Project background

In October 2020 Council adopted our Foreshore Access Strategy to help improve and increase foreshore access in the City of Canada Bay. An opportunity identified in the adopted Strategy is to create the ‘Chiswick Shortcut’ past the Chiswick peninsula, connecting the formal foreshore walks between Abbotsford House, Lysaght Park and Drummoyne Oval.

Council is working closely with Transport for NSW to deliver a section of the Chiswick Shortcut between Wire Mill Reserve and Lysaght Park as part of the Parramatta to Sydney Foreshore Link. The Parramatta to Sydney Foreshore Link will provide Sydney’s longest continuous route for people to walk and ride bikes along 91km of the Parramatta River foreshore between Parramatta Park (Dharug Country) and the Sydney Opera House/Royal Botanic Gardens (Gadi Country). The program brings the NSW Government and Councils together to provide active transport improvements to connect healthy, active and vibrant local centres.

More information the Parramatta to Sydney Foreshore Link and sections outside of the City of Canada Bay is available here.

The Parramatta to Sydney Foreshore Link is proudly funded by the NSW Government.

Council is proposing to formalise this important link in our local walking and bike riding network by providing a continuous connection for people walking and riding bikes along this route.

Proposed improvements include:

• Providing a continuous 3.5m shared path between Wire Mill Reserve and Lysaght Park by widening existing footpaths in Wire Mill Reserve and Campbell Park and building new shared paths through Allison Park (between Blackwall Point Road and Parkview Road) and Lysaght Park to connect with the existing path along the foreshore.
• Upgrading the existing pedestrian refuges on Blackwall Point Road (between Wire Mill Reserve and Allison Park) and Bibby Street (between Campbell Park and Lysaght Park) to provide 3.5m wide raised shared crossings
• Building a new raised shared crossing on Parkview Road to connect Allison Park and Campbell Park
• Building a new raised pedestrian crossing on Bibby Street, near Swannell Avenue
• Installing signage and line marking along the new paths and planting new trees and vegetation where feasible to provide additional shade cover and improve visual amenity.
• The existing timed Bus Zone (Monday to Friday 6am to 9am) adjacent to Campbell Park will be relocated further south.
• Six parking spaces adjacent to Campbell Park will be changed to Bus Zone (Monday to Friday 6am to 9am).
• Two new unrestricted parking spaces will be provided adjacent to Campbell Park, north of the crossing.
• The timed bus zone on Parkview Road adjacent to Allison Park is not expected to be impacted.

How will this affect me locally?

Some changes to parking will be required for the new crossing on Parkview Road:

• Four parking spaces will be removed near the new crossing:
  • One parking space on each side of the crossing will be removed adjacent to Allison Park.
  • Two parking spaces south of the new crossing will be removed adjacent to Campbell Park.

What happens next?

Feedback during early consultation supported the shared path and the vision of a fully continuous route along the foreshore. Some concerns were raised about the impact the project will have on the environment and residents next to the reserve.

In response to this feedback, Council will now undertake the necessary environmental assessments and begin preparing the detailed design to finalise the alignment of the path. We will consider feedback and suggestions as we prepare the project design and keep local residents and the community informed of future opportunities to provide feedback.

Take a look at a summary of the feedback and suggestions we received in the community consultation report.