Three habitats are intended to provide an experience of Australia in the city – the woodlands theatre, the native garden and billabong, and the Australian rainforest.

The native fauna reserve, set up in consultation with Taronga Zoo, is a later addition by the council's parks and gardens department.

[2] The gardens owe their origin to the County of Cumberland planning scheme (1946–1951) which set aside the area along the banks of the Duck River for recreation.

Both before and after the scheme, the council dumped rubbish and sewage along the banks and in brick and tile clay-pits for many years.

In July 1968, Black presented a detailed report to the council on proposing a mixture of sporting grounds and intensive cultivation of the Duck River parklands.

The New South Wales National Parks and Wildlife Branch of the Department of Environment and Climate Change has identified the gardens as part of the recovery plan for certain environments and species, including Cooks River clay plain scrub forest, Acacia pubescens (downy wattle) and Wahlenbergia multicaulis (Tadgell's bluebell).

The Garden's woodland area has a thick canopy of foliage with tremendous amount of vegetation that would produce damp littered leaves and a moldy floor.

[2] Opened in 1994, the Fauna Reserve contains wallabies, kangaroos, emus, rufous bettong, red-bellied black snakes and the common wombat.