3 months ago
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Two significant harbourside parks and reserves have been heritage-listed in NSW, bringing the number of jewels in Sydney’s “Green Necklace” to six and marking a concerted push from simply preserving buildings to including natural landscapes.
Yurulbin Park in Birchgrove and Balls Head Reserve in Waverton were added to the heritage register after extensive consultation with councils, heritage experts and community groups.
Ballast Point Park in Birchgrove was built on a former Caltex Oil site, which for most of the 20th century operated as a key oil storage and distribution depot.Credit: Sam Mooy
The concept of a “green necklace” was floated in a 2018 study by the Australian Institute of Landscape Architects with a vision to conserve Sydney Harbour and its foreshores. The term refers to a series of waterfront parks, reserves and bushland fragments.
Beyond Yurulbin Park and Balls Head Reserve, listed in July, the “necklace” comprises Ballast Point Park in Birchgrove, Carradah Park in Waverton and Badangi Reserve in Wollstonecraft, which encompasses Berry Island Reserve and Wollstonecraft Reserve.
Listing of parklands marks a significant shift, adding protection of natural landscapes to heritage cover of historic buildings.
Minister for Heritage Penny Sharpe said: “I love this [listing] because it’s a cultural landscape, it’s not just about buildings. It’s about our cultural heritage, it’s about First Nations heritage, it’s about industrial heritage.”
Adding these “green necklace” parks to the heritage register safeguards future use, particularly as pressure mounts on the built environment as a result of the state government’s target to deliver 377,000 new homes by 2029.
“It makes sure they’re cared for forever, but importantly it recognises the various elements that have come together so we can tell the stories of our past as we head into the future,” Sharpe said.
Several sites add thousands of years of Aboriginal connection to more recent layers of industrial, artistic and community history.
“It tells the story of Aboriginal people living on the harbour, it tells the story of our industrial past,” Sharpe said, “but it also tells the story of the beautiful bushland that communities have fought to save. It is just a way of telling the stories of our past, and something I think all Australians should know about.”
Ballast Point Park in Birchgrove, once used for oil storage, pictured in the 1960s.
The band of determined architects took many years to gain listing for their proposed “Green Necklace” but, she said, anyone can put their best case forward for a place to be heritage listed.
“Anyone can make a nomination, it’s not restricted. If people want to have places like this included, they should make a nomination, go through the process. We’re always looking at expanding the register.”
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For consideration, places must fit specific criteria and are more likely to gain heritage listing if they have particular historic, associational, aesthetic, social, scientific, rare or representative qualities.
Australian Institute of Landscape Architects NSW president David Moir said the listings marked a “pivotal step in raising awareness of cultural landscapes, which have historically been underrepresented in heritage listings”.
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