Sydney Gateway is a New South Wales (NSW) Government and Transport for NSW project that will improve road and freight rail through Sydney Airport and Port Botany. The Gateway project generated a unique opportunity for cultural placemaking at the scale of a Motorway with the integration of culturally appropriate First Nations-led public art.

The Gateway site has been conceived as a large format environmental artwork that will engage all audience groups and create a space of cultural exchange. The site’s inherent significance and the scale and complexity of the project called for a collaborative creative approach between the urban design team, artists, curators and Cultural Advisors.

Re-Right Collective worked with Dharawal Cultural Advisors, Uncle Steven Russell and Aunty Phyllis Stewart to create culturally appropriate designs for five project areas across the site including landscape forms, retaining walls and viaduct screens. Intensive collaborative design workshops were held regularly. During these sessions, various scales and application methods for the cultural design elements were investigated by the urban design teams in conversation with the artists and Cultural Advisors.

The project has resulted in art integrated into the urban landscape contributing to a strong and meaningful sense of place that honours and elevates longstanding and continuing Connection to Country and in this case creates a “gateway” arrival experience.

Images by Aran Anderson and Gareth Collins.