Newington Armory

Now part of the parklands of Sydney Olympic Park, Newington Armory is a riverside site of undulating hills and woodlands, set aside in the late 1800s for a military magazine. Stone sea walls were constructed along the foreshore of the Parramatta River fronting the site and the mudflats were filled in to gain more land for farms, docks and a wharf.




Control transferred to the Royal Australian Navy in 1921, and the RAN Armament Depot expanded up until the 1960s. The depot remained one of two Navy ammunition storage depots in Sydney until December 1999, with ownership transferring to the State Government's Olympic Coordination Authority.

Bld 20 -1897 Powder magazine

The site is now listed on the state heritage register, due to its significant and rare extensive military and industrial landscape. The earth covering around the magazines, seen in the photos above, acted as a blast shield in the event of an explosion.

Within the grounds are an Artists Studio, a YMCA camping lodge, a theatre that was formerly a naval storehouse, and the Birds Australia Discovery Centre, which includes an extensive bird book library, education room and interpretation centre for bird conservation.

 

The Heritage Railway 

This is a 2-foot gauge railway powered by storage battery locomotives, which was used to transport munitions from the wharf  to magazines scattered throughout the site. The photo below (bottom left) shows a mock-up of such a train. As you can see it has now been adapted to take tour passengers.

 

I have wanted to visit Newington Armory since our walking group visited the area on a week day earlier this year. On that occasion we saw the wharf and the gatehouse.
The Armory is only open on the weekends, and the Heritage Railway, which takes you into a restricted section of the reserve, only runs Sundays (10.30am to 1pm when I visited). 

If walking or cycling, the Newington Armory can be reached along the River Walk - from the Wilson Park (Silverwater Rd.) end, or from the Sydney Olympic Park Wharf (~2Km) (see 525 & 526 bus routes). The nearby Blaxland Riverside Park is a very popular spot on the weekends, and cars were parked back along Jamieson St. to Holker St. when I visited.             Location map

 

Rydalmere to Olympic Park

This excursion started with a RiverCat journey from Parramatta to the Rydalmere wharf. We walked along the River Trail from the wharf to the Silverwater bridge.

Rivercat from the Silverwater Bridge

Crossing the bridge to the southern bank of the Parramatta River, we continued along the shared (walk & bike) River Walk to the Blaxland Riverside Park, probably the biggest payground in Sydney. The Park was originally part of the Newington Estate granted to pioneer grazier John Blaxland, brother of the famous explorer Gregory Blaxland.

Section of Blaxland Riverside Park

Newington Armory Gatehouse

A little further on we came to the Newington Armory's original 1897 gate house (above). The former RAN Armament Depot, is situated between the southern bank of the Parramatta River and the former Olympic Village, now the suburb of Newington. We couldn't explore the Armory as it is only open on weekends.
3-ton stationary electric wharf jib cranes (below right), installed on Newington Armory wharf in 1974.

 

We continued walking along the river bank to reach the Sydney Olympic Park wharf.

Olympic Park Maps                                                             Olympic Park Bike hire

Bicentennial Park

    Badu Mangrove Board-walk and Coastal Saltmarsh

Sydney's Bicentennial Park is just west of Concord West station (about 15Kms from Central station) and is adjacent to Sydney Olympic Park. The Badu Mangrove boardwalk enables people to walk through the largest remaining mangrove ecosystem along the Parramatta River.

A coastal saltmarsh is a salt-tolerant plant community that lives between high and low tide, often behind mangroves.


On our visit, the air had a smoky haze from hazard reduction burning in the Blue Mountains the previous day.




The parklands contain diverse habitats for many plants and animals that are significant locally, nationally and internationally. These include rare saltmarsh communities, breeding populations of insectivorous bats and endangered Green and Gold Bell frogs. Species of migratory birds protected under international treaties also often roost and feed in saltmarsh during their stay in Australia.

Further information about Coastal saltmarshes: pdf download from NSW Dept of Enviroment

Homebush Bay

   The Brickpit Ring Walk

The Ring Walk is within Sydney Olympic Park,  was opened in 2006. It is an elevated circular walkway which allows visitors access to view the former brickpit area without disturbing the habitat of the endangered Green and Golden Bell frogs.

The Ring Walk, is 550 metres in circumference and is 18.5 metres above the floor of the Brickpit.
The original audio has packed it in, but the informative panels around the side are in good condition. They give a history and geology of  the Brickpit and information on the frogs.

Location Map
 

   Bicentennial Park Info 

Sydney Olympic Park post

My thanks to Jean B. for leading us on this interesting walk

Sydney Olympic Games Memories

                                                                                                                                                            'Arc de Triomphe Individuel' was created by Gary Deirmendjian for the 10th anniversary celebrations of the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games. This temporary installation lies between Olympic Park station and the Stadium. It celebrates individual commitment, human effort and triumph of the athletes. The repeated outline pattern is based on a normal ECG cycle.

 The Sydney Olympics were held ten years ago between 16 September and 1 October 2000, and were followed by the Sydney Paralympics between October 18th and 29th October 2000

                                                                                                                                                                                                                          'Games Memories' - a forest of 480 poles in the forecourt of the ANZ Stadium, recalls the excitement of the many thousands of people who came to enjoy the games. The installation  is inspired by indigenous and ancient meeting places.  Around 300 of the poles list the names of the 74,000 Olympic and Paralympic Volunteers who contributed their time and services to the Olympics. Other poles interpret the spectator experience of the games.                                                                                                                      The installation was by Tony Caro Architecture in collaboration with Root Projects Australia, Donny Woolagoodja (a prominent indigenous artist) painted three of the poles, Emery Vincent Design (Graphic Design), Wax Sound and Media (Multi-Media Programs).        

                                                The Olympic Stadium, currently the 'ANZ Stadium', was originally built to temporarily hold 110,000 spectators, making it the largest Olympic stadium ever built as well as the largest stadium in Australia.

It was latter reconfigured with lesser seating capacity to suit the various football codes and other events.

This photo which shows the seating inside the Olympic Stadium during the Paralympics, is one of my own Olympic memories.









 

Transport: Sydney Olympic Park can be reached by Train or Bus