The Newington Armament Depot and Nature Reserve is part of the former Royal Australian Navy Armament Depot, Newington, which operated at the site until December 1999. Armaments used by Australian, British and United States Navy ships were received, inspected, tested, stored and distributed at the Depot. These armaments included gunpowder, explosive shells, cordite, fuses, depth charges, torpedoes and rockets.
The site now spans approximately 100 hectares. It contains 100 buildings, 6.7 kilometres of narrow-gauge rail, 7 battery-powered locomotives, 30 rail wagons, three cranes, various items of moveable heritage left behind after the Depot closed, items of moveable heritage on loan from the Department of Defence, and the 48-hectares Newington Nature Reserve. At its peak the Depot spanned from the Parramatta River to Parramatta Road (259 hectares) and contained 191 buildings.

The southern part of the Depot was developed as the athletes village for the 2000 Summer Olympics and is now the suburb of Newington. The site includes a wide variety of buildings, blast containment structures, transport networks, landforms and moveable items associated with the storage and handling of explosives, all of which were closely associated with the topography and other natural features of the site.
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