Phone +61 2 9936 8100 | ||
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Address Balls Head Dr, Waverton NSW 2060, Australia Hours Open today ยท Open 24 hoursWednesdayOpen 24 hoursThursdayOpen 24 hoursFridayOpen 24 hoursSaturdayOpen 24 hoursSundayOpen 24 hoursMondayOpen 24 hoursTuesdayOpen 24 hours Similar Blues Point Reserve, Berry Island Reserve, Goat Island, Nutcote, Berrys Bay | ||
Fireworks from balls head reserve
Balls Head Reserve is a forested headland situated on Port Jackson, 1.5 kilometres (one mile) west of the Sydney Harbour Bridge. It is named after Lieutenant Henry Lidgbird Ball, a Royal Naval officer who commanded the Supply on the First Fleet. 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.
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Balls Head was celebrated in two poems by Henry Lawson. 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.
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. 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. Many birds are found here, as are reptiles, flying foxes, microbats and marsupial mammals.
It is a popular picnic and bushwalking site, with views of the city skyline and harbour.
HistoryEdit
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. The reserve is named after Lieutenant Henry Lidgbird Ball, Commander of the ship Supply in the First Fleet of 1788. 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.