Barangaroo South marks one of Sydney’s most significant urban waterfront transformations. The project redefines the city’s relationship with its harbour, connecting people, nature, and culture in a dynamic new public realm.
This 7.5-hectare, mixed-use district on Sydney Harbour now features more than two hectares of high-quality public space, including Watermans Cove, Hickson Park, and a network of tree-lined streets and promenades. Together they create a new civic heart for the city’s western waterfront, linking the Central Business District with the harbour through an accessible, pedestrian-friendly landscape.
Uniting the City and the Sea
Barangaroo South builds on the foundations of the wider Barangaroo Masterplan, which sought to reconnect Sydney to its waterfront. Grant Associates was one of several landscape architects engaged to establish a distinctive public domain identity – one that celebrates the site’s geology, history, and atmosphere while mediating between a skyline of globally designed architecture and the natural drama of the harbour.
At Watermans Cove, a sweeping crescent amphitheatre forms a contemporary gathering space on the water’s edge. Its stepped terraces, carved from Sydney sandstone, invite people down to the harbour while framing views of the setting sun. Timber boardwalks continue the city’s waterfront language, while multi-level access brings visitors closer to the water than ever before.
Hickson Park: A Green Pause in the City
Just inland, Hickson Park provides a generous green relief to the dense architecture that surrounds it. Designed as an open lawn framed by native trees, it offers space for events, recreation, and relaxation. Beneath the park lies a basement car park, but the landscape above feels open and expansive. It creates a moment of calm in the heart of Sydney’s most vertical new precinct.
Material and Ecological Identity
The landscape design draws heavily from Sydney’s natural identity: bushland, sandstone, and sea. Reused sandstone from the site’s old wharves forms terraces and edges, while native planting including silvery greens, coarse textures, and fragrant species, brings the wild qualities of the surrounding headlands into the urban realm.
This material continuity connects Barangaroo South to the northern headland reserve and helps express the deep geology of the place. The result is a public realm that feels unmistakably of Sydney: robust, sunlit, and shaped by the water.
Cultural Layers and Connection
The design acknowleges the site’s Aboriginal heritage, industrial docklands, and maritime trade. The pattern of wharves once defining the shoreline is reinterpreted in the new cove and promenade, while spaces between land and water are designed as zones of interaction and reflection.
Pedestrian and cycle connections link the precinct with the wider city via Wynyard Walk and ferry routes, reinforcing Barangaroo as a key node within Sydney’s Liveable Green Network. Integrated public art and wayfinding celebrate the city’s growing “cultural ribbon” along the harbour.
A Climate Positive Precinct
Barangaroo is one of just 19 global precincts in the C40 Cities Climate Positive Development Programme. Sustainability measures include a recycled water treatment plant, solar energy systems supplying the public domain, and extensive tree canopy for shade and cooling.
Intertidal habitats have been strengthened at the water’s edge, FSC-certified timber has been used throughout, and water sensitive urban design supports irrigation across the precinct. These features, combined with a car-free emphasis and strong public transport links, make Barangaroo South a global benchmark for sustainable waterfront regeneration.
Collaboration and Delivery
Delivered under a partnership between Lendlease, Infrastructure NSW and the City of Sydney, Barangaroo South is the product of extensive collaboration and consultation. The design and construction process balanced the ambitions of multiple architects and stakeholders while maintaining a unified public realm vision.
Grant Associates’ approach distilled diverse influences into a clear, legible landscape framework that provides spaces that feel both timeless and contemporary, rooted in Sydney’s spirit yet forward-looking in their ambition.
A New Chapter for Sydney’s Waterfront
Today, Barangaroo South has transformed what was once a closed industrial port into a welcoming, inclusive, and ecologically attuned waterfront district. Its landscapes are open to sun, sea, and sky and invite people to gather, rest, and reconnect with the harbour.
By bringing architecture, ecology, and urban life into dialogue, the project sets a new standard for how global cities can reimagine their waterfronts – alive with people, culture, and nature once more.
Project Data
Landscape Architecture: Grant Associates
Client: Lendlease in collaboration with Barangaroo Delivery Authority / Infrastructure NSW
Civil Engineer: Cardno Pty Ltd
Structural Engineer: Robert Bird Pty Ltd
Marine Engineer: Royal Haskoning
Electrical Engineer: Aurecon
Hydraulics & Fire Engineer: Warren Smith & Partners
Completion: 2020
Location: Australia
Type: Mixed
Completed: 2025
