Barangaroo Reserve

Barangaroo Reserve is a six-hectare waterfront park in Sydney CBD, built on what was once a disused container storage site. Today, it offers rolling lawns, open space and broad views across Sydney Harbour, with sandstone steps, walking and cycling trails, and several coves tucked along the shoreline. It is open 24 hours, making it a flexible option for a daytime walk, a picnic or a quiet break from the city.

The reserve is particularly well suited to picnics. Visitors can bring their own food, drinks and picnic supplies, including alcohol, and choose from shaded spots, harbour-facing lawns and sheltered coves. Takeaway from Barangaroo’s nearby restaurants, bars and cafés is another option. After eating, you can continue along the Wulugul Walk or cool off with a swim at Marinawi Cove, as suggested by the precinct’s website.

Its landscape has been carefully shaped around native planting, with 75,000 trees and shrubs representing 84 species. Around 10,000 sandstone blocks were used to form the foreshore, and 95 per cent of that stone was extracted from beneath Barangaroo. The result is a park that combines engineered sandstone terraces with a planted, coastal setting rather than a conventional city lawn. Public artworks are spread throughout the reserve, including the Ngangamay multimedia experience, where five carvings in five rocks unlock short films about Barangaroo, the Eora First Nations woman the precinct is named after.

The reserve also hosts Aboriginal cultural tours, school excursions and private group tours, giving visitors ways to learn more about the area’s First Nations history. With public transport connections by metro, train, ferry and bus, plus links to Sydney’s cycle network, it is easy to reach from across the city. Barangaroo Reserve suits solo walkers, families, groups, cyclists and anyone looking for harbour views and open space close to the centre of Sydney.