Have you ever wondered how your favourite park came into being?
In the decades after the saving of Kelly’s Bush at Hunters Hill in 1977, with the now famous alliance of local women and Jack Mundey’s Builders Labourers Federation, one might assume that community action has been the prime mover for preserving or creating public green space. And it often has – particularly as the pressure on space intensifies. What has also been important has been trends in town planning principles, the goodwill of the powerful and, well, serendipity.
The latter was definitely in play with the creation of the swathe of bushland reserve that graces the Sydney Harbour foreshore from Bradley’s Head around to Middle Head, all now part of Sydney Harbour National Park.
As happened across Sydney, Aboriginal land – in this case, Borogegal country – had been handed out with alacrity to colonists in the first decades of the 19th century before it was realised that public control of the waterfront for defence purposes was important. The authorities then had to resume, or buy back, that land.
At Bradley’s Head, Charles Jenkins alone owned as much as 35 hectares. Fortifications were built but the bulk of the land remained undeveloped and forested. Much of it thereby survived the pressure of development until the end of its usefulness for defence and becoming parkland. Ashton Park at Bradley’s Head was declared parkland as early as 1908. George’s and Middle Heads were declared in the early 2000s, after being decommissioned as military land.
St Leonards Park in North Sydney is an early example of open space being officially set aside at the outset of planning. An area simply called ‘the reserve’ was created when, or shortly after, the township of St Leonards (present-day North Sydney) was gazetted in 1838. It comprised a town square, now St Leonards Park, and a reserve for access to fresh water and public recreation, now Cammeray Park.
While St Leonards Park has survived largely intact, despite attempts to push through roadways in the 19th century and an eastern boundary lost to the Warringah Expressway in the 1960s, Cammeray Park has been less fortunate. That same Expressway cut off the southwestern corner of the old reserve, a reminder that parks remain vulnerable to destruction or diminution, even when they are well-established. Look up the history of your parks and stay vigilant.
Historical Services, North Sydney Council.
