Field of Mars Reserve is a remnant of bushland between the Lane Cove and Parramatta Rivers in New South Wales, Australia. It is within the suburb of East Ryde and near Gladesville, Hunters Hill and Ryde, to the northwest of Sydney.
The name Field of Mars was given by Governor Phillip, when in January 1792 he granted to two marines the first parcels of a later eight in this district. There are a number of theories on the origin of the name, the first is that it was a direct reference to the Roman God of war and the marines' service in the colony. The second theory is that it is named after the Roman Campus Martius, which also has a military connection. And the third that it is named after the Champ de Mars in Paris, again with military connections. The name was later used on the parish in the area, which is still today used on land titles.
The reserve features an environmental education centre. In 2002 it was devastated by bush fires known as the Field of Mars Fires. The reserve is a Wildlife Refuge, gazetted under the National Parks and Wildlife Act. It contains considerable flora and fauna
Famous quotes containing the words field of, field, mars and/or reserve:
“After all the field of battle possesses many advantages over the drawing-room. There at least is no room for pretension or excessive ceremony, no shaking of hands or rubbing of noses, which make one doubt your sincerity, but hearty as well as hard hand-play. It at least exhibits one of the faces of humanity, the former only a mask.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“How sweet I roam’d from field to field
And tasted all the summer’s pride,
Till I the Prince of Love beheld
Who in the sunny beams did glide!”
—William Blake (1757–1827)
“The sword’s a cross; thereon He died:
On breast of Mars the goddess sighed.”
—William Butler Yeats (1865–1939)
“I understood that all the material of a literary work was in my past life, I understood that I had acquired it in the midst of frivolous amusements, in idleness, in tenderness and in pain, stored up by me without my divining its destination or even its survival, as the seed has in reserve all the ingredients which will nourish the plant.”
—Marcel Proust (1871–1922)