The new Barangaroo Reserve is open to the public, offering spectacular views of Sydney’s western harbour foreshore in a naturalistic bushland and sandstone setting.
While opening the 6ha reserve, Premier Mike Baird said the stunning new park would give current and future generations a new place to enjoy the best harbour in the world.
“It’s hard to imagine that just a few years ago this new green headland was an ugly, locked-off relic of Sydney’s industrial past,” Mr Baird said.
“The challenge of recreating a naturalistic headland has rarely been attempted anywhere else in the world, let alone in a city the size of Sydney and on the world’s best known harbour.”
Mr Baird paid tribute to former Prime Minister Paul Keating who was the driving force behind recreating the naturalistic headland.
Barangaroo Reserve transforms a disused shipping container yard into one of Sydney’s most stunning green headlands, visually linking the headland archipelagos of Balls Head, Goat Island and Ballast Point.
Designed by renowned US landscape architect Peter Walker, it has been inspired by the original headland that existed prior to reclamation in about 1836.
Key features of the new reserve
- A massive cultural space, the Cutaway, built inside the headland that can accommodate up to 5,000 people.
- 75,000 native plants of 84 species of trees and shrubs, almost all of them native to the Sydney region.
- New pedestrian and shared cycle paths.
- Public lawn areas, including Stargazer Lawn with new views of the Harbour Bridge and Anzac Bridge.
- Direct access to the harbour.
- Two new Sydney Harbour coves, Nawi Cove and Marrinawi Cove.
- 10,000 sandstone blocks excavated from the sandstone on site.
- 6,500 carved sandstone blocks used to create the naturalistic foreshore.
Visit the Barangaroo website for more information.