The Centennial Park is a large parkland in suburban Sydney, just a short distance from the town’s central business district. Sydneysiders love their outdoor life style, since the town itself is an urban jungle. If the weather is warm and the sky is clear, most of them are out on the beach or in the park soaking in the sun. The park reflects the ethos of the people. The park offers many out door activities. You can hire bikes, go horse riding, and even rollerblade. There are cyclists on the paths, pedaling away furiously. Of course there are people who have just come to the park to relax.

The wonderful thing about this park is that it is huge and even on the busiest of days, one can find a secluded spot where you can sit down relax and read a book or take a nap in the open air.

The park has many ponds, statues and flower beds. These make the park a very pretty place to while away a sunny clear day.

If you would like to ride, the Centennial Parklands Equestrian Centre (CPEC) can give rides around the park and also riding lessons. Its equestrian facilities are excellent and they even have an indoor arena.

Other features of this park are:

The Federation Pavilion

This is a historic feature. Australia’s independence was proclaimed from this pavilion in January 1901. The pavilion was renovated for the centenary celebrations recently

The Grand Drive

Sydneysiders are outdoor people. Every open air beach or park has a sports feature. The Grand Drive is one such feature. It circles the park and is 3.8 km in length. This is used for the Sydney Marathon race. It was also used for the races in the Sydney Olympics 2000.

McKay Oval

It was originally a swamp that was drained out and cleaned up. It is now used by Sydney Boys High School as a playground. Cricket, Rugby and Soccer is played in this ground.

Centennial Park is generally considered safe, and park rangers patrol it all the time. However, there is no protection against careless behavior so it is recommended that you take care of your own belongings and exercise caution.

It is a busy park, so getting a parking space for your car can be difficult unless you drive there early in the day. You could of course leave your car at home and go by bus.

Another special feature of this park is that once in a month, cars are prohibited. They have a “Car Free Sunday” which is a great thing.

The Centennial Park has suburbs where there are very expensive looking houses. This suburb was developed by the sale of land next to the park and the money was used to develop the park. Due to stringent building clauses, no low quality buildings were allowed. As a result the suburb has very posh looking houses and the residential area is plush.