Balls Head Reserve in Waverton will be closed for New Year's Eve to preserve its fragile bushland and cultural heritage.
At a North Sydney Council meeting on Monday night, councillors voted to close the reserve, endorsing a recommendation from Council's Bushland team.
Balls Head Reserve is the largest bushland reserve in the North Sydney local government area, covering around 10 hectares of the Waverton peninsula. It is home to native wildlife and contains important sites of Aboriginal cultural heritage, including an exposed midden and other traces of the area's Traditional Custodians, the Cammeraygal people.
In recent years, crowds of visitors to the reserve on New Year's Eve have trampled and crushed the bushland, and snapped off stems and branches, in efforts to secure space for picnic blankets and a view of the fireworks.
North Sydney Mayor Zoë Baker said: "The damage sets bushland rehabilitation back months, years, or even decades. Most plants do not have time to recover and regenerate before the next New Year's Eve, and local native animals are losing their habitat. There are also serious concerns about public safety in the unlit reserve as well as impacts on an important exposed midden with significant original Aboriginal cultural heritage."
Balls Head Reserve has always been an unmanaged reserve, with no crowd management, enforcement of alcohol restrictions or emergency evacuation plans in place. In previous years, New Year's Eve crowds have positioned themselves along cliff edges and steep drop-offs, placing themselves and others at risk and sustaining injuries.
The recommendation to close the reserve cited the need to preserve the bushland as well as to protect public safety.
Those looking to celebrate the New Year on the North Sydney harbour foreshore will still be able to view the fireworks from other parts of the Waverton peninsula and the many other nearby vantage points.
