Sydney Park
Sydney Park is bounded by Euston Road, Campbell Road, Barwon Park Road, Princes Highway and Sydney Park Road, Alexandria. The north-western part of Sydney Park is on Wianamatta shale from which brick-making clay was extracted. Before European settlement this area was a forest of turpentine and ironbark trees. The south-eastern area of the park is located on Botany sands, with swamps, marshes and heath associated with the waterway that became known as Sheas Creek. Agricultural use of the site commenced with Thomas Smyth, marine sergeant with the First Fleet, who cleared the forest cover to plant fruit trees and grain crops.
Bricks for Sydney's suburbs
The Sydney Park site played a significant role in the development of Sydney during the nineteenth century. Brick making was begun on the site in the 1840s by Henry Goodsell and became a major industry in 1871 with the introduction of machine-manufactured bricks. Bricks manufactured here built Sydney's suburbs over a period of more than 100 years. The first batch of machine-made bricks was used in the construction of Farmer's department store on the corner of Market and George streets, Sydney. In 1893 Josiah Gentle opened the Bedford Brick Works, named after his home town in England. In 1933 the firm was taken over by Austral Bricks which operated here until 1970. The Sydney Park site has also been used for a range of other industrial development including gas storage in two tanks, manufacturing and warehousing.
From rubbish tip to parkland
The brickworks dug out the clay, leaving huge pits which were filled up with municipal waste from 1948 to 1976. Since the closure of St Peters tip, a final layer of soil and building rubble has been placed over the site to create a new regional park. This includes a series of visually prominent hills which provide panoramic views of the city skyline and Sydney Airport and are used for recreational activities such as kite flying. Stormwater detention ponds have been transformed into wetland habitat to partly recreate the pre-European environment. At the same time the area's industrial heritage has been preserved with the kilns and brickworks chimneys at the corner of Sydney Park Road and the Princes Highway.
Alan Davidson Oval at the corner of Sydney Park Road and Euston Road was opened in 2003 and provides facilities for cricket and Australian Rules football. It is named after the all-rounder who played 44 cricket tests for Australia and was later chairman of Cricket Australia. The AIDS Memorial Grove next to Council's plant nursery on Barwon Park Road is the result of annual community tree planting days which began in 1994. CARES (Community and Road Education Scheme) on Sydney Park Road opened in 2004 and provides a safe place for children to learn about road safety.
References
Conybeare Morrison and Partners Pty Ltd, Sydney Park Plan of Management, 1982
EDAW (Australia) Pty Ltd, Sydney Park Plan of Management, 1995
Tropman and Tropman Architects, Sydney Park Brick Kiln and Chimney Precinct Heritage and Structural Assessment, 2000
South Sydney City Council, Sydney Park Amended Plan of Management, July 2003
