The council used some of the more usable land to construct council housing in the 1920s, and in the 1930s sold much of the land previously used for market gardens to the government for state housing. To the north of the zoo was an area of mangrove swamp where the Western Springs creek reached the sea near the Meola Reef lava outcrop. This was utilised as a landfill dump and hence reclaimed during the 1950s and 1960s. The reclaimed land was developed as playing fields and an additional area for the MOTAT Airfield, the Sir Keith Park Memorial Airfield (Motat 2), and is also the site of the Westpoint Performing Arts Center. In the 2000s the landfill was found to be emitting methane gas and was subsequently capped with clay.
