Balls Head Reserve

Dogs Leashed

Features Birding · Views

This route connects local trails to run along the waterfront for stunning views of the harbour. You can see the Bridge and Opera House from a distance as well.

The run starts off In Brennan Park (but you can easily start from either Wollstonecraft or Waverton Station) and takes you through a few neighborhoods, down to the historic coal loader with aboriginal artifacts, then into Ball Heads Reserve with great views of the Sydney Opera House and the Harbour Bridge. The trail is a mix of paved and dirt tracks. The tracks are well-marked and there are several different options at Balls Head Reserve if you want to add some mileage or explore the area more.

Vegetation is predominately open forest, with Sydney Red Gums, and Red Bloodwoods and an understorey of Grevilleas, Wattles, Banksias, Geebungs, as well as shrubs and grasses. In sheltered gullies, species such as Cheese Trees, Sweet Pittosporum, Blueberry Ash, NSW Christmas Bush, Lillypillys, and Mock Olive flourish. On the south/western side of the reserve you can hear the wind blow through the stands of She Oaks. There are Port Jackson Figs and locally rare orchids.

Balls Head reserve is also a refuge for native fauna, with Geckoes, Blue-Tongue Lizards, Skinks, Common Eastern Froglets, Brushtail and Ringtail Possums, a colony of Large Bent-Wing Microbats, Parrots, Lorikeets, Kookaburras, Butcher Birds, Wrens and Figbirds.