Macquarie Place Park

Macquarie Place Park
Macquarie Place in the 1920s.
Location	Central business district
Nearest city	Sydney, New South Wales
Coordinates	33°51′48″S 151°12′36″E / 33.8633°S 151.2100°E / -33.8633; 151.2100Coordinates: 33°51′48″S 151°12′36″E / 33.8633°S 151.2100°E / -33.8633; 151.2100
Created	October 1810
Operated by	Sydney City Council
Open	24 hours
Status	Open all year
Designation	NSW State Heritage Register
Public transit access	Circular Quay

The Macquarie Place Park is an heritage-listed small triangular urban park located in the central business district of Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. The park is situated on the corner of Bridge Street and Loftus Street, and is named in honour of Governor Lachlan Macquarie.

Macquarie Place was the first formally laid out public space in Sydney in 1810, functioning as the town square. Along with Hyde Park it is the oldest public park in Australia. Its size has been greatly reduced since colonial days.

An obelisk from 1818 and designed by the New South Wales Government Architect, Francis Greenway, is located in the park and records the distance to various locations in New South Wales along the earliest roads developed in the colony. Later an anchor from the Norfolk Island wreckage of the First Fleet flagship, HMS Sirius, together with a cannon from the ship, were placed in the park. The Great North Walk to Newcastle southern terminus is at the obelisk in Macquarie Place.

Many important institutions have had establishments at Macquarie Place. In 1817 Australia's first bank, the Bank of New South Wales (later to become Westpac in 1982) opened in Macquarie Place. The State Library of New South Wales briefly had premises in the place during the 1830s. Opposite the place in Bridge Street is the original Department of Lands building, which was the department responsible for surveying and mapping New South Wales.