A bigger, better and more beautiful Wimbo Park is now open for residents and visitors of Surry Hills.
The City of Sydney’s multi-million dollar upgrade has transformed a small rest area into 4,600 square metres of open lawns, trees, seating and play areas for children.
“Space is at a premium in the city and that’s why we fought so hard to maximise the size and benefits Wimbo Park can now bring to our community,” Lord Mayor of Sydney, Clover Moore AO said.
“When we negotiated the light rail development agreement with the State Government, we ensured the balance of any land not required would be dedicated back to us for use as an expanded community park. That allowed us to expand Wimbo Park into a wonderful community space with open lawns, casual seating and play areas for kids.
“The community urged us to keep the park simple and focus on nature, with green open space and natives, and that’s what we’ve done. Wimbo Park is not only three times as large as the original park but has less paving and more lawn and shade, with 49 new native trees and 21 native palms. Local heritage has been retained with the reinstallation of the mosaic mural and stonemason’s monument.
“We thank the Surry Hills community for your patience through this upgrade – negotiating with the State Government for land transfer and safe occupancy alongside the light rail, as well as weather and global supply chain issues meant this project took longer than we’d like. But the fences are now down, and I invite everyone to come down and enjoy your new park.”
The City of Sydney has set an ambitious target of 40% of the local area to have green cover by 2050, with a minimum of 27% tree canopy.
The new Wimbo Park features:
- more shade trees and an open lawn
- more parkland and less paving
- more casual seating
- a play area with in-ground trampolines and softfall mounds
- a reinstated Wimbo Park mural and stonemason’s monument
- a shared zone along Parkham Lane and a walking path through the park.
Wimbo Park is an important thoroughfare for pedestrians accessing the stadium precinct in Moore Park. The walkway has been repositioned slightly to Parkham Lane which now accommodates riders and local residential traffic in an extended shared zone.
The new Wimbo Park would not have been possible without the input of the local community who provided valuable feedback on what they wanted. We planted almost entirely native plants, provided play opportunities for local children, created recreational green space for visitors and introduced measures to mitigate the visual and noise impacts of the light rail for local residents.
“I again call on the Transport Minister to add a Wimbo Park light rail stop. There is only one stop servicing the entirety of Surry Hills between Central station and Moore Park, compared to eight stops in the city centre,” the Lord Mayor said.
“Transport for NSW assured us they installed the conduits for this to happen and the City of Sydney designed the park to accommodate it. A stop would benefit the people of Redfern and Waterloo, not to mention Surry Hills and the students and teachers at Bourke Street Public School.”
For media enquiries contact Andrew Booth: 0482 530 091 or email abooth@cityofsydney.nsw.gov.au
For interviews with the Lord Mayor of Sydney, Clover Moore AO contact Paul Mackay. Phone 0436 816 604 or email pmackay@cityofsydney.nsw.gov.au