Victoria Park, Sydney

Victoria Park is a urban park situated on the corner of Parramatta Road and City Road, Camperdown, in the City of Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. The park is located adjacent to The University of Sydney and the Broadway Shopping Centre.

Proclaimed as a park in 1870, Victoria Park, together with The University of Sydney and its associated University Colleges were listed on the New South Wales State Heritage Register on 31 August 2018. The park and features including Gardener's Lodge and its interior, the park's entry gates and piers, and the park layout, paths and plantings were listed on the City of Sydney local government heritage list on 14 December 2012.

History

Victoria Park was originally part of Grose Farm, which in 1853 was designated as the site for the University of Sydney. In 1865 an area at the intersection of City Road and Parramatta Road was granted to the university for the building of a formal entrance to the university.

In the late 1880s, two lodges (one of which survives while the other was demolished in 1940) and a set of ornate gates, designed by Colonial Architect James Barnet, were built at the start of the entrance avenue on the corner of City Road and Parramatta Road.

The Gardener's Lodge adjacent to City Road was used as a toilet block for a long time, and eventually restored and now used as a café. The Lodge and the sandstone gates nearby originally guarded the eastern edge of the University grounds.

Heritage listing

The University of Sydney, University Colleges and Victoria Park is of state historical significance as a vestige of Governor Phillip's original "Kanguroo Ground" Crown reserve of 1790 and for its connection to the 18th century British government's approach to colonialism and its concept of "terra nullius" as the foundation for dispossession of Aboriginal land in the immediate area of Sydney.