Centennial Park, New South Wales
Encyclopedia
Centennial Park is a large public, urban park
that occupies 220 hectares in the Eastern Suburbs
of Sydney
in the state of New South Wales
, Australia
. Centennial Park is located 4 kilometres south-east of the Sydney central business district
, in the City of Randwick
. The Park forms part of the larger Centennial Parklands
.
Centennial Park is also a small residential suburb
, on the western fringe of the parkland, which is part of the local government area of the City of Sydney
.
The government began plans for a celebratory park in 1886 and passed an Act of Parliament in the following year. Some of the grandiose plans for the area, such as a museum and a national convention building, never eventuated. Centennial Park was dedicated by Sir Henry Parkes
in January 1888 to celebrate the first 100 years of European settlement in Australia and described by him as 'emphatically the people's park'. The Governor-General, Lord Hopetoun dedicated the park 'to the people of New South Wales forever'.
The land was originally set aside by Governor Lachlan Macquarie
for grazing and watering stock. The ponds to the south, known as Lachlan Swamps, were named in his honour and were the chief water supply for Sydney from 1830 to 1880. Water was carried to Hyde Park along a tunnel called Busby's Bore
, after its designer John Busby
(1765-1857). The tunnel served the needs of Sydney until the Nepean scheme made it redundant in the 1880s.
In 1851, it was a scene of a duel between the first Premier of New South Wales, Stuart Donaldson
, and the Surveyor-General, Thomas Mitchell. Both men survived to fulfil their duties.
In more recent times, the park has had its share of bad news and publicity. On 7 February 1986, Sallie-Anne Huckstepp
was found drowned in the Busby Pond. It was thought that she had been murdered by a well-known Sydney criminal, Neddy Smith
, but he was not convicted. The Sydney Morning Herald
described her as a "32-year-old gangster's moll, heroin addict and prostitute who mingled with Sydney's most notorious criminals and blew the whistle on crooked cops."
, known as Lachlan Swamps and is located adjacent to another two large public spaces, Moore Park
and Queens Park
. The Parklands are administered by The Centennial Park and Moore Park Trust, a NSW Government agency whose responsibilities cover low-lying wetland
s, 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 Park is one of Australia's most famous parks and is listed on the Register of the National Estate.
and the inauguration of the Commonwealth of Australia
on 1 January 1901.
The Federation Pavilion, designed by Alexander Tzannes
, was erected around the 'Commonwealth Stone' as a permanent monument to Federation, in the Bicentennial Year of European Settlement
in 1988. An inscription around the pavilion is from a poem by Bernard O'Dowd
, and reads: "Mammon or millenial Eden". The building was renovated and plaques were added to celebrate the Centenary of the Federation of Australia
on 1 January 2001.
The Commonwealth Stone is made of sandstone
, and it is almost the only remnant of the original pavilion used by Lord Hopetoun. Most of the structure rotted, being made of plaster of Paris
; the base survived and is now located in Cabarita Park
.
course used in the Sydney 2000 Olympic
and Sydney 2000 Paralympic
Games. The drive is separated into five concentric circles, with the outer track used for cycling or rollerblading, fourth largest for car driving, third for car parking and many trees, the second is a paved pathway for walking, also used for running, the smallest being a dirt track for horseriding.
for Rugby Union
, Soccer and Cricket
matches, in the Greater Public Schools Competition
. The main oval is currently surrounded by small white fence, which is also the boundary for cricket games, though spectators for the winter sports are allowed inside this boundary and are allowed to sit very close to the field, around 5 metres.
Built adjacent is the Fairland Pavilion, the hosting area for various lunches and afternoon teas, also the location of the canteen, changerooms, scoreboard, first aid
, and storerooms for the bulk of the sporting equipment.
A fine example of the international design 'Arts and Crafts Movement style'
is the Crossways, a house of historical significance that was designed by Waterhouse and Lake and built in 1908. The Crossways was built as part of the subdivision of 1904 that created the suburb, and was the home of physician/surgeon Dr Craig Gordon.
Other distinctive homes in the area are Devon in Martin Road, The Bungalow in Robertson Road, Shaldon, an imposing Edwardian residence located on Darley Road, and the Boom-style Italianate home in Lang Road. The latter was built circa 1890 and features the kind of polychrome brickwork that was fashionable at the time. It is listed on the Register of the National Estate
.
Urban park
An urban park, is also known as a municipal park or a public park, public open space or municipal gardens , is a park in cities and other incorporated places to offer recreation and green space to residents of, and visitors to, the municipality...
that occupies 220 hectares in the Eastern Suburbs
Eastern Suburbs (Sydney)
The Eastern Suburbs is a general term used to describe the metropolitan area directly to the east and south-east of the Sydney central business district in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. Eastern Suburbs can refer to the suburbs within the local government areas of Woollahra, Waverley, Dover...
of Sydney
Sydney
Sydney is the most populous city in Australia and the state capital of New South Wales. Sydney is located on Australia's south-east coast of the Tasman Sea. As of June 2010, the greater metropolitan area had an approximate population of 4.6 million people...
in the state of New South Wales
New South Wales
New South Wales is a state of :Australia, located in the east of the country. It is bordered by Queensland, Victoria and South Australia to the north, south and west respectively. To the east, the state is bordered by the Tasman Sea, which forms part of the Pacific Ocean. New South Wales...
, Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
. Centennial Park is located 4 kilometres south-east of the Sydney central business district
Sydney central business district
The Sydney central business district is the main commercial centre of Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. It extends southwards for about 3 kilometres from Sydney Cove, the point of first European settlement. Its north–south axis runs from Circular Quay in the north to Central railway station in...
, in the City of Randwick
City of Randwick
The City of Randwick is a Local Government Area in the Eastern Suburbs of Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. One of Sydney's largest parks, Centennial Park, lies within the city boundary of Randwick. Other major landmarks in Randwick include the world-famous Randwick Racecourse,...
. The Park forms part of the larger Centennial Parklands
Centennial Parklands
Centennial Parklands is the name given to a group of three parklands in the eastern suburbs of Sydney, Australia. Comprising approximately 360 hectares, the lands encompass Centennial Park, Moore Park and Queens Park and is managed by the Centennial Park and Moore Park Trust, acting as trustee for...
.
Centennial Park is also a small residential suburb
Suburb
The word suburb mostly refers to a residential area, either existing as part of a city or as a separate residential community within commuting distance of a city . Some suburbs have a degree of administrative autonomy, and most have lower population density than inner city neighborhoods...
, on the western fringe of the parkland, which is part of the local government area of the City of Sydney
City of Sydney
The City of Sydney is the Local Government Area covering the Sydney central business district and surrounding inner city suburbs of the greater metropolitan area of Sydney, Australia...
.
History
Centennial Park is constructed on lands that were traditionally in the custody of the Gadigal clan.The government began plans for a celebratory park in 1886 and passed an Act of Parliament in the following year. Some of the grandiose plans for the area, such as a museum and a national convention building, never eventuated. Centennial Park was dedicated by Sir Henry Parkes
Henry Parkes
Sir Henry Parkes, GCMG was an Australian statesman, the "Father of Federation." As the earliest advocate of a Federal Council of the colonies of Australia, a precursor to the Federation of Australia, he was the most prominent of the Australian Founding Fathers.Parkes was described during his...
in January 1888 to celebrate the first 100 years of European settlement in Australia and described by him as 'emphatically the people's park'. The Governor-General, Lord Hopetoun dedicated the park 'to the people of New South Wales forever'.
The land was originally set aside by Governor Lachlan Macquarie
Lachlan Macquarie
Major-General Lachlan Macquarie CB , was a British military officer and colonial administrator. He served as the last autocratic Governor of New South Wales, Australia from 1810 to 1821 and had a leading role in the social, economic and architectural development of the colony...
for grazing and watering stock. The ponds to the south, known as Lachlan Swamps, were named in his honour and were the chief water supply for Sydney from 1830 to 1880. Water was carried to Hyde Park along a tunnel called Busby's Bore
Busby's Bore
Busby's Bore was Sydney's second water supply. It was built by convict labour and completed in 1830.-History:By the 1820s, the Tank Stream, Sydney's original water supply, was in dire straits...
, after its designer John Busby
John Busby
John Busby was an English-born surveyor and civil engineer, active in Australia.-Early life:Busby was born in Alnwick, Northumberland, England, eldest son of George Busby, a miner and coalmaster of Stamford, and his wife Margaret, née Wilson, of Dunstan, Northumberland...
(1765-1857). The tunnel served the needs of Sydney until the Nepean scheme made it redundant in the 1880s.
In 1851, it was a scene of a duel between the first Premier of New South Wales, Stuart Donaldson
Stuart Donaldson
Sir Stuart Alexander Donaldson was the first Premier of the Colony of New South Wales.-Early life:Donaldson was born in London, England. He entered his father's firm at the age of 15 and was sent first to Mexico , for business training, and then to Sydney, where he arrived in 1835...
, and the Surveyor-General, Thomas Mitchell. Both men survived to fulfil their duties.
In more recent times, the park has had its share of bad news and publicity. On 7 February 1986, Sallie-Anne Huckstepp
Sallie-Anne Huckstepp
Sallie-Anne Huckstepp was an Australian prostitute and heroin addict who became a writer and whistleblower.-Life:Huckstepp was born Sallie-Anne Krivoshow and attended Dover Heights High School in Sydney. She left school at the age of seventeen and married Bryan Huckstepp...
was found drowned in the Busby Pond. It was thought that she had been murdered by a well-known Sydney criminal, Neddy Smith
Neddy Smith
Arthur Stanley "Neddy" Smith is an Australian criminal who has been convicted of rape, armed robbery and murder.Smith has been serving a life sentence since 1989 and is presently imprisoned in Long Bay Correctional Centre after being moved from Lithgow Correctional Centre in New South Wales,...
, but he was not convicted. The Sydney Morning Herald
The Sydney Morning Herald
The Sydney Morning Herald is a daily broadsheet newspaper published by Fairfax Media in Sydney, Australia. Founded in 1831 as the Sydney Herald, the SMH is the oldest continuously published newspaper in Australia. The newspaper is published six days a week. The newspaper's Sunday counterpart, The...
described her as a "32-year-old gangster's moll, heroin addict and prostitute who mingled with Sydney's most notorious criminals and blew the whistle on crooked cops."
Climate
The park
Centennial Park is the largest of the three parks that make up Centennial Parklands. The Park is 2.20 square kilometres in area, originally swamplandSwampland
In physics, the term swampland is used in contrast to the term "landscape," to indicate physical theories or aspects of such theories which could be true if gravity wasn't an issue, but which are not compatible with string theory...
, known as Lachlan Swamps and is located adjacent to another two large public spaces, Moore Park
Moore Park, New South Wales
Moore Park is a large area of parkland in the Eastern Suburbs of Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. It is part of Centennial Parklands, a collective of three parks being Moore Park, Centennial Park and Queens Park. Centennial Parklands is administered by the Centennial Park &...
and Queens Park
Queens Park, New South Wales
Queens Park is an eastern suburb of Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. Queens Park is located 6 kilometres east of the Sydney central business district, in the local government area of Waverley Council...
. The Parklands are administered by The Centennial Park and Moore Park Trust, a NSW Government agency whose responsibilities cover low-lying wetland
Wetland
A wetland is an area of land whose soil is saturated with water either permanently or seasonally. Wetlands are categorised by their characteristic vegetation, which is adapted to these unique soil conditions....
s, 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 Park is one of Australia's most famous parks and is listed on the Register of the National Estate.
Federation Pavilion
The Federation Pavilion, which encloses the Commonwealth Stone (1901), is significant as the site of the official ceremony to mark the Federation of AustraliaFederation of Australia
The Federation of Australia was the process by which the six separate British self-governing colonies of New South Wales, Queensland, South Australia, Tasmania, Victoria and Western Australia formed one nation...
and the inauguration of the Commonwealth of Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
on 1 January 1901.
The Federation Pavilion, designed by Alexander Tzannes
Alexander Tzannes
Alexander Tzannes is an Australian architect. Tzannes has worked and studied in Australia and abroad in a career spanning more than 30 years...
, was erected around the 'Commonwealth Stone' as a permanent monument to Federation, in the Bicentennial Year of European Settlement
Australian Bicentenary
The bicentenary of Australia was celebrated in 1970 on the 200th anniversary of Captain James Cook landing and claiming the land, and again in 1988 to celebrate 200 years of permanent European settlement.-1970:...
in 1988. An inscription around the pavilion is from a poem by Bernard O'Dowd
Bernard O'Dowd
Bernard Patrick O'Dowd was an Australian activist, educator, poet, journalist, and author of several law books and poetry books. O'Dowd worked as an assistant-librarian and later Chief Parliamentary Draughtsman in the Supreme Court at Melbourne for 48 years;he was also a co-publisher and writer...
, and reads: "Mammon or millenial Eden". The building was renovated and plaques were added to celebrate the Centenary of the Federation of Australia
Federation of Australia
The Federation of Australia was the process by which the six separate British self-governing colonies of New South Wales, Queensland, South Australia, Tasmania, Victoria and Western Australia formed one nation...
on 1 January 2001.
The Commonwealth Stone is made of sandstone
Sandstone
Sandstone is a sedimentary rock composed mainly of sand-sized minerals or rock grains.Most sandstone is composed of quartz and/or feldspar because these are the most common minerals in the Earth's crust. Like sand, sandstone may be any colour, but the most common colours are tan, brown, yellow,...
, and it is almost the only remnant of the original pavilion used by Lord Hopetoun. Most of the structure rotted, being made of plaster of Paris
Plaster
Plaster is a building material used for coating walls and ceilings. Plaster starts as a dry powder similar to mortar or cement and like those materials it is mixed with water to form a paste which liberates heat and then hardens. Unlike mortar and cement, plaster remains quite soft after setting,...
; the base survived and is now located in Cabarita Park
Cabarita, New South Wales
Cabarita is a suburb in the inner-west of Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. Breakfast Point is located 16 kilometres west of the Sydney central business district, in the local government area of the City of Canada Bay....
.
Grand Drive
Grand Drive is the circular main road through the park. It runs for 3.8km and was part of the marathonsAthletics at the 2000 Summer Olympics
At the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney, 46 events in athletics were contested, 24 for men and 22 for women. There were a total number of 2134 participating athletes from 193 countries.-Men's events:...
course used in the Sydney 2000 Olympic
2000 Summer Olympics
The Sydney 2000 Summer Olympic Games or the Millennium Games/Games of the New Millennium, officially known as the Games of the XXVII Olympiad, were an international multi-sport event which was celebrated between 15 September and 1 October 2000 in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia...
and Sydney 2000 Paralympic
2000 Summer Paralympics
The 2000 Paralympic Games were held in Sydney, Australia, from 18 October to 29 October. The eleventh Summer Paralympic Games, an estimated 3800 athletes took part in the Sydney programme. They commenced with the opening ceremony on 18 October 2000...
Games. The drive is separated into five concentric circles, with the outer track used for cycling or rollerblading, fourth largest for car driving, third for car parking and many trees, the second is a paved pathway for walking, also used for running, the smallest being a dirt track for horseriding.
McKay Oval
Located in the most western area of the park, it is used as the home ground of Sydney Boys High SchoolSydney Boys High School
Sydney Boys High School is an academically selective public secondary school for boys, located in the City of Sydney, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia, with 1,180 students, from years 7 to 12...
for Rugby Union
Rugby union
Rugby union, often simply referred to as rugby, is a full contact team sport which originated in England in the early 19th century. One of the two codes of rugby football, it is based on running with the ball in hand...
, Soccer and Cricket
Cricket
Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of 11 players on an oval-shaped field, at the centre of which is a rectangular 22-yard long pitch. One team bats, trying to score as many runs as possible while the other team bowls and fields, trying to dismiss the batsmen and thus limit the...
matches, in the Greater Public Schools Competition
GPS Schools
The Athletic Association of the Great Public Schools of New South Wales ', also known as GPS or Great Public Schools is an association of mostly private boys' schools in New South Wales, Australia that share common interests, ethics, educational philosophy and contest sporting events among themselves...
. The main oval is currently surrounded by small white fence, which is also the boundary for cricket games, though spectators for the winter sports are allowed inside this boundary and are allowed to sit very close to the field, around 5 metres.
Built adjacent is the Fairland Pavilion, the hosting area for various lunches and afternoon teas, also the location of the canteen, changerooms, scoreboard, first aid
First aid
First aid is the provision of initial care for an illness or injury. It is usually performed by non-expert, but trained personnel to a sick or injured person until definitive medical treatment can be accessed. Certain self-limiting illnesses or minor injuries may not require further medical care...
, and storerooms for the bulk of the sporting equipment.
The suburb
The suburb of Centennial Park sits on the western fringe of the parkland and features quality houses on large blocks as well as large multi-unit buildings developed in the 1960s to 1980s on Robertson Road. The suburb developed as a result of a decision to sell off land adjacent to the park to raise money for the park development. One hundred and one acres of land were subdivided in 1904. To ensure high standards of residential development, certain requirements were imposed. No wooden buildings or terrace homes were allowed; brick or stone were mandated, with tile or slate roofs. Between 1905 and 1925, a wide range of substantial, quality homes were built, featuring a mixture of Federation, Arts and Crafts, Victorian and Old English styles. Homes are centred mainly on Martin Road, Robertson Road, Lang Road and Cook Road.A fine example of the international design 'Arts and Crafts Movement style'
Arts and Crafts movement
Arts and Crafts was an international design philosophy that originated in England and flourished between 1860 and 1910 , continuing its influence until the 1930s...
is the Crossways, a house of historical significance that was designed by Waterhouse and Lake and built in 1908. The Crossways was built as part of the subdivision of 1904 that created the suburb, and was the home of physician/surgeon Dr Craig Gordon.
Other distinctive homes in the area are Devon in Martin Road, The Bungalow in Robertson Road, Shaldon, an imposing Edwardian residence located on Darley Road, and the Boom-style Italianate home in Lang Road. The latter was built circa 1890 and features the kind of polychrome brickwork that was fashionable at the time. It is listed on the Register of the National Estate
Register of the National Estate
The Register of the National Estate is a listing of natural and cultural heritage places in Australia. The listing was initially compiled between 1976 and 2003 by the Australian Heritage Commission. The register is now maintained by the Australian Heritage Council...
.