Written by Zoe McPherson, RAHS Volunteer
We are pleased to share the news that the Yurulbin Park and Foreshore has been added to the State Heritage Register. The RAHS supported the proposed listing in a letter to the NSW Heritage Council in February 2025.
Located in Birchgrove, the Yurulbin Park and Foreshore is a parkland recognised for its cultural significance, its past as an industrial site, and its current role as a public open space. The park is part of what is known as the ‘Green Necklace’, a group of culturally significant landscapes that link the northern and southern shores of Sydney Harbour.
Berrys Bay, Sydney, ca. 1900–10. Mitchell Library, State Library of NSW
The Green Necklace
The ‘Green Necklace’ was coined in 2018 by the Australian Institute of Landscape Architects (AILA) NSW and consists of site listings selected through extensive consultation with local communities and heritage experts. Alongside Yurulbin Park and Foreshore, this group of historic sites includes Badangi Reserve, containing Berry Island Reserve and Wollstonecraft Foreshore Reserve, Ballast Point Park in Birchgrove, Balls Head Reserve in Waverton, and Berrys Bay in Waverton.
As Minister for Heritage Penny Sharpe states, ‘They are not only green spaces but living archives of Sydney’s cultural and industrial evolution, and a reminder of the rich and enduring Aboriginal history we are surrounded by.’
Panorama of Sydney Harbour showing Balls Head Reserve, ca. 1870–75, American & Australasian Photographic Company. Mitchell Library, State Library of NSW
Historical Significance of Yurulbin Park
While Yurulbin Park is valued for its current use, the site also holds deep historical significance. Traditionally occupied by the Wangal people, this site later became a key maritime industrial area during the 19th and 20th centuries. In the 1970s, it was transformed into the urban parkland we see today, reflecting evolving attitudes toward public space and environmental maintenance and protection. Its design incorporates both landscape and architectural philosophies that helped shape the Modern Movement in environmental design, making it not just a green space, but a reflection of Sydney’s broader historical and cultural trajectory.
The NSW Heritage Council has recognised Yurulbin Park and Foreshore for its significance as the launch site of the Local Government Reconciliation Program in 1994 and as one of Sydney’s earliest modern parks to incorporate and celebrate pre-colonial features. It has also been listed for its aesthetic and associative significance within the environmentalism movement in landscape design, and for its rarity as one of the first parks to reclaim and reflect the landscape’s pre-colonial identity.
Learn more about the listing on the State Heritage Register.
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