‘We forget how bloody good we are’: old quarry atop extinct volcano transformed into Sydney’s newest bushland park

Nick Visser explores Sydney’s new Hornsby Park, which sits atop an ancient volcano. Photograph: Blake Sharp-Wiggins/The Guardian

I’m a denizen of the inner city, more used to plane trees than eucalypts. But Hornsby Park won me over immediately.

A highlight is the heritage steps, which stretch for about 1km, connecting Hornsby pool at one end and the Great North Walk at the other. Constructed in the 1930s, they traverse through the new park that opened earlier this year at the site of an old quarry abandoned since 2003.