Greater Sydney Parklands

How People Use Parks

Living in large towns and cities is much more enjoyable when there are beautiful parks to visit. Natural features and human-built features makes parks fun, interesting and safe for everyone to enjoy. 

Busbys promontory at Centennial Park

Wherever people live, they make changes to the environment. Sydney is a big city that is home to over 5 million people and the city is made up of houses, apartments, schools, businesses, roads, and public transport.  

Darling Harbour cityscape

[Image: Darling Harbour cityscape, including high rise buildings.Image credit: Lisa Madden/DCCEEW 152306] 

 

To balance out all of the buildings, roads and other transport, Sydney also has a lot of parks. Parks are important places for people to spend time outside to exercise and enjoy nature.

Child riding scooter on park

[Image: Child riding scooter on path at Fearnley Grounds Children's Cycleway, Centennial Park]

 

Parks often have gardens with lots of different types of plants and space for large trees to grow. Parks also provide habitat for birds, insects, and other animals. A habitat is a place where a plant or animal can live and have everything it needs to stay alive. This includes water, food, shelter, fresh air, and sunlight. 
One of the most famous parks in Sydney is Centennial Park. Centennial Park is in the Eastern Suburbs of Sydney. This large park is visited by thousands of people every week. 

At Centennial Park, people enjoy a lot of outdoor activities, such as:

  • Walking
  • Running
  • Cycling
  • Picnicking
  • Dog-walking
  • Bird watching
  • Horse riding
  • Playing in playgrounds
  • Playing sport on playing fields
  • Visiting cafes 
     
Two people riding horses on track in Centennial Park

[Image: Horse riding in Centennial Park]

 

Here is part of a map of Centennial Park. One of the main features of the park is Grand Drive which is a one-way road that runs in a big circle around the park. 

There are different parts of Grand Drive that are used for different purposes: 

  • Walking and running track
  • Horse-riding track
  • Bicycle lane
  • Road for cars 

 

Map of Centennial Park

[Image: Map of Centennial Park]

 

Centennial Park also has a lot of gardens, large trees, ponds, and a swamp, called Lachlan Swamp. All of these provide habitat for wildlife, including:

  • Birds
  • Frogs
  • Reptiles
  • Insects and spiders
  • Eels and other fish
  • Possums
  • Flying foxes 
     
Flying fox in flight

[Image: Flying fox in flight]

 

Centennial Park is home to a very large colony of flying foxes that live in paperbark trees in Lachlan Swamp. Flying foxes are ‘nocturnal’ so they are most active at night. They hang upside down from tree branches during the day. This is called ‘roosting’. At night, flying foxes fly around in search of food. They mostly eat nectar from flowers as well as fruit, which is why they are often called ‘fruit bats’. Flying foxes can fly a long way each night to find enough food to eat. 

 

Activities

Activity: Map Tally

Investigate a map of Centennial Park

1 teacher guided activity (around 20 minutes)

  1. Download a map of Centennial Park. The map also includes Moore Park and Queens Park, but this activity will focus on Centennial Park. Centennial Park is the large, light green area in the centre of the map.   
     
  2. Find the KEY at the top of the map and look at the symbols used for the different features of the park  
     
  3. Write down a list of the park features.  
    Include the following features in the list:
    - Accessible Toilets
    - Toilets
    - Café
    - Kiosk
    - Playgrounds
    - Bat Colony
    - Fitness Station  
     
  4. Add the following park feature that is not part of the KEY:
    - Pond 
     
  5. For each park feature, use tally marks to count the number of times the feature appears on the map.
     
  6. For each park feature, list the people who might visit this part of the park.
     
  7. For each park feature, list any animals you can think of that might visit this part of the park.  
     
  8. As a class, discuss what you discovered about Centennial Park: 
    - Which park feature had the highest tally?
    - Which park feature had the lowest tally?
    - Did the results surprise you?
    - What parts of the park are natural and what parts are made by humans?
    - If you visited Centennial Park, what features would you like to visit and why? 
     
Activity: An imaginary visit to Centennial Park

Act out a story about a visit to Centennial Park 

This activity is best done in a shady outdoor space. 

  1. In a group of three students, create a story about a young child visiting Centennial Park. Use the information from the ‘Map Tally’ activity for ideas about what the child might do during their visit. 
     
  2. Create a short scene about the child’s visit to Centennial Park. One student in the group can play the young child, and the other two students in the group can play the roles of other people, animals, or features at the park.
     
  3. Perform the scene for the rest of the class.  

 

References

Main image: Greater Sydney Parklands

Image 1: [Image: Sydney city] 
Image credit: Lisa Madden/DCCEEW 
152306 Darling Harbour cityscape, including high rise buildings. 
https://images.environment.nsw.gov.au   

Images 2-5 and PDF map: Greater Sydney Parklands