Discover local galleries and street art

As Sydney’s largest museum and the state’s most significant cultural institution since the Sydney Opera House, Powerhouse Parramatta is a boon for Western Sydney. The steel-lattice exoskeleton has redefined Parramatta’s skyline and permanent and temporary works fill the vast 18,000 sqm space. Notable exhibits include lauded artist Es Devlin’s The Turning; as well as Overflow, a celebration of Water Country that represents Aboriginal community commissions brought to life by acclaimed filmmaker and Kamilaroi man, Ivan Sen.

The courtyard and riverside lawn are a lovely spot for a picnic, or Homage across the road is a good detour for coffee, cardamom-laced sticky chai's and hearty breakfasts.

Powerhouse Parramatta, Parramatta - Credit: Andrea Mora

Penrith Regional Gallery, a small but mighty contemporary art space on the banks of the Nepean River, has a collection of more than 2,500 pieces, including modernist artist Margel Hinder’s sculpture, Six Day War and visiting retrospectives like the works of Dharug artist Leanne Tobin.

On the last Friday morning of every month, the gallery hosts free yoga and a chance to wander the gallery before the crowds arrive. Make a day of your visit, taking a midday break with piled-high vegetarian mezze plates or brisket toasties plus locally roasted coffee at on-site Cafe at Lewers. Or make this art institution a pit-stop on the Great River Walk along the Nepean River.

Penrith Regional Gallery, Emu Plains

Enter the Liverpool Powerhouse and you’ll be greeted by Koori Floor, a 600 sqm watercolour-and-ink artwork preserved under the transparent floor of Turbine Hall. Created in 1994, it’s Waanyi artist Judy Watson’s tribute to the rich, continuous history of Aboriginal peoples’ connection to Country. The work is a fitting welcome to a cultural space of galleries, theatre and performance halls that sits on an important historic site for Dharug, Dharawal and Gandagara peoples.

Liverpool Powerhouse, Liverpool

Beyond the museum is Casula Parklands, a 22-hectare expanse with inclusive playgrounds and a ninja training circuit. There are picnic shelters for BYO lunches or for an upmarket meal, visit the museum’s restaurant, Bellbird Dining and Bar.

Bellbird Dining and Bar, Liverpool

Each Saturday, the museum hosts an artisans and growers market with local produce, handmade items and food stalls, plus craft activities, face painting, roaming entertainers and live music.

The compact Fairfield City Museum and Gallery efficiently covers the area’s history, from the Vintage Village (including a general store, schoolhouse, blacksmith workshop and garage and petrol station) to hosting contemporary art installations and exhibitions spotlighting the migrant experience.

You don’t have to travel far to find art in Bankstown. Lining the pedestrian link from the station to Bankstown Sports Club is a series of large-scale murals by street artists, framed to look like an art gallery. Nearby, the walls of a pedestrian laneway are painted with native birds by Australian contemporary artist Thomas Jackson. The Bankstown Arts Centre celebrates the talent of the local area featuring exhibits and music performances by artists from Western Sydney, First Nations and culturally diverse backgrounds.

Bankstown Arts Centre, Bankstown

Campbelltown Arts Centre mixes exhibitions with creative workshops. Visit in spring to see the annual Fishers Ghost Award, which celebrates local artists and coincides with Campbelltown’s 10-day Festival of Fisher’s Ghost.

Fisher's Ghost Art Award Exhibition, Campbelltown - Credit: Silversalt Photography

Explore Western Sydney parks and gardens

In Western Sydney, nature creates space among the suburbs. Lake Parramatta Reserve’s pretty, 70-hectare parkland is a natural haven 2km outside the area’s busy CBD. From October, the lake is open for swimming, with lifeguard patrols ensuring waters are safe for splashing, swimming, paddleboarding and kayaking (BYO vessels).

Four walking tracks follow a circuit around the reserve. The easiest is a 300m accessible path to the lookout platform over the stone arch dam, built in 1856. The most difficult is a 4.2km loop of the entire lake and includes a creek crossing and terrain that changes from paved to rocky.

Parramatta River, Parramatta

Western Sydney Parklands is a 5,280-hectare corridor that cuts a swathe of green through the suburbs. There are 60km of walking trails, mountain bike and BMX tracks and multiple playgrounds, plus picnic areas with barbeques. Dogs are welcome on-leash throughout the park and there’s a dedicated dog park where pups can run free.

Inside the parklands is Nurragingy Reserve, a space of bush tracks and formal gardens including the Chang Lai Yuan Chinese Gardens with its Ming and Qing Dynasty-inspired architectural features (an ornate pailou gateway; a pavilion; and a seven-arch, white stone bridge across the waterway). The tranquil park was completed in partnership with Blacktown’s sister city Liaocheng, China.

Nurragingy Reserve, Doonside

Sydney Olympic Park is home to one of Australia’s largest urban parklands, Bicentennial Park. The 40-hectare park includes the Badu Mangroves, the largest surviving mangrove forest on the Parramatta River. Pay attention to the plaques along the boardwalk – they’re inscribed with verses from Muru nanga mai or Dreaming Track, a poem by Wiradjuri poet, Lorna Munro.

There's plenty to fill a sunny day here: 35km of cycleways (with bike hire from Sydney Olympic Park), picnics on the banks of Lake Belvedere or a visit to Blaxland Riverside Park with its tunnel slides, flying foxes and climbing wall.

Blaxland Riverside Park, Sydney

Auburn Botanic Gardens are lovely all year round. Mature trees dating back to the garden’s 1970s inception shade the grounds, flat stepping stones cross over streams, and from late August, the Japanese garden is a riot of delicate pink cherry blossoms.

Auburn Botanic Gardens, Auburn

In the middle of Merrylands’ lush Central Gardens Nature Reserve, all you hear is birdsong and a gentle waterfall. It’s a nice spot for a picnic or a wander over timber pedestrian bridges. The reserve is home to a wildlife exhibit that includes wallabies, emus, a koala sanctuary and a nocturnal animal house. Two playgrounds offer tunnel slides, in-ground trampolines, flying foxes plus accessible swings, roundabouts, seesaws and walkways.

Central Gardens Nature Reserve, Merrylands West

Discover walking trails

The Australian Botanic Garden Mount Annan stretches over 416 hectares of rolling hills in Sydney’s southwest. Over 4,000 species of native plants grow in the gardens: meadows blanketed with native wildflowers, grass trees stretching towards the sky and gum trees shading the banks of lakes and the river-like canal. Wander the gardens and bring a picnic, book a by-donation walking tour or have lunch with a view at The Gardens Cafe.

The Australian Botanic Garden, Mount Annan - Credit: Simone Cottrell

Penrith’s Great River Walk is an easy, paved 8km loop that follows the edge of the Nepean River at the base of the Blue Mountains. Accessible on foot from both Emu Plains and Penrith stations, the walk has playgrounds, picnic areas and viewing points along the way that offer opportunities to break and take in the scenery. Stop on the Yandhai Nepean Bridge and take in views of the river stretching out in both directions – vistas that are as beautiful on a blue-sky afternoon as they are on a chilly morning when mist hangs over the water.

Great River Walk, Penrith

Curious about the history of the area? The Penrith Heritage Walk follows a trail between the two train stations, passing Victorian-era Thornton Hall, the historic Emu Hall which is also the site of an eponymous riverside restaurant, and the Emu Plains Police Cottage.

Penrith Heritage Walk, Penrith - Credit: Penrith Tourism

Learn about the history of Western Sydney

The land around Parramatta River has been kept and cared for by the Baramadagal Darug people for thousands of years. It’s one of Sydney’s earliest Aboriginal cultural heritage sites and has yielded artefacts dating back 39,000 years. Join a cultural guide on the Warami Mittigar Aboriginal Cultural Walk and learn about connection to Country, plant uses, tools, hunting practices and the importance of the area as a meeting place of Saltwater and Freshwater Aboriginal communities.

Tap into the area’s convict history at Old Government House, a grand Georgian property and UNESCO World-Heritage-listed site that’s the oldest surviving public structure in Australia. The park-like setting is the perfect spot for a riverside picnic.

Old Government House in Parramatta Park, Parramatta - Credit: Rick Stevens

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Copyright: National Trust NSW

Built around 1793, nearby Elizabeth Farm is an example of an early colonial homestead. The charming yellow house is the oldest surviving colonial building in the country and it’s remarkably accessible – wander freely through the house, drawing a chair up to the table to read family letters or sit on the shady verandah and take in the view.

Elizabeth Farm, Rosehill

Walking through the green arched double doors of Rouse Hill Estate is like stepping back in time. Built in 1813 and passed down through six generations of one family, the Georgian property’s furnishings, artefacts, buildings and gardens are well-preserved. Kids are well catered for with Sunday tours to meet sheep, horses and chickens; bookable basket weaving workshops with Muru Mittigar; plus a detailed Lego model of the house with plenty of spare bricks to build your own.

Rouse Hill Estate, Rouse Hil