We’re excited to share that Ballast Point Park has been added to the NSW State Heritage Register! As the head contractor for this project, with our construction team completing work back in 2009, we are extremely proud to have delivered a place that is so historically and culturally significant, and has now been officially recognised as such.
The Rich History of Ballast Point Park
Here at Solutions+, we believe in the positive power of great community spaces. We believe in enhancing communities, enriching lives and leaving a lasting impact. We create places that people can enjoy, connect to and feel fully a part of, enriching their lives every single day. This listing is a testament to this ambition, and it is extremely moving to have created a park that to this day brings such joy to our community.
Located on the former Caltex lubricant production facility site, the 2.5ha Ballast Point Park occupies the Birchgrove Peninsula in Sydney’s inner western harbour suburb of Balmain.
Originally a pristine, wooded headland, this land was inhabited by our First Nations People for millennia. Following European settlement, it became part of an original 550-acre land grant to William Balmain, with its subsequent sale to John Gilchrist shaping the very boundaries visible today.
In profound recognition of this layered history, the dual name, ‘Walama’ – meaning ‘to return’ – has been adopted, powerfully underscoring the area’s remarkable metamorphosis from a heavily industrialised site back to its natural essence.
The Ballast Point design reconciles the layers of history with a new direction where recycled materials are used in innovative ways to create a park of unique quality. This environmental approach is further underpinned by site-wide storm water filtration though the use of bio-swales, and wind turbines for on-site energy production.
We’d like to congratulate our team who brought this 2.6-hectare park in Sydney’s Birchgrove to life, along with the landscape architects McGregor Coxall on an amazing design.
As Inner West Mayor Darcy Byrne stated, “The addition of Ballast Point… to the State Heritage Register marks the final transformation of these former industrial sites to some of the world’s most beautiful harbourside parks.”
You can read the full press release here.
