colony were measured. |
Marriott Street Reserve | Part of the site of John Baptist’s nursery which operated from the 1830s to the 1900s. |
May Pitt Playground | Named after the second female mayor of Glebe. |
Munn Street Reserve | Created in 1981 as part of Sydney’s port redevelopment |
Observatory Park | Offers one of the most spectacular vantage points in Sydney and is a popular spot for weddings. |
Paddington Reservoir Gardens | Site of the heritage-listed reservoir which supplied Sydney’s water from 1878 to 1899. |
Peace Park | Originally the site of Shepherd’s Darling Nursery from 1827 to the 1860s, and was named in the 1980s in recognition of nuclear disarmament campaigns. |
Pemulwuy Park | Named after the Aboriginal resistance leader killed in 1802. |
Perry Park | Home of the Alexandria Basketball Stadium, formerly market gardens and later a council rubbish rip. |
Prince Alfred Park | The first park to be laid out in connection with a major Australian exhibition. |
Pyrmont Point Park | A former industrial site recycled as a harbourside park featuring the sculpture ‘Tied to Tide’. |
Reconciliation Park | Named in the 1990s to acknowledge national concern for Aboriginal peoples and contains the 1985 Sulman Prize-winning mural ‘Think Globally Act Locally’. |
Redfern Park | The site of Paul Keating’s famous 1992 speech is a typical Victorian pleasure garden and home to the South Sydney Rabbitohs. |
Rushcutters Bay Park |
Built on land reclaimed from the water with a close-up view of yachts moored at the Cruising Yacht Club including entrants in the annual Sydney-Hobart race. |
Shannon Reserve | Established in 1939 and home to the monthly Surry Hills markets. |
South Sydney Rotary Park | On the site of the former Eveleigh Railway Workshop and the Camellia Grove Nursery. |
Sydney Park | Formerly the Bedford Brickworks which played a significant role in building Sydney’s suburbs over a period of more than 100 years. |
Thomas Portley Reserve | A former house site which was named after a respected local charity worker. |
Trinity Avenue Playground | Owned by former convict Andrew Byrne, whose house was demolished for the construction of the Sydney Harbour Bridge. |
Turruwul Park | Provides sporting facilities for local industries as well as residents of this model suburb founded in 1912. |
Union Square | Created in 1998 with the closure of Union Street and contains the Pyrmont War Memorial. |
Victoria Park | Next to Sydney University and contains the oldest post-war swimming pool in Sydney, built in 1953. |
Waratah Street Reserve | Part of reclaimed land and named after nearby Waratah house. |
Waterloo Park | A green space in an area of large scale industry, rows of terrace housing and groups of workers’ cottages. |
Wentworth Park | Formerly the swampy mouth of Blackwattle Creek, reclaimed from the water in the 1870s and the home of greyhound racing since 1932. |
Wynyard Park | Originally the military parade ground and later a landscaped square, with a long association with public transport. |
Yellomundee Park | Renamed in 1995 after the Aboriginal leader of the Richmond tribes. |
Last updated: Wednesday, 27 March 2013