A new shooting location for professional family photos in Sydney

Family Portraits in Balls Head Reserve Waverton

As much as we love our frequented shooting areas around Sydney, I always love to try and find new locations to shoot in. For some of you looking for a new place to go on the North side, this could be perfect! 

One of my new locations to photograph families is Balls Head Reserve in Waverton. It has great views of Sydney and also a great coffee shop! You can take the dog too.

The Balls Head Reserve is a forested headland nature reserve situated on Port Jackson, 1.5 kilometres west of the Sydney Harbour Bridge. It is named after Lieutenant Henry Lidgbird Ball, a Royal Naval officer who commanded HMS Supply on the First Fleet.

With breathtaking views of the Harbour Bridge and Sydney’s CBD skyline, Balls Head Reserve is a great spot to spend the day out in nature, without leaving the city. 

It is ringed with a series of connecting dog friendly walking trails. Heading towards the head, you will find one of the best well-preserved cave dwellings of the Great Depression of the 1920s-1930s, Tom’s Cabin. It has a great window sill to lean on for photos.

During the Depression, lots of people were forced to abandon their homes because they couldn’t pay the rent or the mortgage repayments. Then homeless people often found shelter around the harbour under rock overhangs. This tiny cabin was created by walling in a rock overhang with large sandstone blocks. Inside is a little blackened fireplace and a broken chimney. 

Spaced bricks at the top of the wall form an air vent and a sheet of corrugated iron above the doorway protects the entrance.

At the entrance to Balls Head is The Coal Loader Centre for Sustainability, and great coffee and food at the Coal Loader Café.

The Cammeraygal people used to live in this part of North Sydney before colonisation. 

It was a sustainable environment for them. They had water, vegetation and shelter thanks to the natural rock overhangs.

Later on, during the coal economy, this part of Sydney became the perfect land for the construction of a new wharf, a platform and tunnels.

The waters of Balls Head are one of the deepest in the harbour. Here there are great areas for photography and a covered area with a piano! On the third level down are four big tunnels that belong to the old Coal Loader site. Every second Sunday, the MV Cape Don moored nearby is available to tour. It is a former lighthouse tender and now a museum ship.