The Young and The Restless | Step by step, brick by brick

By Bree Harding

Feb 17, 2025

It’s probably not something most of us would drive all the way up the Hume specifically for, but the Brickpit Ring Walk is worth a look if you find yourself at Sydney’s Olympic Park for something else, like we did.

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A couple of friends and I stayed directly across from Accor Stadium and a short stroll up to Qudos Bank Arena where we watched UFC live during its 312 event last weekend.

Unlike touring music acts, events like these when brought to Australia are in one location on a single date only.

So, as fans, if you want to grab that rare chance to see it live, you sometimes have to travel a distance greater than to Melbourne.

One of the entrances to the walkway. Photo by Bree Harding

Wandering the precinct on a two-night stay, you could be forgiven thinking the entire area consisted of venues for the purpose of sports, music, monster trucks, eating and drinking.

But at the end of the streets named after sporting greats and just across Australia Ave, the landscape changes from a concrete jungle to an almost tropical rainforest vibe as dense greenery on both sides envelopes the road.

The bugs grow loud. The smell gets earthier. The air seems more… country.

Yet, we’d only walked 2km (and for less than 30 minutes) to get there.

The Brickpit Ring Walk is — now — an urban nature park sporting an 18m-high, 550m-long circular walkway and exhibition above a once-endangered frog-inhabited water storage.

Even though the land couldn’t be redeveloped for the Olympics, the green and golden bell frogs were still supporting our Aussie athletes with their colourings. Photo by Bree Harding

It was once a brick manufacturing site that was going to be redeveloped into a tennis centre as part of the site for the Sydney Olympic Games and Paralympic Games, but in 1992, around 300 green and gold bell frogs, which were endangered, were discovered there, so the area was left alone.

Six years after the Olympics, in 2006, the nature park and walkway were established.

The walking platform is 18 metres above the ground. Photo by Bree Harding

The award-winning walkway allows visitors to view the history and habitat at the site without causing damage to it.

As for the historical significance of the brickworks itself, its story is just as interesting.

In 1911, the NSW minister for public works compulsorily acquired 9.5ha of crown land from the adjacent state abattoir for the state brickworks after an inquiry into the unchallenged controlling of brickyards by the Metropolitan Brick Company.

Though now a little weathered and hard to read, the outer walls of the walkway are loaded with historical information for those who want to take in the background of the area. Photo by Bree Harding

Private manufacturers then refused to sell their bricks to the government to build its first kiln at the state brickworks.

Nonetheless, the government found a way (as governments usually do) and trading for the state-owned brickworks began on November 1, 1911.

During the Depression, the brickworks ran at a significant loss before being sold privately in 1936. It then closed in 1940.

The area is now a dedicated habitat for the once-endangered native frogs. Photo by Bree Harding

Then, after World War II, a brick shortage saw the state brickworks re-established.

Two large pits to harvest clay for brick manufacturing were created.

When operations were moved to the state timberworks site in the 1960s, the first pit was closed, followed by the second in 1988.

If all that’s a bit boring for you, you might find the movie history associated with the site a little more interesting.

Some buildings remain on the site, which has been used as a film set. Photo by Bree Harding

It was used as a set to film the Bartertown scenes in 1985’s Max Max Beyond Thunderdome and featured the drag ‘race circuit’ in the 1977 film The FJ Holden.

Between the 1960s and ’80s, the brickworks was a popular area for drag racing.

It was known on the scene as ‘Brickies’ and drivers would race from a burger joint on Parramatta Rd towards ‘Brickies Hill’.

Today, besides the peaceful and scenic walk taking in the pleasant aesthetic of historical buildings, water habitats and wildlife, the place also serves as a popular space to exercise.

As I walked slowly around the loop reading its history on the walls, listening to audio recordings of what it sounded like when brickworks operations were in full swing and snapping pics at the clear panels, several runners sped past me, only stopping for the occasional stretch.

There are also lower walking trails around the park. Photo by Bree Harding

Whether they were locals, people staying nearby on business or holidaymakers, I think they found an interesting and picturesque place to break up what could be an otherwise boring run around the neighbouring concrete precinct.

I know, for me, it was great to stretch the legs before sitting on a hard plastic chair with little legroom for the ensuing eight hours of an elite mixed martial arts display.