traveldk.com

Walking trails take you around the tip of one of Sydney Harbour National Park’s highlights, where you can often spot noisy flocks of rainbow lorikeets. At the end of the headland is the tripod mast of the original HMAS Sydney (see Bradfield Park) and a small Doric column marking one nautical mile from Fort Denison.

Sydney’s Central Park is a gorgeous 220-ha (543-acre) expanse of playing fields, horse-riding facilities, ornamental lakes and ponds, cultivated gardens, sports grounds, cycle and jogging paths and light bushland with beautiful paperbark trees. It is the largest open space in the central area and a popular destination for barbecues and picnics.

This rainforest zone on the North Shore may offer you the best chance to spy the elusive lyrebird in its natural habitat. You will also find tree ferns and cabbage tree palms (Livistonia Australis ), which were used by white settlers for everything from hats to building materials.

Standing at the edge of the city centre, this formal park provides a respite from the city’s bustle. It features a magnificent avenue of figs, the Art Deco Archibald Fountain at its northern end and the Anzac Memorial. A site for public executions in 1802, only one year later it was used for Sydney’s first cricket match. Australia’s first horse race was run here in 1810.

The park follows Lane Cove River, which flows into Sydney Harbour. Here you’ll find echidnas, sugar gliders, mangroves, dusky moorhens, sheltered gullies and open eucalypt forests with stately Sydney red gums (Angophora costata ) growing out of the sandstone. At dusk its smooth pink bark is almost luminous.

Tucked below Kings Cross, this tiny manicured park is located in Elizabeth Bay. It has a stone bridge over a trickling pond filled with Koi, and magnificent views of the yachts moored in Rushcutters Bay and the ritzy Eastern Suburbs enclave of Darling Point.

Overlooking Shark Bay, this park has been a Sydney favourite since 1912. At its north end is Shark Beach and the historic Greycliffe House. To the west is Shark Point, site of a former defensive battery, and the start of the 1.5-km (1-mile) Hermitage Foreshore Walk back to Rose Bay.

The more rugged of the two Heads, this section of the Sydney Harbour National Park features windswept heathlands, shaded gullies, secluded Collins Beach and the Old Quarantine Station. Pretty Cabbage Tree Bay and Shelly Beach (see Cabbage Tree Bay) are to the north.

Given its location beside the southern approach to the Sydney Harbour Bridge, this small park below the Observatory (see Sydney Observatory) is surprisingly peaceful. It offers great views of the working harbour. Near the bandstand is a memorial to the Australians who served in the South African War (1899–1902).

Governor Phillip spent his first night in Sydney Harbour, 22 January 1788, inside South Head (see Camp Cove & South Head). The headland features the red-and-white striped Hornby Lighthouse, so-painted to distinguish it from the Macquarie Lighthouse. It’s a prime vantage spot for viewing the Sydney to Hobart yacht race.