New South Wales Government commits $5m to Penrith Lakes fishing park

The New South Wales Government announced $5 million on 17 October 2026 to design and build a recreational fishing park at Penrith Lakes in Western Sydney, with parts of the parklands due to open to the public for the first time in 2028, according to a ministerial release published that day.

Why it matters

The project would convert two of the artificial waterbodies at Penrith Lakes into family recreational fishing lakes. Those two lakes form the centrepiece of the project site and are currently closed to the public, the release says. For Western Sydney contractors, it is a modest state-funded package of civil, landscaping and amenity works, with design still underway and no delivery agency or tender named in the release.

Deputy Premier and Minister for Western Sydney Prue Car said in the release: “Western Sydney families deserve a range of outdoor spaces close to home.”

Minister for Planning and Public Spaces Paul Scully said the government wanted more people to be able to enjoy Penrith Lakes, and that planning, access and safety requirements had to be handled properly. Minister for Agriculture Tara Moriarty said the lakes would be accessible to women, children and people with disabilities, and that options such as fishing guides or a tackle shop could be explored later.

The Member for Penrith, Karen McKeown, said a dedicated park would give local families a new place to get outdoors and learn to fish together. Greg Seeto, interim chair of the NSW Recreational Fishing Peak Body, said the park could become a major destination for anglers in Western Sydney, and that the peak body wanted to work with the government on it.

The numbers

Three figures anchor the release:

• $5 million committed to design and build the fishing park.
• More than 200 native Australian bass already released into the lakes to start a fish stocking program.
• 2028, when parts of the parklands are due to open to the public once the transformation is complete.

Planned facilities include walking tracks and car parks beside each lake, fishing platforms and disabled access ramps at each lake, fish cleaning tables, bins for discarded line and hooks, and seating, tables, restrooms and picnic areas. The release also describes a full stocking program adding mature and immature native fish to the lakes over time.

The release does not split the $5 million between design and construction. It gives no staging, budget breakdown or delivery date for individual facilities beyond the 2028 opening target for the parklands.

What’s next

Concept work has been undertaken and planning and design work is underway, according to the release. It does not say which planning approval pathway the works will follow, which agency will deliver them, or when construction will start. Those are the next disclosures to watch.

Penrith is already seeing larger line items move through the planning system nearby. A 48-storey tower proposed with 68 affordable homes is working through assessment in the same local centre, a reminder that this fishing park funding lands in a part of Western Sydney where both public and private pipelines are active at once.

Until then, the bass release is the one step the government has reported as already done. The lakes conversion, the platforms and the 2028 public opening all depend on design work the release describes as still in progress.