ART TRAIL

 Sydney Green Ring
Active Transport, Passive Recreation, 
Wildlife Habitat Network


ART on the Sydney Green Ring

  • Tied to Tide by Jennifer Turpin and Michaelie Crawford at Pyrmont Point Park.
  • Anzac Bridge is flanked by two sculptures by Alan Sommerville.
  • At the Red Box in Lilyfield at the beginning of the Hawthorn Canal, Legs on the Wall have their rehearsal space and the offices of Arts Access are located in the adjacent building. 
  • The Art Gallery of NSW has opened an storage facility to house its extensive collection.  A pedestrian and bicycle bridge designed by Richard Goodwin crosses the City West Link. 
  • Tree Cycle by Graham Chalcroft sits opposite the restored wetland on Canal Road.
  • Further along Hawthorn Canal is Canal Road Studios where three quarters of Australia's film production happens.
  • The Hawthorne Light Rail stop features shelter screen designed by Gilbert Grace incorporating local species of mangrove as a background to picture frames that hang in the Art Gallery of NSW framing works by artists.
  • A bust of Richard Stanton who designed Haberfield as Sydney's first 'garden suburb' and brought the  'Californian Bungalow' to Australia, is located near Marion St. 
  • The Taverners Hill Light Rail stop features a shelter screen design by Gilbert Grace incorporating an ariel view of Sydney Harbour showing its fractal design,  with images inspired by the Ern Malley hoax. The bird is a Black Swan significant for its association with from the first poem in The Darkening Ecliptic cycle "Durer, Innsbruck, 1495", and also refers to Nassim Nicholas Taleb's book of that name dealing with randomness, probability and risk. 
  • A little further along the GreenWay is the Lord St tunnel with its mural painted by students at the Lord St School. Lord St is named for Simeon Lord, convict turned entrepreneur.
  • At the western end of Lord St a commercial estate previously housed Art Est Art School, since relocated to 10 Hill St, Leichhardt NSW 2040. At the east end of Lord St on the corner of Flood St, is the Boomalli Gallery in its permanent home. 
  • The Arlington Light Rail stop features a shelter screen design by Gilbert Grace incorporating: a journal entry from the Endeavour, the image of the "Kongouro" by George Stubbs, two Sydney Convicts circa 1790 attributed to Juan Ravenet, the Moon Rocket play ground slide, and a Comet Windmill, the Sydney factory being adjacent Arlington Reserve.  
  • Follow the GreenWay and connecting with the Cooks River Cycle Path travel east to Tempe house designed by John Verge for Alexander Brodie Spark. Tempe was a magnet for early colonial artists such as Conrad Martens, Samuel Elyard, John Skinner Prout, Maurice Felton, etc.
  • At Tempe Reserve is the Robyn Webster Sports Centre and the largest mural in the southern hemisphere by Bronwyn Bancroft. Bancroft is a founding member of the Boomalli Artist Cooperative. 
  • Sydney Airport once held a collection of artwork for the 2000 Olympics. Unfortunately the collection has been dispersed and ongoing renovation is seeing the removal of most artworks from the precinct and lack of maintenance of those still in T1.
  • Lords Rd, again named for Simeon Lord, links Botany Rd near the Engine Pond and Mill Ponds of the Botany Wetlands(pdf). At the far end is the Botany Aquatic Centre. 
  • Just off Eastlakes and the Mill Ponds Stream is Daceyville, another example of garden suburb, in the Arts and Crafts/Federation Style. 
  • Nearby Rosebery is another of Richard Stanton's suburban housing developments.
  • Centennial Park has many public artworks (pdf), not all of them listed on the website, including a mosaic on the internal ceiling of the Federation Pavilion by Australian artist Imants Tillers. The Park is the headwaters of the Mill Stream. A spring emerges from Lachlan Swamp in the centre of the park. The catchment feeds the Botany Aquifer. 
  • Still in Hyde Park but across Park St with its remnant cycle lane is the headwaters of the Tank Stream and a fountain commemorating Frederick Joseph Walker and sandstone sculpture celebrating "Water, Fire and Earth" by Gerard Havekes.
  • The major portion of the Sydney Green Ring follows the streams and watercourses that gave Colonial Sydney its drinking water.  Once polluted, these same watercourses became its open sewers. Dictionary of Sydney entry on Sydney's water. 
  • The Government Architects Office uses the waterways of Sydney to delineate the Sydney Blue and Green Grid that will link Metropolitan Green Space with Access Sydney Harbour forming a network of green active transport corridors and wildlife habitat throughout the Sydney Metropolitan area. Unfortunately they have ignored or have been warned-off the area to the north and east of the Airport lands creating an almost impermeable barrier to active transport. This route has already been scoped as part of the Botany Bay Trail and would be a boon to active transport, tourism, the ecology, the economy and the environment.