The Balls Head Reserve is a forested headland

nature reserve A nature reserve (also known as a wildlife refuge, wildlife sanctuary, biosphere reserve or bioreserve, natural or nature preserve, or nature conservation area) is a protected area of importance for flora, fauna, funga, or features of geologic ...

situated on Balls Head in Sydney. The headland is in

Port Jackson Port Jackson, commonly known as Sydney Harbour, is a natural harbour on the east coast of Australia, around which Sydney was built. It consists of the waters of Sydney Harbour, Middle Harbour, North Harbour and the Lane Cove and Parramatta ...

, west of the

Sydney Harbour Bridge The Sydney Harbour Bridge is a steel through arch bridge in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia, spanning Port Jackson, Sydney Harbour from the Sydney central business district, central business district (CBD) to the North Shore (Sydney), North ...

, between

Berrys Bay Berrys Bay is a bay located to the east of the Waverton Peninsula and the west of McMahons Point, on the north of Sydney Harbour. A number of ship building firms operate from the bay. History Shipbuilding William Alfred Dunn (1839 – 1915) ...

to the east and

Balls Head Bay Balls Head Bay, formerly known as Oyster Cove, Wollstonecraft Bay, Sugarworks Bay, Powder Works Bay and Kerosene Bay, is a bay located to the west of the Waverton Peninsula, west of Balls Head and to the east of Berry Island, on the north of Sydn ...

to the west. It is named after Lieutenant

Henry Lidgbird Ball Rear-Admiral of the Blue Henry Lidgbird Ball (7 December 1756 – 22 October 1818) was a Royal Navy officer who served in the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars. While Ball was best known as the commander of the First Fleet, First Fleet's ...

, a Royal Naval officer who commanded HMS ''

Supply Supply or supplies may refer to: *The amount of a resource that is available **Supply (economics), the amount of a product which is available to customers **Materiel, the goods and equipment for a military unit to fulfill its mission *Supply, as ...

'' on the

First Fleet The First Fleet were eleven British ships which transported a group of settlers to mainland Australia, marking the beginning of the History of Australia (1788–1850), European colonisation of Australia. It consisted of two Royal Navy vessel ...

. The park is accessed via Balls Head Drive, ,

New South Wales New South Wales (commonly abbreviated as NSW) is a States and territories of Australia, state on the Eastern states of Australia, east coast of :Australia. It borders Queensland to the north, Victoria (state), Victoria to the south, and South ...

, Australia.

History

Indigenous history

The original inhabitants were the

Cammeraygal The Cammeraygal, variously spelled as Cam-mer-ray-gal, Gamaraigal, Kameraigal, Cameragal and several other variations, are one clan of the 29 Darug tribes who are united by a Australian Aboriginal languages, common language, strong ties of kins ...

people. Evidence of their occupation includes art sites,

midden A midden is an old dump for domestic waste. It may consist of animal bones, human excrement, botanical material, mollusc shells, potsherds, lithics (especially debitage), and other artifacts and ecofacts associated with past human oc ...

s and a spectacular

petroglyph A petroglyph is an image created by removing part of a rock surface by incising, picking, carving, or abrading, as a form of rock art. Outside North America, scholars often use terms such as "carving", "engraving", or other descriptions ...

of a marine creature. An Aboriginal burial site within a rock shelter was documented by

Sandra Bowdler Sandra Bowdler (born 1946) is an Australian archaeologist, emeritus professor of archaeology and former head of the Archaeology Department at the University of Western Australia. Education Bowdler completed an Honours degree in archaeology at ...

, an archaeologist from the Australian Museum in 1964. Until 1916, the Balls Head area was frequented by the local Aboriginal community and sites including middens, art sites and rock engravings remain today. The Aboriginal name for Balls Head is Yerroulbine.

European history

Balls Head was the original foreshore land included in the large Wollstonecraft Estate. In 1912 the Australian Army claimed the land and a Quarantine Depot was established in Berrys Bay to service the boats operating to and from the Quarantine station at North Head. Strong public protests in the early part of the 20th century resulted in Balls Head becoming public parkland (rather than being used for commercial or residential purposes as was mooted) in 1926. Balls Head was celebrated in two poems by

Henry Lawson Henry Archibald Hertzberg Lawson (17 June 1867 – 2 September 1922) was an Australian writer and bush poet. Along with his contemporary Banjo Paterson, Lawson is among the best-known Australian poets and fiction writers of the colonial period ...

. The second of these, 'The Sacrifice of Balls Head' protested against plans to build a coal bunkering depot there in 1916. It stands as an early articulation of conservationist sentiment. A Coal Loader was built by 1920; in 2007, this facility was re-opened as the Coal Loader Centre for Sustainability, a hub for North Sydney Council environmental and sustainability programs. The area was proclaimed as a public reserve by Premier Jack Lang in 1926. By then much of the forest that Lawson had described was gone. A Beautification Committee was established by 1931 led by conservationist

Walter Froggatt Walter Wilson Froggatt (13 June 1858 – 18 March 1937) was an Australian economic entomologist. Early life Froggatt was born in Melbourne, Colony of Victoria, the son of George Wilson Froggatt, an English architect, and his wife Caroline, dau ...

. Native trees were reintroduced to the headland throughout the decade. Many of these were sourced from the

Royal Botanic Gardens, Sydney The Royal Botanic Garden, Sydney is a heritage-listed major botanical garden, event venue and public recreation area located at Farm Cove on the eastern fringe of the Sydney central business district, in the City of Sydney local government are ...

. A stone tablet acknowledging Froggatt's work was unveiled in 1938. It can still be seen near the car park at the southern end of the reserve. The reserve is now maintained by

North Sydney Council North Sydney Council is a local government area on the Lower North Shore of Sydney, New South Wales, Australia, established on 29 July 1890 through the amalgamation of three boroughs. The area is bounded by Willoughby to the north and north-w ...

and contains a well-preserved natural bushland area, one of the closest to the city of

Sydney Sydney is the capital city of the States and territories of Australia, state of New South Wales and the List of cities in Australia by population, most populous city in Australia. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Syd ...

. Plants include the Sydney red gum, Port Jackson cypress, blueberry ash and

Port Jackson fig ''Ficus rubiginosa'', the rusty fig or Port Jackson fig (''damun'' in the Dharug language), is a species of flowering plant native to eastern Australia in the genus ''Ficus''. Beginning as a seedling that grows on other plants (hemiepiphyte) or ...

. Many birds are found here, as are reptiles,

flying foxes ''Pteropus'' (suborder Yinpterochiroptera) is a genus of megabats which are among the largest bats in the world. They are commonly known as fruit bats or flying foxes, among other colloquial names. They live in South Asia, Southeast Asia, Austr ...

microbat Microbats constitute the suborder Microchiroptera within the order Chiroptera (bats). Bats have long been differentiated into Megachiroptera (megabats) and Microchiroptera, based on their size, the use of echolocation by the Microchiroptera an ...

s and marsupial mammals. It is a popular picnic and

bushwalking A hike is a long, vigorous walking, walk, usually on trails or footpaths in the countryside. Walking for pleasure developed in Europe during the eighteenth century. Long hikes as part of a religious pilgrimage have existed for a much longer tim ...

site, with views of the city skyline and harbour.

Reserve features

* Several bush walking tracks, including one suitable for wheelchairs * Accessible toilets, picnic tables, seats and electric barbecues * Numerous plaques and depression era elements including remnants of paths, steps and railings dot the reserve. * Aboriginal waterholes and grinding grooves * Foreshore caves and chambers cut by squatters in the 1930s.

References

External links