One Tight Stitch Connects Many Miles of Green Public Space
Ellen Woolley

ALEXANDRIA CANAL is an historical passage potentially connecting greenspace in an otherwise hostile pedestrian precinct.

Sydney Olympic Park and Sydney Park showcase how exceptionally Sydney remediates toxic landscapes into living lungs and healthy respite for residents.

Interestingly, within 100 metres of the newly completed Sydney Park, lies a ribbon of potential green landscape connective tissue: the banks of Alexandria Canal. This dormant passage has the potential to create a green corridor connecting the City of Sydney; the Inner West and Bayside. This would give pedestrians, cyclists and wildlife a green belt between the Sydney Park, to the Cooks River, and onto Botany Bay. It could connect the former Shea’s Creek to Wolli Creek, Muddy Creek and Lady Robinson’s beach as a pedestrianised experience. The precinct’s significant indigenous history, it’s heritage banks (undergoing conservation) and its heritage-listed under-utilised WWII Woolsheds could be shared with local residents, Sydneysiders and tourists (post-Covid).

Westconnex plans to provide parkland and pedestrianise from Sydney Park down to Alexandria Canal along Canal Road. From here, most of this canal on both sides is under-utilised wasteland.

If ambitions run high we could create a world-class precedent for waterway remediation. Like Sydney Olympic Park, the proposition is not reliant on this premise immediately, to achieve superb green space. It is the verges that are to be carefully re-activated. And reinstating the traces of lost wharves could establish bridging links if wished. This precinct is ripe for well-considered redevelopment, along with mindful conservation. Modest works along this under-appreciated waterline could then provide a welcome outlook and a vital public amenity green stitch.