In the Rose Garden in the Vernon buildings are a set of trachyte stone setts etched with sheep footprints that recreate the atmosphere of the NSW State Abattoirs, which existed at the current site of the Sydney Olympic Park from 1915-1988.

The sheep footprints remind us that drovers directed sheep along this pathway to the mutton slaughterhouses in the 1970’s. The fenced stockroute cut through the rose beds in a straight line to the other end of the garden. The trachyte stone setts originally paved the Flemington salesyards before they were moved to Homebush Bay where the stadium is now located.