Western Sydney Parklands
Parklands snapshot
Greening the Parklands
The Parklands is largely ex-grazing land with isolated pockets of remnant indigenous bushland along the Eastern Creek and around Prospect, Abbotsbury and the Kemps Creek Nature Reserve. Comparative to the amount and quality of remnant vegetation further west on the Cumberland Plain, the Parklands is mostly cleared.
This pattern provides an opportunity to find public spaces for parkland uses such as picnic areas, sporting fields and event venues on existing cleared areas.
It also gives a clear opportunity in priority areas for revegetation and the restoration of ecological values, including opportunities for community engagement and education.
Since 1992, the Department of Planning has been involved in Sydney’s largest ongoing vegetation restoration project, Greening Western Sydney (GWS). In association with project partners, Greening Australia, the project has seen 800,000 trees and shrubs established in Western Sydney, 700,000 of which are planted within the Parklands area.
As part of the annual event, National Tree Day, a public tree planting event is held in the Parklands. In July 2006, the event was held on the former Telstra site in the Bungarribee / Rooty Hill Precinct near Doonside. Thousands of native seedlings were planted by members of the public who gained an insight into the work being done on the ongoing GWS project.
All seedlings planted through GWS are propagated at the community nursery at Nurragingy Reserve from seed collected within local bushland. In this way the biodiversity values of the area are conserved and the new seedlings are more likely to establish and flourish.
If you would like to know more about the GWS project or about volunteering to help with the project – you can contact Greening Australia on (02) 9672 4009.
Recreation and leisure resources
About 20 per cent of the total Western Sydney Parklands area already includes existing recreation resources and leisure facilities such as:
- Nurragingy Reserve
- Pimelia, Sugarloaf Ridge and Plough & Harrow Picnic Areas (current Western Sydney Regional Park)
- Eastern Creek Raceway
- Western Sydney International Dragway
- Sydney International Equestrian Centre
- Sydney International Shooting Centre
- Blacktown Olympic Park – Softball Centre
- The parklands is also home to the Prospect Resevoir
- Fairfield City Farm
Parkland Precincts
The Parklands is divided into nine Parkland Precincts each supporting the ecological values as well as providing opportunities for recreation, natural and cultural heritage interpretation, tourism and commercial recreation.
The nine Parkland Precincts are:
- Nurragingy Parklands - this area will predominately have a bushland character associated with the riparian corridor. Recreation and community facilities will be restricted to the perimeter of the area.
- Bungarribee / Rooty Hill – this area will form the main community recreation hub for both active and passive recreation in the northern part of the Parklands. Bushland will be restored through the broad floodpain and current rural landscapes will be retained on the valley slopes to allow open areas for intensive community use such as active sports fields.
Click here to find out about the Doonside and West Huntingwood developments - adjacent to the Bungarribee / Rooty hill Parkland Precinct. - Eastern Creek Sports Precinct – this area will be the centre of active pursuits and motor sports as well as a venue for commercial developments including recreation, events, exhibitions and gatherings.
- The Western Freeway - this area forms a highly accessible hub for a range of activities such as heritage interpretation, entertainment, tourism and commercial recreation.
- Prospect Reservoir – this area will remain as a natural bushland buffer to the Reservoir. As a core habitat, the area will be primarily focussed on conservation goals with limited public access and low key uses restricted to walking tracks. The recreation focus will remain on enhanced picnic and play facilities off Reservoir Road and in Pecky’s Playground.
- The Horsley Drive – will be the focus destination for agriculturally based tourism and recreation. The area’s rural landscape will be maintained and enhanced through sustainable agriculture and associated toursim and commercial opportunities under leasing opportunities that provide appropriate public access, education and enhancement of environmental values.
- Abbotsbury Parklands – will incorporate the existing Western Sydney Regional Parkland and is the main regional hub for passive recreation in the central parts of the Parklands. A large part of the area would be retained as a pastoral landscape and as a backdrop to the surrounding urban areas with grazing used as a management tool where environmental values permit. Within this area, pockets of intensive recreation use around picnic, equestrian and tourist facilities will continue to be developed. Views will be a prime management consideration.
- Cecil Park – will be the main regional hub for passive recreation in the southern part of the Parklands with pockets of more intensive use around picnic and tourist facilities. It will also have a strong focus on natural and heritage conservation supported by extensive areas of restored bushland, a green research hub, environmental and heritage education, educational group camping and interpretation of Aboriginal and non indigenous heritage. Large parts of the area will be low intensity use areas and as such will retain a sense of seclusion.
- Hoxton Park Ridge – will form a natural backdrop to the exisiting and proposed residential area in Cecil Hills, Green Valley and Bringelly. The area is an important north-south link in the multi-purpose trail system. Regional sports facilities are proposed on flatter land in the southern portion of the Precinct, along with sites for commercial recreation in the south.