
Centennial Park
Grand Victorian park of ponds, avenues and lawns, dedicated as the people's park and site of a nation's birth.
Location
About this audio guide
This guide to Sydney's Centennial Park returns to New Year's Day 1901, when six rival British colonies gathered here to become the nation of Australia. It follows the temporary pavilion built for the occasion, the reading of Queen Victoria's proclamation, and Edmund Barton's swearing-in as first prime minister. Along the way it traces the park's earlier life as a colonial water reserve fed by the convict-dug Busby's Bore. Find the granite marker showing where each colony's delegation stood that day.
This audio guide was created using AI.
Similar places
Cabarita Park
Riverside park with a heritage-listed federation pavilion frame and a river swimming beach.
The Domain Sydney
Sprawling harbourside parkland once fenced off for a governor, later a stage for free speech and protest.
Paddington Reservoir Gardens
Sunken nineteenth-century water reservoir reborn as a garden of brick vaults, cast iron columns and a reflecting pond.
Tumbalong Park
Riverside urban park of lawns and fountains built over a former nineteenth-century iron wharf.
Camp Cove Beach
Crescent of harbour sand where the First Fleet made its first overnight camp before settling Sydney Cove.
Royal National Park
Coastal bushland reserve of sandstone cliffs, beaches and rainforest, protected since the 1870s.