View under the Harold Park racetrack over Johnstons Creek, looking towards the road bridge on the Crescent (Photo: Wayne Carveth 10 January 2004)

Solution to July Mystery Photo

by Wayne Carveth, from Bulletin 6/2026 (August)

July’s mystery photo shows the underside of the Harold Park harness racing track extension over Johnstons Creek, looking towards The Crescent. Rodney Hammett, John Sergeant and Dale Dengate identified the photo.

In 1995 the track was rebuilt as the previous track was regarded as tight and not up to international standards. It was lengthened from 754 m to 805 m, widened to a standard width of 17 m and the curves banked. This necessitated raising the north-west corner over the Johnstons Creek stormwater channel.

The track was demolished entirely in 2007 after the racetrack and grounds were sold to Mirvac for $185 m when the value of the Harold Park site and diminishing crowds made its sale irresistible. The New South Wales Harness Racing Club moved its operations to Menangle Park.

Twin tram tracks originally ran along the eastern (LH in the photo) side of Johnstons Creek from The Crescent to the Tramsheds. There is a vestige of the tram tracks in the fence made from railway line posts and pipes bordering Johnstons Creek.

Source: David Keenan’s 1993 book, ‘The Western Lines of the Sydney Tramway System’, Transit Press, Sydney Tramway Museum, p.43

Rodney Hammett recalled driving from The Crescent to Federal Road along the former tram track before the Bicentennial Park was created in 1988 (which reduced the stretch of Federal Road in the park to a footpath).

The photo, left, taken in 1958, including a tram and its conductor, shows the same place but looking in the opposite direction from The Crescent towards the Tramsheds.

The photo, by David Keenan, was used in material tabled at the Central Sydney Planning Committee meeting on 22 July 2010, when draft planning controls for the Harold Park site were considered. It appears in Attachment A of Item 4 — specifically in Attachment A20, part of the Historical Background appendix to the Harold Park Heritage Study Stage 1 Report by Paul Davies and Associates (February 2010).