Exercise parks of Lockdown 2 - No.84: Montview Park & Oval

 

Newly discovered Montview Park in Hornsby Heights has a few things going for it. It's big and uncrowded, and it's got a few peripheral features, like children's playground, netball and basketball courts, and a fine looking little BMX bike track. A generally nice feng shui about it, I thought.

Covid countdown - Asquith Park

This must be legal exercise park #87. And it's another goodie.

Glass half full (quarry half empty)

I did an inspection of the Hornsby quarry yesterday. You're not exactly encouraged to go inspecting, but I have my methods.

The quarry was an embarrassment for the Council for many years, having been obliged to expensively buy it when it closed, but without the funds or plan for doing anything with it.

Then along came the NorthConnex road tunnel project, and a plot was hatched to use the spoil from the tunnels to fill the quarry, and then to create 'the Centennial Park of the North' within the filled-in quarry.

It was understood that there wouldn't be enough fill to completely fill the hole, but at first glance I thought they hadn't put much in at all. It was still a very deep hole. There again, when I dug out a picture of the thing as it was a year or two back (second photo, courtesy Hornsby Shire Council), it was clear that much had indeed been achieved.

Here's a link to the Council's video about the project, with time-lapse footage and all:  Final Truckload video

I look forward to watching the creation of  'the centrepiece of the Shire's recreational facilities for generations to come'.

Barangaroo Headland Park

It's been a while coming, and I'm sure it was expensive, but gosh, it's well worth it. They've done a VERY good job creating this new park. It's on the reclaimed original headland at the northern end of Sydney's former 'Hungry Mile' dockland area.

I missed the official opening the other day, when chief driving force, former Prime Minister Paul Keating told us all what a fine job he'd done. He has indeed, and I'll hand you over to him, courtesy of the Sydney Morning Herald, to tell you all about it. See: http://www.smh.com.au/nsw/paul-keatings-vision-for-the-headland-park-at-barangaroo-20150821-gj4hg9.html  

I wandered around the area this morning to check it out for myself. Here are some pictures.

Nurragingy

It's 15 years or so since I last visited the Nurragingy Reserve. At that time it was probably in its infancy as a local attraction, and my memories were of a patch of scrubby bush with a few picnic tables and an uninviting bush track or two. Plus a couple of blacksmith's huts, I remember.

Since then it was in the news because of a prominent 2010 murder case - a young child was murdered and her body was dumped here. Not something to enhance one's image of a beauty spot.

Well it's actually come on quite a lot, as we discovered the other day. It's now very inviting indeed, with lots of appealing facilities. The blacksmith's huts are still there, and there are now lots of lawns, picnic areas, specialist gardens, a good value for money kiosk, playgrounds, cycle paths and water features.

We didn't have time to do justice to the place. Just enough time to have a quick lunch and a brief sojourn into the Chinese Garden, but we plan to return soon to explore it all a bit further.

Nurragingy Reserve is in Doonside in Western Sydney, and is managed by Blacktown City Council.