Centennial Parklands

About

Centennial Parklands is the name given to a group of three urban parklands located in the eastern suburbs of Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. Comprising approximately 360 hectares (890 acres), the lands encompass Centennial Park, Moore Park and Queens Park. The Parklands are listed on the New South Wales Heritage Register, with various components of national, state or local heritage significance. The parks are contained within the local government areas of City of Randwick, Waverley Municipal Council, and City of Sydney. The parklands are managed by the Centennial Park & Moore Park Trust, trading as the Botanic Gardens and Centennial Parklands. The trust is administered by the Office of Environment & Heritage. The parklands were added to the New South Wales State Heritage Register on 27 March 2000. Centennial Park is home to a number of wild animals including bird life, rabbits, and foxes. It is also home to a number of equestrian schools and other domestic animal endeavours such as the Centennial Park Rabbit Retreat, a boarding facility for rabbits.

The Parklands are constructed on lands that were traditionally in the custody of the Gadigal indigenous Australian people and are located between 3 and 6 kilometres (1.9 and 3.7 mi) south-east of the Sydney central business district.

The Centennial Parklands, as it stands today, represents 190 years of colonial history. The settlers had an immediate impact on the lives of the Gadi people whose clan territory takes in most of the Sydney peninsula. Gadi country extends between what is now Darling Harbour and South Head, and includes Centennial Park, Moore Park and Queens Park.

Close to where Centennial Park and Moore Park are today, an area that became known as the Kangaroo Ground was recorded on a map engraved by J. Walker in 1791 or 1793. This map shows the location of what the English called the Kangaroo Ground, in the clan territories of the Gadi. The richer soils and park like atmosphere observed here by Tench and others would almost certainly have been created through regular firing by the Gadi to keep the undergrowth clear and attract kangaroos and other large game to the area for hunting.

From 1882, part of the Parklands were used to house the Sydney Showground, the home of the popular Royal Agricultural Society of New South Wales ' annual Easter Show, attracting up to 1 million people annually to the precinct. During the 1970s, it was recognised that the Showground facilities required significant investment, there was also a large green ban which prevented the construction of a sports stadium in the park. In 1988, a decision was made to relocate the showground facilities to land adjacent to Homebush Bay, and seven years later, it was resolved to redevelop the Moore Park Showground site into a movie production studio. The final Royal Easter Show held at Moore Park concluded during 1997.

During the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games and Sydney 2000 Paralympics, the parks hosted part of the road cycling events, the football, and formed part of the route for the marathons.

The Parklands is home to over 15,000 trees, 124 species of native land and water birds, and 18 introduced species of land and water birds. The responsibilities of the Centennial Park and Moore Park Trust cover low-lying wetlands, ornamental lakes, pine and native forests, expanses of grass, to playing fields, a golf course, tennis and netball courts and the Entertainment Quarter at nearby Moore Park.

Centennial Parklands, comprising Centennial Park, Moore Park and Queens Park, are part of the Second Sydney Common.

As the settlement of Sydney began to develop it became necessary to set aside common land on the outskirts of the town. On 5 October 1811 Governor Macquarie proclaimed the 200 hectares (490 acres) to the south of South Head Road as the Sydney Common, for use by the public. The common land contained a vital resource in the form of a constant supply of pure water due to the natural aquifers present in the Botany Sands system. In 1820, Macquarie set aside the water reserve in the east of the Sydney Common. Between 1827 and 1838, Lachlan Water Tunnel was built providing a supply of freshwater to a terminal in Hyde Park. It remained Sydney Town's sole source of water supply until 1858, when it was supplanted by a scheme to pump water from the Botany Swamps, located further to the south.

The swamps, located within the Sydney Common, were naturally aquified and were an ideal source of water. In recognition of this precious resource, the Lachlan Water Reserve was founded in 1820. The Tank Stream supply of water for Sydney was inadequate and had a high level of pollutants, in 1825, the colonial government set up an enquiry into the use of the Lachlan Swamps to provide a water supply to Sydney. John Busby, a mineral surveyor, was appointed to design a water system to convey the water from the swamps to the town centre. Busby originally considered conveying the water using iron pipes, but assessed this would be too expensive. Finally he proposed a long tunnel be constructed, entirely through Crown Land.

The Lachlan Water Tunnel, better known as Busby's Bore, was Sydney's first piped water supply. The "Bore" or tunnel was, on average between 1.7 metres (5.5 ft) high by 1.4 metres (4.5 ft) wide and carried water from the Lachlan Swamps to Hyde Park. The whole length of the Tunnel was 3.7 kilometres (12,000 ft) and capable of holding 6.8 megalitres (1,500,000 imp gal) and 15 days' supply of water.

Sydney Council took control of the Water Supply in 1842 and was responsible for the whole of the Lachlan Water Reserve. In 1861, it was decided that the whole of the Sydney Common did in fact belong to the people of Sydney. Common land was given to the authority of the Municipal Council. Moore Park was then laid out. To meet increasing demands for water, portions of the Swamp were dammed in 1872, resulting in an embankment just below what is now known as Kensington ponds, and a series of seven dams throughout the swamp.

The first major development encroaching onto the Sydney Common was the siting of Victoria Barracks on the Old South Head Road (now Oxford Street ) on the north east of the common. Designed in 1838 and completed ten years later, the Barracks was strategically sited between Port Jackson and Botany Bay to prevent an enemy invasion. The soldiers soon established the Military Garden, and by 1852 they had added the Garrison Cricket ground and a rifle range on land to the south of the barracks. In 1866 the Sydney Common was given to the Municipal Council of Sydney for development under the Sydney Common Improvement Bill of 1866.

In the second half of the nineteenth century, parts of Sydney Common were made into parkland. Lord Carrington, the Governor of NSW 1885–1890, advocated the city of Sydney should have a large recreational space in the fashion of a "grand park". Sir Henry Parkes, the premier, recognized the potential of this proposal and facilitated its realisation.

Charles Moore, Mayor of Sydney from 1867 to 1869, worked on developing a public park for the recreation of the people of Sydney. Allotments of land alongside the South Head Road (Old South Head Road, now Oxford Street) were sold to fund the developments and soon Moore had overseen the construction of Randwick and Moore Park Roads and the creation of a public park incorporating the land around them. Charles Moore, Director of the Sydney Botanic Gardens, supplied the distinctive tree plantations.

Botanist Charles Moore had visited the 1867 Exposition Universelle in Paris – in the company of his brother, David (Director of the Glasnevin Botanic Garden, Dublin) and their friend, influential ex-pat Irish garden writer William Robinson (whose "Gleamings from French Gardens" was shortly thereafter serialised in the Sydney Mail newspaper. Later in 1884, Charles Moore appointed French-trained gardener James Jones to the staff of Sydney Botanic Garden. Moore and Jones along with engineer Frederick Franklin (who had worked with horticulturist/engineer Joseph Paxton of London's 1851 Crystal Palace fame) were responsible for the layout of Sydney's Centennial Park (1886–87), a remarkable translation of the great public parks being created in Britain and east-coast America at that time.

In 1866 Sydney City Council dedicated 153 hectares (380 acres) of the north west section of Sydney Common as a recreation ground for the public to help alleviate growing pressures for outdoor activities, particularly organised sports. The area was named Moore Park in 1867 after Charles Moore JP, Mayor of Sydney City Council 1867–1869. Moore Park became the focus for major sporting events and entertainment facilities with the establishment of the Zoological Gardens in 1879, the Royal Agricultural Society Showground (which would later become the venue for Sydney's annual 'Royal Easter Show') and the first course of the Australian Golf Club in 1882.

At the time of dedication, Moore Park was bounded to the south by Lachlan Estate and Randwick Racecourse, to the west by Dowling Street, to the north by Old South Head Road, and to the east by the Lachlan Water Reserve. A road lined with stone pines (Pinus pinea) marked this eastern boundary of the park and the western boundary of the water reserve. Two other roads crossed Moore Park prior to 1866; the first was known as Old Botany Road and was used by hunters and fisherman initially and later by pleasure seekers traveling to Coogee and Botany. The second road provided a western entrance to a cemetery that was located off South Dowling Street. The dedicated land encompassed the Tunnel Reserve (1827–1838), the Military Barracks and the Military Cricket Ground.

Moore Park consisted of a series of gently rolling hills, three water bodies and varied scrub vegetation. Commonly known as the Sand Hills, the land was prone to erosion. By the mid 19th century, the land was degraded and barren, more a result of years of timber getting, pillaging and dumping than of inherent environmental qualities. The removal of timber in particular had led to erosion problems, so that by the early 1860s Charles Moore, the alderman, and botanist, collaborated to stabilize the soils with plantings of indigenous shrubs and couch grass. The shrubs failed, but the couch grass succeeded quickly, and sparked discussion about the loss of native vegetation.

Four of the sand hills were conspicuous enough to be named: Mount Steele, Mount Rennie, Constitution Hill and Mount Lang. However, in the process of transforming the common into parkland, these hills were modified greatly. Today, Mount Steele is the least altered of the four; Mt. Rennie was reconfigured as a platform for Golf Clubhouse in 1926, Mt. Lang, across from the NSW Cricket Ground, was terraced and ramped for unknown reasons and disappeared after the 1940s. The fate of Constitution Hill is not clear. The Moore Park Golf Course (established in 1926 and continuously modified) has taken advantage of and modified the gently rolling topography in establishing fairways.