Regeneration

Inside one of the derelict structures at Waratah Park in Duffys Forest, NSW, the photograph records something the site has been doing quietly since the wildlife park closed in 2006. Ferns and vines push through a collapsed section of brick roof, spreading across the rubble in dense, unhurried growth. Sunlight reaches the interior through the gap, catching green foliage against grey masonry. The floor holds broken material. The walls hold their course but little else. Waratah Park occupies 12.6 hectares of bushland at 13 Namba Road, Duffys Forest, adjoining Ku-ring-gai Chase National Park to the north and west. The site was originally occupied from around 1967 for the production of Skippy the Bush Kangaroo, the television series produced by Fauna Productions. The Ranger Headquarters was purpose-built that year as a television set. A wildlife park and tourism venue opened on the site in January 1970 and operated until 2006, when the business failed. The tourism-era structures, including the octagonal gatehouse, the undercover BBQ area, and the building visible here, were left largely unattended after closure. The land was transferred to the Metropolitan Local Aboriginal Land Council on 28 August 2014 under the Aboriginal Land Rights Act 1983, returning Crown land that sits within the traditional country of the Garrigal and Terramerragal clans. The site was listed on the NSW State Heritage Register on 27 February 2015. Sydney Wildlife has since established a rehabilitation facility on the grounds, supported entirely by donations. What the photograph records is not decay as an endpoint. The bushland at Waratah Park supports multiple threatened species, including the glossy black cockatoo and the eastern pygmy possum. It is continuous with the national park beyond the fence line. The ferns growing through this collapsed roof are part of the same system. The building is going back. The bush, as it turns out, was here the whole time.