Sydney is well endowed with open spaces and has many natural areas. Many of these exist even within the compact city centre. These include the Chinese Garden of Friendship and Hyde Park (which is named after London's Hyde Park).[1] The metropolitan area contains several national parks, including the Royal National Park, the second oldest national park in the world (after Yellowstone National Park), which occupies an area of 132 square kilometres (51 sq mi; 13,200 ha; 33,000 acres).[2] Completing Sydney's wide array of green spaces, the leader is the Royal Botanic Garden, with its large amount of green spaces, lush plants and colourful flowers.
Although Sydney developed organically after the arrival of the First Fleet, the city parks and open spaces were a part of early town planning to provide relief from the bustle and monotony of the city streets. Hyde Park is the oldest park in the city.
| Ordinal | Park name | Area | Notes | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ha | acres | |||
| 1 | Ku-ring-gai Chase National Park | 15,400 | 38,054 | |
| 2 | Royal National Park | 13,200 | 32,618 | |
| 3 | Western Sydney Parklands | 5,280 | 13,047 | |
| 4 | Heathcote National Park | 2,250 | 5,560 | |
| 5 | Garigal National Park | 2,200 | 5,436 | |
| 6 | Lane Cove National Park | 600 | 1,483 | |
| 7 | Sydney Harbour National Park | 411 | 1,016 | comprising ten smaller parks |
| 8 | Georges River National Park | 340 | 840 | |
| Ordinal | Park name | Area | Notes | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ha | acres | |||
| 1 | Centennial Park | 189 | 467 | |
| 2 | Moore Park | 115 | 284 | |
| 3 | Sydney Park | 45 | 111 | |
| 4 | The Domain | 34 | 84 | |
| 5 | Royal Botanic Garden | 30 | 74 | |
The following is an incomplete list of parks and reserves in Sydney:
Text is licensed by State of New South Wales (Department of Planning and Environment) under CC-BY 4.0 licence.
