Sydney’s growing driveways are shrinking front gardens

Sydney’s redeveloping suburbs are losing private green space as supersized driveways expand into front yards, a new study has found. Taking a sample of 375 homes in the suburban ring, researchers report the average front garden declined by 46% between 2018/19 and 2023, tree canopy fell by 62% after knock-down-rebuilds, and the footprint of driveways and other artificial surfaces increased by 57% to 46 square metres.

The analysis used aerial imagery across 13 suburbs in two local government areas — Ryde city council and Parramatta city council — to quantify changes in garden area and driveway expansion. Dr Peter Davies, the lead author, warned: “What it starts to represent is in 30 years time we’ll suddenly wake up and go ‘Where have all our front gardens gone?’” He also noted: “We’re also starting to see the impact in backyards because the houses move further back”.

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