By Julie Power
Described as a people’s playground for more than a century, Nielsen Park and Shark Beach reopened on Thursday.
Closed for nearly three years, and two summers, it seemed like a lifetime in dog-paddle years for locals and visitors to the public park that provides public access to the waterfront in Sydney’s affluent eastern suburbs.
Edward Strickland, Julian Zogg, Aiden Green and Koda Sissian were the first to hit the water when it reopened.Credit: Dion Georgopoulos
Aiden Green, 20, of Woollahra and three friends were the first to swim there since it closed in 2022, jumping in as the fences came down just after noon.
Green said it seemed “like an age” since he last swam there.
The new seawall and concrete bleachers have been built to last 100 years and withstand climate change. Providing more seating than before, they are more than 50cm higher than the original bleachers built in the 1930s, follow the shape of the bay and are sunk into the bedrock.
Roger Jasprizza, associate director of landscape architects Oculus, said the design integrated wave deflectors – a slight inward curve in the bleachers from knee to ankle – to protect the park from sea level changes.
Nielsen Park and Shark Beach are open to the public.Credit: Dion Georgopoulos
NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service (NPWS) Sydney south area manager Ben Khan said the reopening was the best Christmas present he could get. That sentiment was echoed by Kellie Sloane, the state member for Vaucluse, who cut short a meeting to visit the beach as the fences were coming down.
Khan said he understood the importance of Nielsen Park and Shark Beach to Sydney.
“Once you close it to public access, you upset a lot of people. This is a special place, and access to it has been entrenched,” he said.
But it had been a very complex project, with bad weather and unexpected finds, including the discovery of asbestos which took a “long time to remove”, he said.
Construction workers remove fencing before the opening on Thursday.Credit: Dion Georgopoulos
Nielsen Park was designated public land 120 years ago after a group called the Harbour Foreshores Vigilance Committee lobbied to stop it being sold.
The campaign was led by the commodore of the Sydney Sailing Club, William Notting, who argued the harbour foreshore should not belong solely to individual landowners.
Notting said then: “It is useless ... to talk about Sydney possessing the most beautiful harbour in the world unless steps be taken to prevent it becoming a private lake. At present, it is little better than a pond in a privately owned paddock.”
The land near the park and to the east at Parsley Bay narrowly escaped being sold; it was saved after the last-minute intervention of the NSW government’s works minister Niels Nielsen, for whom the park was named.
Khan said the works included improved accessibility and safety features, including a wheelchair-accessible pedestrian ramp at the eastern end of the beach, additional seating, new landscaping with extra trees in a grass area on the promenade, renovations to The Kiosk, the Halbert Pavilion, the Swimming and Life Saving Club and the dressing pavilion.
Writer Ailsa Piper was waiting in the shade for it to reopen. For her, the park had always been a place of solace and comfort when she had experienced grief and loss.
“I have a deep love for this place,” she said.
Its closure and delays had been frustrating, not just to people who lived nearby like her but to the many others who travelled to visit.
“This place belongs to the whole of Sydney. I just hope that the word gets out quickly to all the people who’ve been coming here for 40 years for their Christmas and New Year’s celebrations.
“One of the beautiful things about being here on those days is that you just see these families who’ve been coming for decades.”
Piper said her heart nearly broke one day when a large family group arrived at the park for a celebration after travelling for hours only to find it was closed. They were turned away.
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