Bicentennial Reserve is named after the Bicentenary of Australia 1788-1988. The land was claimed in 1933 as a ‘garbage destructor and sewerage dump’ for the community’s waste. In 1934 the reverberatory incinerator designed by Walter Burley Griffin opened and material from the waste operation was used to fill the Flat Rock Creek valley and create level areas for playing fields. After 1983 more fill was added to create a regional park.
There is a wide bike/pedestrian path in the reserve that is one of Willoughby’s major “shared use” pathways and links the reserve to Artarmon Reserve and Flat Rock Gully. The gradient of the path through the Reserve is flat. It is 60m from the reserve entrance to a bus stop in Willoughby Road.
There is off street parking next to the Willoughby Leisure Centre and netball courts (entrance from Small Street). There is on street parking adjacent to Hallstrom Park and also outside the Leisure Centre.
Two features of the reserve that can be seen next to the path are a mural by artist Shane Haurama and Henry Lawson’s Cave. The mural was completed in 2007 and is made up of three sections. Each section refers to the past, present and future relationship with the indigenous people and landscape of Flat Rock Gully.
Poet and writer Henry Lawson (1867-1922) lived in Naremburn for short periods from 1907 to just after WWI. After visiting a Crows Nest Hotel, exchanging spontaneous verse for a drink, Lawson would occasionally stay in the cave in temporary retirement from society. The site is marked by a stone bas-relief of Lawson’s profile by Chris Bennett.
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