History and Drama of Callan Park

Callan Park is one of the largest heritage cultural landscapes in the metropolitan area, increasingly threatened by development plans.

We are privileged to have Hall Greenland, Friends of Callan Park President, taking our group through significant parts of the site, starting at the c1839 Garry Owen House, the original estate mansion (later renamed Callan Park House – which gave its name to the asylum).  

We will circle the original asylum – Kirkbride, walk past the Convalescent Cottages (part of James Barnet’s original plan), on to Callan Point, then past the 1931 Sydney Harbour Bridge War Memorial designed by Douglas Grant.

We next visit Broughton Hall, the adjacent psychiatric clinic with its glorious horticulture specimens and depression era stonework.

The tour will discuss the site’s rich and storied history from Indigenous presence at the site to the most recent changes – the demolition of veterans’ foreshore wards to generate foreshore parkland, and the most recent proposal for the demolition of buildings in the middle of the landscape.

The FOCP has published three books on the Park, all will be available at the bargain price of $10 each

Their tour fee is $25.00 per person, payable directly to the Friends of Callan Park.

Meeting point for the tour is the Writers Centre – well signposted from the main entrance on Balmain Road (opposite Cecily Street), and identified on Google Maps. Parking available.