Centennial Parklands Dining has announced its autumn trading hours for the Easter weekend and the rest of the season. 
See the fantastic 52 weekly winners from our 2011 Park Visitor photo competition! 
If you love Centennial Parklands, have questions or concerns, you can have your say through the Parklands' Community Consultative Committee 
Gate times have changed as of Sunday 1 April due to the end of daylight savings in NSW. 
Our new blog is live, so why not check out the latest blog post now. A great read for all who love these Parklands. 
Response to enquiries about former Car Free Day event
Posted: 1 December 2011
Car Free Day in Centennial Park was created in 1992 as an alternate experience for park visitors and residents around Centennial Parklands at a time when competing demand for the use of the Parklands and its facilities was not as intensive as today.
Reporting from Parklands Rangers and ongoing feedback from businesses in the Parklands indicated that there was a gradual but steady decline in attendances to Centennial Park by the community on these days.
Concurrently the number of complaints and negative correspondence about Car Free Days has been growing substantially, particularly regarding equality of access and issues relating to parking and transport.
In particular, these issues relate to:
- Young families wanting to visit the Park with various equipment (e.g. bikes, sports and picnic equipment) being forced to park outside the Park – sometimes at great distance – and walk into the Park;
- Elderly, disabled and less mobile visitors have made representations to the Trust about such days deterring them from being able to visit due to reduced vehicle access;
- Park visitors from outside a reasonable radius subject to catching public transport on a Sunday to reach the Park, which is not as frequent or comprehensive at times;
- Residents, and consequently local councils, surrounding the Park lodging complaints about the displacement of cars from the Park into the tight and already packed surrounding streets (Centennial Park can hold up to 1,880 cars at capacity); and
- Sports users across the Parklands’ 36 turf sports fields being required to park at a distance from the Park and walk across – at times – long distances to reach their designated sports fields.
As a result of this, we acknowledge the reality of today’s demand on public space and that Car Free Day – as a regular quarterly event – is less relevant to the needs of the community.
We will be working with the community consultative committee, park visitor groups, stakeholders and businesses on an approach to providing an alternate experience to Car Free Days in 2012.
