Aviary

The aviary at Waratah Park is a simple structure: corroded metal mesh stretched across a timber frame, standing inside the bushland of Duffys Forest as the surrounding vegetation slowly works through and around it. The enclosure is empty. Leaf litter has built up at the base of the uprights. The mesh has rusted to the colour of the bark around it. Whatever was once sheltered here is long gone. Waratah Park occupies 12.6 hectares of Crown land at 13 Namba Road, Duffys Forest, adjoining Ku-ring-gai Chase National Park to the north and west. The site was first developed in 1967, when the NSW Government granted Fauna Productions permission to occupy approximately 10 hectares for the filming of Skippy the Bush Kangaroo. The Ranger Headquarters was constructed that year, along with roads, power and water connections, a helipad, and a helicopter-servicing area. The production ran until September 1969, completing 91 episodes across three series. In December 1969, Warringah Council granted land use consent for the site to operate as an animal park and entertainment area. The park opened to the public in January 1970. Wildlife on display included kangaroos, koalas, dingoes, emus, and wombats. Enclosures, aviaries, and tourism infrastructure were built across the site during this period. The park changed operators several times, operating under the name Waratah Park Earth Sanctuary from 1995 to 2000, before the business finally failed in 2006. By 2010, all wildlife had been removed. The site was eventually transferred to the Metropolitan Local Aboriginal Land Council on 28 August 2014 under the Aboriginal Land Rights Act 1983. Waratah Park was listed on the NSW State Heritage Register on 27 February 2015. This photograph, made in 2017, records the aviary as the bush continued to reclaim it: mesh and timber, still standing, slowly being absorbed back into the landscape that always surrounded it.