Sydney's Secret Places

Wendy Whiteley was best known as the wife and muse of celebrated Australian artist Brett Whiteley — until she quietly built a living artwork of her own. Over more than 20 years, she transformed a stretch of overgrown, unused railway land in Lavender Bay, once a dumping ground, into a genuine botanical wonderland.

There are still no signposts pointing visitors here. The way in is to look for the enormous Moreton Bay fig tree standing next to Whiteley's tower-topped home, tucked behind Luna Park in one of Sydney's smallest suburbs. Inside, meandering paths lead past sculptures, quiet reading nooks, picnic tables, and — if you're lucky — a hidden fairy house.

The garden also draws a huge number of birds, adding to the sense that you've wandered somewhere well outside the city, despite being minutes from the Harbour Bridge.

From 1878 to 1899, this heritage-listed reservoir supplied Sydney with water. After decommissioning, part of the site became a service station, with a park built over the top — until a later restoration opened the old underground chambers back up, exposing the brick-and-sandstone "bones" of the original structure.

The result is a genuinely photogenic ruin: sunken gardens, reflecting ponds, and arched brickwork that some visitors compare to Rome's ancient Baths of Caracalla, all free to wander at any time.

Given its location directly on Oxford Street, one of the Eastern Suburbs' busiest roads, the reservoir's sunken gardens feel like a surprisingly complete escape — step down a level and the traffic noise all but disappears.

Nearby Eveleigh Works is one of the world's last remaining industrial blacksmithing workshops still in operation — and it supplied the raw metal for this unusual public artwork: two treehouse structures shaped to resemble the area's native gum trees, created by Sydney artist Nell together with design collective Cave Urban.

Elevated walkways connect the two playful pods, letting visitors climb up and genuinely feel like they've stepped into a small, magical forest, despite standing in the middle of a modern business precinct.

It's a free, unticketed installation curated by Carriageworks, part of the broader South Eveleigh precinct's push to blend contemporary public art with the area's industrial history.