The Cooks River & Gateway Airport Trail
Cooks Ride 20: Pelicans, Plane-Spotting, and Award-Winning Paths
Summary
The Cooks River Cycleway is one of the oldest and most established off-road paths in Sydney, offering a remarkably flat, family-friendly ride. The trail follows the river as it transforms from a concrete urban canal into a wide tidal waterway, passing through a landscape deeply scarred by its industrial past. While the factories and tanneries are gone, the river hasn't totally recovered; its murky depths still hide a multitude of historic sins, and plastic flotsam can still spoil a view after rain. Yet, beneath the terrific tree canopy that lines the path, a vibrant green spine has emerged—offering a great, mostly unbroken ride where the local pelicans and cormorants are always fun to spot. Lets break the 24km ride up into its 4 distinct segments 🚲 (See 3D 📹 )
1. Powells Creek to Strathfield Golf Course
To get the most out of this ride, we don’t actually start directly on the Cooks River. Instead, we kick descriptions off at the Concord West playground in Olympic Park, right next to Powells Creek. Here, you’ll ride the brilliant Powells Creek cycleway, which transformed an old concrete eyesore into a vibrant shared path that actually took 3rd place in the inaugural 2018 CycleSydney Infrastructure Awards. See this ride section 📹
Heading south from Powells Creek, you’ll travel up Pomeroy Street, cross a couple of roads including the busy Parramatta Road, and bump down Bridge Road. From there, take the newly fixed shared path along the railway side of The Crescent, pass through Airey Park, and cross Arthur Street towards Hudson Park. You can ride around the little lake here or head straight up Mitchell Road. After ducking behind some fences 📹 for a brief stretch along Centenary Drive, you’ll find yourself on Barker Street. Follow the painted bikes down Newton Road and Melville Avenue until you hit Ada Avenue, which drops you right at the edge of the Strathfield Golf Course—the official start of the Cooks River path. Find the full trail here on the map »
2. Western section ending at Lang Bridge
Now that you are on the Cooks River path proper, you will ride along the concrete drain past Ford Park and the tennis courts. You’ll pass under Punchbowl Road and roll by the playground in Deans Park (a great spot for a toilet break or to use the water fountain). Be prepared for a couple of awkward road crossings at Lees Avenue and Burwood Road as you make your way into Croydon Park. See video 📹
The path continues through Lees Park and goes down the side of the Canterbury Park Racecourse, passing under the railway line that is soon to become the new Metro. One of the absolute highlights of this section is the new 100-metre-long Canterbury Road Tunnel 📹 (a 2024 Infrastructure Award runner up), which lets you safely bypass the heavy traffic above. Keep your eyes peeled as you pass Boat Harbour, a favourite hangout for local pelicans. Finally, after rolling through Ewen Park and past a groovy new children’s climbing area, you will arrive at the Lang Road Bridge. (Note: If you look to your left here, you’ll see the turn-off for the highly popular Greenway 📹).
3. Eastern Section Ending at the Alexandria Canal
Instead of taking the Greenway, we cross the Lang Road Bridge and follow the river around Beaman Park. Keep an eye out when you reach the hook in the river opposite the Marrickville Golf Course—if you catch the sun right with a few cyclists going past, it is one of the best photo and video spots 📹 on the entire ride .
Continuing on, cross the bridge at Illawarra Road over to Steel Park. We stick to the cycleway on the north side of the river, riding up to Mackey Park. From here, head under the railway line at Tempe Station (Bayview Avenue) and tackle the large, annoying crossing at the Princes Highway. Once you are safely across, the path sweeps around the Tempe Recreational Reserve and deposits you right at the edge of the Alexandra Canal.
4. Airport across to Wentworth Avenue Cycleway
This final stretch is a true modern treat. You’ll join the spectacular Sydney Gateway Airport Cycleway (a joint winner for the 2024 Infrastructure Awards) which follows the pipeline along the Alexandra Canal. While most riders head out onto Coward Street to deal with heavy trucks, this new traffic-free path lets you ride all the way along Airport Drive and Qantas Drive.
Take your time to enjoy the massive pedestrian bridge over the canal, the tiled tunnel, and the fantastic plane-spotting vantage points—you might even get a jet flying just 150 metres above your head. The dedicated path eventually leads you past the Domestic Terminal, under the freeway, and down Baxter Road, finishing up at Wentworth Avenue where you can connect to the East of Sydney (this is part of the GSBT).
The Fab Airport Shared Path 📹 Tempe Recreational Reserve to O’Riordan St
Note: If you watch the video to the end, you will see a way to cross the extremely complex crossing near Sydney Domestic Airport
Cooks River Awards
2022 Cyclecover Built Environment & Urban Design Award Cooks River Bikeway 2024 - Airport Cycleway - Joint Winner CycleSydney Infra Awards
2024 Canterbury Road Tunnel - 2nd place CycleSydney Infra Awards
2025 The Crescent - Homebush Honorable mention CycleSydney Infra Awards
The Cooks River Cycleway is clearly important to Sydney. When you look at all the trails that intersect it, you find out how important it is. Two of them have been fully documented under the new mapping model.
Ride 13 Airport and Bourke Rd
Ride 18 - Botany to Zetland (Wentworth Drive)
More details on the Cooks River ride follow for paid subscribers
