Paramatta & Lane Cove Rivers’ Beaches (Bayview Park, Chiswick Baths, Greenwich Baths, Woolwich Baths)

A pied shag perches itself on the net of Bayview Park’s swimming enclosure, its wings spread wide drying black feathers underneath the late afternoon sun. In its hooked bill squirms a hapless fish freshly plucked from the Paramatta River. Protecting its catch, the water bird’s green eyes, sparkling like emeralds, peer out guardedly over the riverscape. Suspicions mount as its eyes lock with mine bobbing on the water; a deep guttural grunt starkly accuses me of eyeing its lunch.

I can’t help but be a little offended. A toastie grabbed earlier from the local café has already done wonders to satiate my hunger. And I don’t really feel like sashimi today anyway. But my confutations fail to soothe my weary feathered foe, my voice drowned out by the beating of wings steering off into the distance.

A pied shag in flight / Glen Fergus / CC BY-SA 2.5

I try not to take it personally, reminding myself that the pied shag’s likely still not accustomed to so many people round here. The beach at Bayview Park has only opened again recently for the first time since the 1960s. Originally established in the 1930s, it was once a popular place to swim but closed in 1969 due to pollution of the waterway. However, a $700,000 revitalisation project from the City of Canada Bay, Sydney Water, and the Paramatta River Catchment Group has now revitalised the river and reduced pollution. According to water and sediment tests conducted over the last few years, the site is safe again for swimming.

To accompany the reopening of the site, a netted enclosure, picnic facilities, outdoor showers, and an improved access to the foreshore have also been added. There’s also a boat ramp, barbeques, a playground, and toilets.

Bayview Park netted beach

With this, Bayview Park joins a handful of other swimmable spots on the Parramatta River, including two other beaches. There’s Cabarita Beach, where I’ve visited before. Located at the northern end of the expansive Cabarita Park, it’s perfect for a quick dip after picnicking under the shade of a giant fig tree. And there’s Chiswick Baths, a small beach complete with netted enclosure about 25 metres in length, backed by a steep, grassy slope that leads to picnic seats and barbeques. Swims can also be had on the river at Dawn Fraser Baths and Lake Paramatta.

There are also a couple beaches on the Lane Cove River, a northern tributary of the Parramatta River. At the river’s opening, at Greenwich Baths, you can enjoy stunning views of Sydney’s skyline and Cockatoo Island while lounging in a beach chair - calamari, fish and chips, and iced coffee in hand fresh from the café. The protected inlet and shark proof net provides ideal conditions for calm and gentle laps, while toddlers can splash in the shallows or play with the supplied beach toys.

Woolwich Baths, meanwhile, on the sleepy southern side of the Lane Cove River, is a perfect place to stretch out under the sun, either on the boardwalk or two pontoons. Here you can enjoy views back on the riverside Moreton Bay Figs or out to anchored yachts floating beyond the shark net, before diving in for a dip amongst peaceful jelly fish.

There are now plans to make the whole of the Paramatta River swimmable by 2025, with swim spots allocated for Bedlam Bay, Mcllwaine Park, and Putney Park. With all these new places to swim, it seems the local river birds are just going to have to get used to us. And who knows? In time they might even share their lunch. 

Total beaches: 78/170 

Whiting Beach

A voracious roar shatters the air - a lion on the hunt. The thumping gallop of a zebra herd turns the other way. The trees above sway under the frenzied swings of screaming, fleeing monkeys. A trumpeting of elephants quickly follows suit.

This isn’t the relaxing time I was expecting at one of Sydney’s most secluded beaches. Whiting Beach, a 90-metre strip of powder white sand, hides discreetly under densely vegetated slopes, accessible only by walking path in the south of Mosman. An ideal retreat for a lazy Sunday snooze. Or so it seems until the howls, quacks, growls, squeaks, and snarls come crashing in. With Taronga Zoo perched above, I’m not getting any rest today.

Most of the crowds that disembark at the nearby ferry wharf herd themselves up the hill to the zoo’s entrance. But take a left on the Curlew Camp Artists' Walk and you’re suddenly encased in a jungle of blueberry ash, flannel flowers, and towering apple gums. Their branches are home to ring-tailed possums, honeyeaters, and rainbow lorikeets. Underneath, scuttering water dragons and gobbling brush turkeys revel in their freedom outside the confines of the zoo.

Taronga Zoo sits on the site of a former gathering place for prominent artists, writers, and musicians. Abandoned in the 1910s, their canvas tents and maintained gardens are no more. Instead, the walking path that honours their history winds along the foreshore. I’ve followed it along wooden board walks over barnacle-covered boulders, through a tunnel of wrapping vines, and down twisting stairs through the sandstone rock formation, to finally make it to the beach.

Out of the jungle and the sun beats down over me like the hot breath of a salivating lion. Sweat drips down my forehead like drool escaping through the lion’s fangs. Shutting my eyes, it’s easy to imagine the king of the jungle perched over me – its next meal - ready to pounce. The lions are known for escaping their enclosures in the past. But that problem’s been fixed, hasn’t it? It couldn’t happen again, could it? I resist opening my eyes to find out.

Total beaches: 74/170