Sydney Harbour Foreshore is Not For Sale

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Watch it disappear.

The same view from Balmoral Beach. Drag the toggle right to see how private development would spread over the headland.

The Middle Head headland today, covered in bushland

Artist's impression of the Middle Head headland covered in apartment blocks and houses

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If it is sold Today

Left: artist's impression - indicative only. Right: the headland from Balmoral, 2026.

Four things you should know

This is public land. Public, commonwealth land, HMAS Penguin covers 16.64 hectares of Sydney Harbour foreshore at Middle Head, including roughly four hectares of Angophora forest. Two-thirds is now marked for sale.
Selling it is permanent. You cannot build more Sydney Harbour foreshore. Once this land goes to private developers, no future government can undo it.
There is another option. Keep it public by handing management to the Sydney Harbour Federation Trust, the body already caring for Cockatoo Island, North Head Sanctuary, Chowder Bay, and more, keeping them safe from development.
We have stopped it twice. Governments moved to sell this land in 1988 and again in 1996. Both times the community stepped in to save it.

Add your name

To the Australian Parliament: keep HMAS Penguin land at Middle Head in public hands and transfer it to the Sydney Harbour Federation Trust.

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Join the Rally Save HMAS Penguin at Middle Head

When

Sunday 11^th October

11am - 12:30pm

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Where

The Rotunda
Balmoral Beach

Get directions

Speakers

Sen. Jess Collins
Sen. David Shoebridge
Ret’d. Maj. Gen. Gus McLachlan
Zali Steggall OAM

Don’t let this decision be made without you.

Illustration of bushland on the Sydney Harbour foreshore

Four hectares of forest
that cannot be replaced

The land marked for sale includes remnant Angophora costata - Sydney red gum - growing on Hawkesbury sandstone above Balmoral. It is one of the last intact stands of its kind on the harbour, and it links the bushland at Middle Head and Georges Heights to Sydney Harbour National Park.

Powerful Owl

Vulnerable · NSW Biodiversity Conservation Act

Australia's largest owl. It will only nest in hollows of eucalypts more than 150 years old, which is why it cannot simply move somewhere else.

Grey-headed Flying-fox

Vulnerable · NSW and Commonwealth law

Australia's largest bat, and one of the few animals that pollinates and spreads the seed of these forests. Habitat clearing is the main threat to its survival.

Red-crowned Toadlet

Vulnerable · NSW Biodiversity Conservation Act

Thirty millimetres long and found nowhere on earth but the Sydney sandstone escarpments. It stops breeding if its water is even slightly polluted.

Where is Middle Head, Sydney Harbour

The land proposed for sale sits on Middle Head surrounded by Sydney Harbour National Park, the Harbour Trust's Headland Park, and Balmoral Beach. Drag to explore, and use the slider to fade the sale area against the map.

The interactive map could not load.

View the Headland Preservation Group's map of the area designated for sale on hpg.org.au.

Land proposed for sale Sydney Harbour National Park Threatened species recorded here

Species markers show the general area in which each animal has been recorded. Exact locations are withheld per BioNet to protect the species.

National Park boundary: NSW Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water (NPWS managed land). Species records: NSW BioNet Atlas.