Back in May, we reported on the announcement on a new, much-anticipated green trail in Sydney’s Inner West reaching 80 per cent completion, and Inner West residents went a little bit wild. Now, after almost twenty years of petitions, planning meetings and community hustle, the community is finally getting the leafy spine it’s been dreaming of. The GreenWay – a six-kilometre corridor of bushy beauty and public art – officially opens on Sunday December 14, and it’s shaping up to be one of the most game-changing public spaces in the city.
More than twice the length of New York’s famous High Line, the GreenWay stitches the Cooks River in Earlwood to the Parramatta River at Iron Cove, effectively joining two of Sydney’s most popular waterside routes: the Cooks River Walk and the Bay Run. What’s unfurling between them is an active-travel superhighway, complete with leafy foreshore paths, pockets of playgrounds and eight new public artworks celebrating the neighbourhood’s character.
Mostly tracing the route of the Inner West Light Rail and the Hawthorne Canal, the GreenWay is a choose-your-own-adventure for anyone keen to run, wander, cycle or meander. The whole stretch takes about 25 minutes on two wheels, or a cruisy 75-minute wander on foot – but you’ll want to factor in extra time for coffee detours, bird-spotting, the odd playground pit-stop and some mural admiration. Access points pop up throughout Dulwich Hill, Lewisham, Summer Hill and Haberfield, making it a real local artery rather than a one-way tourist track.
Running north-south across the Inner West, the GreenWay will intersect with the new Sydney Metro Southwest – the major upgrade transforming the 130-year-old Bankstown line into a high-frequency metro service. Together, the two projects are on track (pardon the pun) to revolutionise how Inner Westies get around, linking communities that were previously pretty deprived of both easy walking routes and efficient public transport.
In true Inner West fashion, the project also doubles as a celebration of sustainability and community care. It brings with it new bushcare sites, a freshly established wetland to bolster local habitat, and extra green space including a fully fenced off-leash dog park in Lewisham West. The path’s delivery also meant building new tunnels and underpasses – including the just-completed Hercules Parklands and New Canterbury Road underpass – to create a safe, traffic-free journey from river to river.
The GreenWay is arguably one of the best examples grassroots advocacy in action in Sydney. Local community groups, Labor councillors and Summer Hill MP Jo Haylen have been championing the project for the better part of two decades, pushing it forward long before it became a $58-million, three-tier-government success story. The NSW Government contributed more than $41 million, with Inner West Council chipping in $11 million and the Commonwealth adding another $6 million to bring the project to life.
Inner West Council Mayor Darcy Byrne described the GreenWay as the largest infrastructure project the council has ever undertaken, explaining that it will “connect the whole Inner West like never before, and transform the way locals can travel.”
You can learn more over here.
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