Centennial Parklands encompasses Centennial Park, Moore Park (including the Entertainment Precinct) and Queens Park, in total around 360 hectares. The three main parks (excluding the Entertainment Precinct) are listed on the State Heritage Register of NSW, and various components within the Parklands are of national, state or local heritage significance.

Centennial Parklands is owned in fee simple by the Centennial Park and Moore Park Trust (Trust), acting as trustee for the NSW State Government. Administratively the Trust is an agency within the Office of Environment and Heritage.

Centennial Parklands is approximately 5 km south-east of Sydney’s central business district. The boundaries of the Parklands are across or adjacent to four local government authorities (see diagram right):

• City of Sydney
• Randwick City Council
• Woollahra Municipal Council
• Waverley Council

Download Centennial Parklands boundaries (extracted from the Centennial Parklands Conservation Management Plan 2010)

The Parks

Centennial Park is a grand park in the European tradition. Covering 189 hectares, it features formal gardens, ponds, grand avenues, statues, heritage buildings and sporting fields. It is used by walkers, joggers, roller-bladers and cyclists and it offers horse riding facilities. It has diverse flora and fauna with significant tree plantings including Norfolk Island pines, Port Jackson figs and Holm oaks. It has a restaurant, café, kiosk and visitor information counter, event space, an education centre, an exhibition space within the historic Superintendant’s Residence, and the Trust’s offices. The Park also contains two main areas of the Eastern Suburbs Banksia Scrub endangered ecological community.

Queens Park is set within a natural amphitheatre at the foot of sandstone cliffs with panoramic views of the Sydney skyline, comprising 26 hectares. During the 19th Century it housed a golf club, and today is used for organised sports, such as soccer, rugby, touch football and cricket and as a children’s playground. It also contains a small area of the Eastern Suburbs Banksia Scrub endangered ecological community.

Moore Park comprises 146 hectares of which 115 hectares are open space. Moore Park contains playing fields, the E.S. Marks Athletics Field, an 18-hole golf course and a tennis centre. It also has open spaces which are utilised by circuses and other outdoor events. A significant section of Moore Park contains what was previously the Royal Agricultural Society’s Showgrounds and now known as the Entertainment Precinct. This now comprises an Equestrian Centre as well as entertainment-related facilities which are on lease from the Trust (Fox Studios, Entertainment Quarter, Royal Hall of Industries and the Hordern Pavilion).

Economics

The Parklands has a total asset base of more than $780 million. The economic value of the Parklands to NSW exceeds $70 million per annum, and it generates more than $10 million a year from tourism.

The Trust’s budget is almost $20 million per annum of which more than 90% is raised through commercial activities. Many of these commercial activities are through adaptive reuse of existing venues and facilities, such as golf, equestrian, Hordern Pavilion, Fox Studios and the Entertainment Quarter.

Visitation and Participation

Of the more than 10 million visits each year, around 60% use the green space of the Parklands.

It is estimated that more than 500,000 participants book into sport and recreational activities each year. The surrounding urban consolidation will see an increase of more than 60,000 – 80,000 new residents, although with almost no new sizeable green space provision. This will place increasing demands and pressures on these historic Parklands.