Brenan Park, Sports park in Smithfield, Sydney, Australia
Brenan Park is a 20-hectare sports reserve in Smithfield, City of Fairfield, terraced in the early 1980s and elevated above its surroundings by a capped former landfill. It holds six tennis courts, nine soccer fields, three cricket pitches, baseball and softball diamonds, three playgrounds and a 2 km walking and cycling track, with eucalyptus and paperbark canopies.
Brenan Park's triangular outline was drawn on the first survey of John Ryan Brenan's planned market town in 1838, and a housing subdivision and market area were proposed in 1938 but never built. The Smithfield Rugby Club ('Warthogs') lobbied in 1968 to lay out a rugby field, using it as home ground until 1982. The site served as a sewage disposal depot and landfill until 1980; it was capped with impervious clay and declared unsuitable for building in 1981, then converted into a public reserve, which raised its surface above the surrounding land.
The park is named after John Ryan Brenan, who founded Smithfield in 1836. Its grounds are hired by the Smithfield RSL Cricket, Soccer and Baseball Clubs and the Fairfield Patrician Brothers Soccer Club, and the community hall hosted COVID-19 testing in 2020. Bird feeding is not encouraged, though pigeons, ravens, magpies and galahs gather at the corner of Brenan Street and Cumberland Highway.
The park is split into Upper, Middle and Lower Brenan Park, each with its own fields, amenities building and car park, and each booked separately through Fairfield City Council. A 2 km track loops the whole reserve and is shared by walkers and cyclists. The ground is elevated and exposed, and the highest points sit along Bourke Street.
From elevated sections near Bourke Street, the park offers panoramic views across western Sydney and toward the city center in the distance. This vista is a surprising feature given the site's former use as a treatment facility.
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