New South Wales Sites
Sydney
Olympic Park, Homebush Bay, Sydney
artilce published Landscape Australia no 22 (3- 2000)
Tide of change...
...for The Olympic Foreshore
by Leonard Lynch
The Parramatta River delivered the Olympic Games to Sydney in the littoral sense
Sydney's bid success, as far as the site contributed, was in large part due to the strategic and symbolic advantages that the Homebush landscape presented to the IOC selectors.
The site presented: a vast area of gently undulating and stable landfonn courtesy of Parramatta River's `flooded valley' geomorphology; a landscape largely undeveloped, thanks to the previous operational requirements of Naval Armaments Depot, abattoirs, brickworks and other expansive water-transport-dependent industries; a publicly owned 'vacant site' reserved close to otherwise prohibitively expensive land around central Sydney; and contrasting hectares of priceless, environmentally opportune, wetland habitat with remediable polluted landfill-the green games spin; all resulting from the site's fringing riverine floodplain and mangroves.
The River indeed delivered the games to Sydney, and four kilometres of its most unappreciated, over-exploited, and abused foreshore has been given a chance for payback-as part of the Olympic's Millennium Parklands development.
All images courtesy CLOUSTON
Design Concept
As a starting point, the Park Concept Plan's original proposal (prepared by the Hassell Project Team) for a simple, continuous riverside boardwalk was further developed by CLOUSTON and the OCA to embrace the wider river valley landscape and the realities of staged implementation. The emphasis of the design has been put on engaging the diversity of the riverscape rather than simply paving the water's edge.
This broader approach enables a weaving together of the essential natural qualities of the river environment, with the indelible legacy from its historic layers of 'improvement', from the northern end of Homebush Bay westward to the junction with Duck River. While the works are located on the southern bank, the design accommodates the water body itself, both foreshores, and features of the river valley side-slopes, as elements in an evolving, sequential experience
The Foreshore
The route is rich in incident as it meanders along flat river terraces tying hinterland to water edge, creating visual links with the opposite shore, or focussing distant, long river-reach views. Its slow curves enjoin historic sites and industrial artefacts with nature conservation resources in a seamless, leisurely journey
The pedestrian and cycle pathway traverses the dramatic engineered form of tidal levees that have locked the saltmarsh and wetlands away from the river, now breached and telling a new story of land management. Then, as a boardwalk and deck, it sometimes descends to engage the tidal shoreline, or rises above the mangrove canopy to reveal previously hidden views of remnant saltmarsh and, now-protected, woodland conservation reserves.
At Wentworth Point, the prominent tip of Homebush Bay, a major park develops the varied images of landform, vegetation and industry that epitomise this character-rich stretch of river, within a strategy for long-term implementation.
Initially, much of the River foreshore's improvement will depend on reinstatement of land remediation haulage roads by Waste Service NSW to masterplan alignments. Beyond that, the intrinsic appeal of the river corridor and its recognition as a significant partner in Sydney's Olympic story must turn the tide in its favour.
Client
Olympic Co-ordination Authority
Consultant Team
Project Management
Construction Superintendent: Waste Service NSW
Principal Consultant, Landscape Architects for Design Development and Documentation: CLOUSTON
Engineers: Taylor Thomson Whitting
Quantity Surveyors: Page Kirkland Partnership
