The Balls Head Reserve is a forested headland nature reserve situated on Balls Head in Sydney. The headland is in Port Jackson, west of the

Sydney Harbour Bridge The Sydney Harbour Bridge is a steel through arch bridge in Sydney, spanning Port Jackson, Sydney Harbour from the Sydney central business district, central business district (CBD) to the North Shore (Sydney), North Shore. The view of the bridg ...

, between Berrys Bay to the east and Balls Head Bay to the west. It is named after Lieutenant

Henry Lidgbird Ball Henry Lidgbird Ball (7 December 1756 – 22 October 1818) was a Rear-Admiral in the Royal Navy of the British Empire. While Ball was best known as the commander of the First Fleet's , he was also notable for the exploration and the establishmen ...

, a Royal Naval officer who commanded HMS ''

Supply Supply may refer to: *The amount of a resource that is available **Supply (economics), the amount of a product which is available to customers **Materiel, the goods and equipment for a military unit to fulfill its mission *Supply, as in confidenc ...

'' on the First Fleet. The park is accessed via Balls Head Drive, ,

New South Wales ) , nickname = , image_map = New South Wales in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of New South Wales in AustraliaCoordinates: , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = Australia , established_title = Before federation , es ...

, Australia.

History

Indigenous history

The original inhabitants were the Cammeraygal people. Evidence of their occupation includes art sites, middens and a spectacular petroglyph of a marine creature. An Aboriginal burial site within a rock shelter was documented by Sandra Bowdler, an archaeologist from the Australian Museum in 1964. Until 1916, the Balls Head area was frequented by the local Aboriginal community and sites including middens, art sites and rock engravings remain today. The Aboriginal name for Balls Head is Yerroulbine.

European history

Balls Head was the original foreshore land included in the large Wollstonecraft Estate. In 1912 the Australian Army claimed the land and a Quarantine Depot was established in Berrys Bay to service the boats operating to and from the Quarantine station at North Head. Strong public protests in the early part of the 20th century resulted in Balls Head becoming public parkland (rather than being used for commercial or residential purposes as was mooted) in 1926. Balls Head was celebrated in two poems by

Henry Lawson Henry Archibald Hertzberg Lawson (17 June 1867 – 2 September 1922) was an Australian writer and bush poet. Along with his contemporary Banjo Paterson, Lawson is among the best-known Australian poets and fiction writers of the colonial perio ...

. The second of these, 'The Sacrifice of Balls Head' protested against plans to build a coal bunkering depot there in 1916. It stands as an early articulation of conservationist sentiment. A Coal Loader was built by 1920; in 2007, this facility was re-opened as the Coal Loader Centre for Sustainability, a hub for North Sydney Council environmental and sustainability programs. The area was proclaimed as a public reserve by Premier Jack Lang in 1926. By then much of the forest that Lawson had described was gone. A Beautification Committee was established by 1931 led by conservationist Walter Froggatt. Native trees were reintroduced to the headland throughout the decade. Many of these were sourced from the

Royal Botanic Gardens, Sydney The Royal Botanic Garden, Sydney is a heritage-listed major botanical garden, event venue and public recreation area located at Farm Cove on the eastern fringe of the Sydney central business district, in the City of Sydney local government ar ...

. A stone tablet acknowledging Froggatt's work was unveiled in 1938. It can still be seen near the car park at the southern end of the reserve. The reserve is now maintained by North Sydney Council and contains a well-preserved natural bushland area, one of the closest to the city of Sydney. Plants include the Sydney red gum, Port Jackson cypress, blueberry ash and

Port Jackson fig ''Ficus rubiginosa'', the rusty fig or Port Jackson fig (''damun'' in the Dharug language), is a species of flowering plant native to eastern Australia in the genus ''Ficus''. Beginning as a seedling that grows on other plants ( hemiepiphyte) ...

. Many birds are found here, as are reptiles,

flying foxes ''Pteropus'' (suborder Yinpterochiroptera) is a genus of megabats which are among the largest bats in the world. They are commonly known as fruit bats or flying foxes, among other colloquial names. They live in South Asia, Southeast Asia, Austr ...

, microbats and marsupial mammals. It is a popular picnic and

bushwalking Hiking is a long, vigorous walk, usually on trails or footpaths in the countryside. Walking for pleasure developed in Europe during the eighteenth century.AMATO, JOSEPH A. "Mind over Foot: Romantic Walking and Rambling." In ''On Foot: A Histo ...

site, with views of the city skyline and harbour.

Reserve features

* Several bush walking tracks, including one suitable for wheelchairs * Accessible toilets, picnic tables, seats and electric barbecues * Numerous plaques and depression era elements including remnants of paths, steps and railings dot the reserve. * Aboriginal waterholes and grinding grooves * Foreshore caves and chambers cut by squatters in the 1930s.

References

External links