Penrith Lakes, also known as Western Sydney Lakes,[1] is an area located in the suburb of Castlereagh near Penrith in the Western Sydney Region. It features lakes and parklands as well as recreational facilities.[2]
The lakes themselves are a series of 12 man-made quarries from which coarse sand and gravel has been mined since the 1880s,[3] with large-scale mining operations occurring since the 1950s.[4] Penrith Lakes was the largest sand and gravel quarry in Australia[5] until the discontinuation of mining activities in 2015.[3] Penrith Lakes is managed by the Penrith Lakes Development Corporation (PLDC) which was formed in 1980 by the three companies that operated quarries in the area that joined together and combined their land. They planned to rehabilitate the land that was quarried so it could be used for recreational purposes with the Penrith Lakes Scheme.[3][6]
The area also contains the Sydney International Regatta Centre which was one of the first parts of the Penrith Lakes Scheme to be completed. The Regatta Centre was one of the event locations used during the Sydney Summer Olympic Games in 2000.[7]