At the Lavender Street end of Bradfield Park South, green grass and a large spreading tree frame the entrance to one of Sydney’s most prominent public spaces.
Walk towards the harbour, however, and the landscape begins to change. Grass becomes increasingly patchy, tree roots emerge through uneven ground and fenced work compounds occupy sections beneath the Sydney Harbour Bridge.
The contrast is particularly striking given what surrounds it. Across the water sits the Sydney Opera House, Luna Park is next door and the recently reopened North Sydney Olympic Pool, fresh from a $122 million redevelopment, borders the park.
In Short
- Worksites scaling back: Transport for NSW will begin reducing its construction footprint at Bradfield Park South, returning key foreshore land to public use.
- Council advocacy: North Sydney Council and local resident groups successfully campaigned for the site's remediation, masterplanning, and eventual revesting.
- Future vision: Landscaping, turfing, and a Bradfield Plaza extension are scheduled for 2027 as preparations build toward the Sydney Harbour Bridge centenary in 2032.
For a group of local residents campaigning for Bradfield Park South’s restoration, the condition of the land is difficult to reconcile with its location.
“The park has become a work depot,” Bradfield Park South Working Group representative Kristy Valentine told The Post during a recent walk through the site.
“This isn’t simply about the people who live beside Bradfield Park,” Valentine said. “It is about the people of Sydney and how we care for one of our city’s most important places.”
The working group points to a very different past for the park. Valentine said Bradfield Park has previously accommodated major public events including Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week, Diwali celebrations and activities associated with the Sydney Marathon.
Today, the group argues, the space is failing to reach its potential as a major public park.
Bradfield Park has a complicated history. In 1935, the 18,000m² of land was vested in North Sydney Council on trust for public parks and recreation. Part of Bradfield Park South was later vested in the state under the Sydney Harbour Tunnel (North Sydney) Act 1987.
Following the conclusion of the Harbour Tunnel construction in 1992, the working group argues that arrangements under the Act anticipated the relevant land being revested in North Sydney Council in June 2023. It is now asking the NSW Government to clarify the basis for Transport for NSW’s continuing occupation and provide a timetable for the land’s future.
North Sydney Council has taken a similarly strong position. In May, councillors voted 10–0 to reaffirm Council’s commitment to having all Bradfield Park South land revested in its ownership, care and control. Council also sought a timetable for Transport to leave the park, remove its work compounds and remediate and rehabilitate the land.
The campaign does not dispute the need for ongoing maintenance of the Sydney Harbour Bridge.
“Maintaining the Sydney Harbour Bridge and protecting Sydney’s public parkland should not be mutually exclusive.”
The working group argues that other options should be investigated before public parkland is used for long-term maintenance compounds. During the site visit, members pointed to the large hollow bridge pylons supporting the bridge, which they said have previously been used as access points to support bridge-maintenance activities.
During The Post’s visit, most of the park remained publicly accessible, but three fenced compounds restricted access to sections of the site.
Through fencing around the largest compound, scaffolding, portable toilets, chairs, equipment and other materials were observed.
Perhaps the most striking contrast sits quietly beneath the bridge. A park bench positioned towards the harbour now faces the black fencing of a work compound. Along that fence historic photographs showcase the park’s past displayed across the barrier obscuring its present.
“The neglect is stunning,” Kirribilli Precinct Committee secretary Joan Street said.
Environmental concerns add another dimension to the dispute.
Inside one fenced compound, The Post observed signage referring to “controlling hazardous waste with ultra filtration”.
The sign alone does not establish a risk to the surrounding community. However, contamination beneath the bridge is not a new concern. North Sydney Council has formally called for maintenance arrangements that protect Bradfield Park South from public-health risks associated with lead contamination, as well as full remediation and rehabilitation of the land.
The park’s location also carries heritage significance beyond the Harbour Bridge itself.
Bradfield Park South sits within the Sydney Opera House World Heritage Buffer Zone. Transport for NSW’s own Sydney Harbour Bridge heritage framework states the buffer zone is intended to protect significant harbour views and identifies the need to minimise impacts on those views. The framework also calls for extensive views from Bradfield Park, its contribution to the visual amenity of Sydney Harbour and its ongoing recreational use and access to be retained.
Transport was contacted by The Post on multiple occasions for comment on its current use of Bradfield Park South, the future of the compounds, environmental testing, the status of the land and whether alternative maintenance arrangements could reduce its footprint. No response had been received before deadline.
Now, after months of campaigning, change is coming.
The NSW Government and North Sydney Council announced last week that Transport’s worksite beside the northern pylon will begin to be scaled back this year, returning more of Bradfield Park to public use.
Transport will undertake landscaping, drainage improvements and new turf in 2027, while Bradfield Plaza will be extended to support potential community events and activities. Council will also begin developing a long-term masterplan for the park.
North Sydney Mayor Zoë Baker described the announcement as “an important step forward” after Council’s advocacy for more of the park to be returned to public use and affected land to be remediated.
Valentine also welcomed the announcement as a positive first step, but said important questions remain over future land ownership, how much land will ultimately be returned and Transport’s ongoing footprint.
For the working group, the campaign has always been about more than removing fences.
With the Sydney Harbour Bridge turning 100 in 2032, Valentine believes there is an opportunity to reconsider what this prominent harbourfront space could offer Sydney.
“So perhaps the question shouldn’t only be, ‘How do we restore what was there?’” she said.
“It should also be: ‘What could Bradfield Park become for the people of Sydney for the next 100 years?’”
For Valentine, that future means restoring the open green space and uninterrupted harbour views associated with the vision of John Bradfield, the engineer whose name the park carries, while providing residents of densely populated Milsons Point and Kirribilli with somewhere to walk, sit and gather.
The Government’s announcement means the first steps towards that vision are now set to begin. How much of Bradfield Park South ultimately returns to the public, and what place Transport will occupy within it, remains to be determined.
“Bradfield Park should be a place for people,” Valentine said.
