Crown Reserves

The Crown Reserve System is the oldest and most diverse system of land management in NSW. It promotes the cooperative care, control, and management of Crown reserves by the community with assistance from the Crown Lands and other government agencies and reserve users.

Crown land has been reserved for public purposes in NSW since colonial times. Crown reserves are land set aside on behalf of the community for a wide range of public purposes including environmental and heritage protection, recreation and sport, open space, community halls and special events.

Reserves are created to protect and manage important community resources and are administered under the Crown Lands Act 1989.

Many popular recreation areas are Crown reserves. Hyde Park and Bondi Beach in Sydney are two famous examples of our Crown reserve system at work.

There are about 33,000 Crown reserves with a total area of 2.5 million hectares across NSW - about three percent of the land area of the State.

Crown Reserve publications

Download our NSW Crown reserves brochure (PDF 1.1Mb)

The Regional Reserve Strategy (PDF 2.6 mb)

Ryde Riverside Crown Reserve (PDF 4 mb)

Port Stephens Regional Crown Reserve (PDF 7.8 mb)