The Homebush Bay area has undergone a great deal of change since European arrival.

 

A study to look for aboriginal connections by the Olympic Park authority (Irish 2005) collected a large amount of Parramatta River history.  One tradition/theory found therein is that Homebush Bay was a 'meeting place' of Aborigines on account of the abundant food supply once to be found there.    Consistent with this is the record of a shooting expedition to ‘the Flats’ (as Homebush Bay was first known) by early officers and men of the Sydney settlement in 1793: 

 

 "We landed on some low land or swamp, every step we took was up to our ankles in water ... we walked in this manner for some hours seeing amazing quantities of ducks &c"

 

This is in the diary or journal of Richard Atkins, the Judge-Advocate in the early settlement at Sydney Town (McLoughlin, 2000b).  

 

Gradually Homebush Bay would change, until it has become possibly one of the most amazingly transformed places around Sydney.

 

Homebush Bay has seen a variety of industries and proposal come and go, until finally it became an Olympics centre and home of the relocated Sydney Showground.   Over time the health of the wetlands deteriorated as various industries had their cummulative effects on the bay.

 

Later on, Homebush Bay became more famous for dioxin that for ducks as in Atknis' time.   Eventually the consumption of all seafood from there was declared highly inadvisable - and signs to that effect erected around the bay in various languages.

 

The more recent surveys found that the fauna of the bay was degraded or at least "depauperate" - For example one such survey states: "This survey is significant in being the most comprehensive survey of macrofauna of the estuarine environments of the Homebush Bay. The survey covered all of the wetland sites of Homebush Bay including the Newington wetlands, the 2SM and 2KY aerials, Elcom ponds, the brickworks mangroves, Bicentennial Park and Mason Park.  Although the mangroves and associated saltmarshes appear healthy the estuarine macrofauna biodiversity is depauperate.  The absence of crabs and crab holes, oysters and barnacles at most sites was striking.  The ponds and billabongs appeared to be eutrophic with very little fauna". 

 

That quote is from the 'Homebush Bay Pilot Study : Wetlands and Benthos.  2003.  Survey for Sydney Olympic Park Authority [SOPA]' - http://canri.nsw.gov.au/nrdd/records/ANZNS0178000008.html ).

 

This webpage has as its main focus the Powell's Creek wetlands tract at the eastern side of the bay, and furthermore it focussed on just part of that - the dismal swamp.

 

The 'dismal swamp' is designation of an upper area of the lower Powell's Creek wetlands which got 'cut off' from tidal circulation on account of works pushed traversely eastwards (such as the Water Board turning Slaughteryard Creek into a canal with no lateral communication any longer to the surrounding wetlands).    Much/most of the dismal swamp area did later on proceed to be totally buried under fill.

 

After tidal flushing circulation was cut off it seemed surely a case of 'poor old swamp you're about to die'.

 

Not many in those decades would have much mourned the death of a swamp as the widespread opinion was that it was a good thing to fill in these mosquito infested depressions and render them into sound, dry and useful land.

 

At least some Concord West residents did much bemoan the 'unhealthy' swamps of Homebush Bay as the source of mosquitoes that might be a health hazard as well as a nuisance (as in various letters to newspapers).    Every so often residents it seems also used to worry about risks like Dengue Fever, although such concerns haven't been heard of for quite some years now.   

 

Only a small remnant of the 'dismal swamp', that part of former Powell's Creek wetlands up-valley along the "creek" (canal)  from Bicentennial Park and Homebush Bay Drive earthworks, still exists.   Anyone interested in visiting it can find it by going to Mason Park (playing fields) on Underwood Road Homebush, thence just walking to the rear of the park where it will be found behind a fringing screen of trees.  Alternatively, one can drive to the end of Conway Avenue (where there is usually good parking) in Concord West on the opposite side of Powell's Creek canal.  From there, walk across a footbridge to get to the present wetlands remnant.

 

Mason Park wetland is thus remnant of once extensive mudflats, also with a small amount of mangrove forest.  The main 'attraction' or geological interest is the mud and its position relative to sealevel.   Birdwatchers like this area on account of the birds that are usually to be seen there.  Usually there's some birds seen there.  However, it can and frequently does dry out, and then the birds go elsewhere.  Each migratory shorebird season, there are usually good numbers of Sharp-tailed and Curlew Sandpiper.  A few other 'good' birds for birdwatchers to hope seeing there include the Pectoral Sandpiper, Marsh Sandpiper and Pacific Golden Plover.  These can usually be relied upon to turn up.  In good seasons, the wetland here may supports a large breeding population of Black-winged Stilts.

 

In recent time (2010 or 2009-2010) Strathfield Council has cut down fringing she-oaks along the eastern side of the wetlands which allows better view from there, and has added a seat, natural landscaping and informative displays on the ecology.   This wetland remant, once regarded as a pretty disgusting place to be filled over as quickly as possible and forgotten about,  is now much more valued and is one of the sites of annual Earth Day remembrance.

 

That the (endangered) green and golden bell frog has also "adopted" the Mason Park wetlands is found announced at http://www.banrockstation.com/goodearth/savingwildlives.html

 

To enter their website http://www.banrockstation.com you are required to "be of legal drinking age" and supply your birth date (I got in easily).  Then you are told that "For over a decade, Banrock Station wines have brought the pleasure of fine Australian wine and the message of conservation to the world".  ... "Across Australia, the following environmental projects are underway or have been completed since Banrock Station’s sponsorship program began in 1994.  Some projects are focused on specific endangered species while others conserve and restore the natural landscape for the benefit of multiple species of plants and animals. Significant funding has been directed to conserving Australia’s wetlands and waterways, which is especially crucial in a country where every drop of water is precious."    From the list then given it is clear that they have given funding support for "Mason Park Wetlands – bush regeneration, brochures".

 

"Banrock Station" appears to be the brand name for Constellation Wines Australia, www.cwines.com.au   This is the Hardy wine company.  In 1850 Thomas Hardy, aged 20, sailed from Plymouth for the colony of South Australia and commenced work at Chateau Reynella winery for John Reynell.   Hardy later started his own wine business, which became the largest in the Colony by 1894.   In 2003 Hardy Wines merged with or was taken over by the US company Constellation Brands - hence the name Constellation Wines.   Since 1998 Hardy Wines began giving to natural habitats restoration projects and by now has donated $5M worldwide.   How they heard about Powell's Creek or Mason Park wetland, or that the green and golden bell frog has adopted there as a home is not yet known.

 

They give some money, here and no doubt elsewhere relays about what they did, people buy their wines and the frogs live.   That's one of the ways it all works - and the dismal swamp mayl never totally die.

 

Mason Park wetland was registered on the National Estate listing on 27/10/1998 (place ID 19261, file 1/17/034/0006.   The national heritage database entry on it ( via http://www.environment.gov.au/cgi-bin/ahdb/search.pl ) gives no indication of who first nominated it, or when; nor does the "Statement of significance" in the database indicate where the component data came from.  That statement tells us: "The saltmarsh communities of the place are significant due to their high proportion of chenopod species which is unusual in southern New South Wales.  Mason Park supports one of the largest remaining populations of Wilsonia backhousei and the restricted saltmarsh species,  Lampranthus tegens (small pig face).  The place is of significance for migratory waders, providing habitat for species listed in the Japan Australia Migratory Bird Agreement (JAMBA) (twenty species) and the China Australia Migratory Bird Agreement (CAMBA) (nineteen species).  Two species, which occur in the area, the little tern (Sterna albifrons), and the black tailed godwit (Limosa limosa), are listed under Schedule 12 (Endangered Fauna) of the New South Wales National Parks and Wildlife Act (1974).  The remnant wetlands support one of the two Sydney colonies of the white fronted chat, (Elephianura albifrons) and contribute habitat for one of the largest populations of chestnut teal (Anas castanea), in New South Wales."   A Department of Environment and Planning study in 1986, the "Parramatta River Regional Environmental Study" might have been a factor in stimulating nomination of the place(?).

 

 

An overview of Homebush Bay

 

( For more on the bay overall see http://dl.dropbox.com/u/5737284/homebush-bay.htm )

 

The above photo looking eastwards over Homebush Bay shows most of the features discussed herein.    It shows, moving in strips eastwards (thence southwards within each strip):

 

West of Haslam's Creek - This was once the large "Newington" property of the Blaxland family.   The Newington (a.k.a. Silverwater) prison is seen at left corner (in the grounds of which are the original Newington mansion and chapel), thence to the right is seen the dense housing of modern 'Newington' suburb.    After gaining Newington, the government used part of it (around Newington house) first as an infirmary and later on prison, and the land further east for many years served as a military reserve (munitions storage).

 

Between the Haslam and Powell Creeks - Originally this was the Wentworth family property "Homebush".  Small bare ovoid with large spiral-cut mound  (site of the smaller of two brickworks, quarry in-filled), the larger brickworks site (quarry left open and used for frogs conservation),  Olympics and commercial complex.

 

The  (Wentworth Bay) Powell's Creek corridor - Open water stretch was known as 'Wenworth Bay' when it was larger (pre MSB bunds emplacement), the MSB bunds area (was formerly used as a ships wrecking area), Bicentennial Park (finished in 1988), the arcuate Homebush Bay Drive; thence going 'upstream' of the Homebush Bay Drive crossing the parkland/reserve (mainly playing fields) areas are these:  On the east bank - Powell's Creek Reserve then much narrower grass strip running south from Conway Avenue; and on the west side are seen Bressington Park, then Mason Park - and the remnant watery patch is the Mason Park wetlands (wetlands 'behind' Mason Park but just as easily approached via the Conway Avenue footbridge from Concord West.

 

 

A remnant ship from the shipwrecking days now has mangroves growing out of it.

 

Attitudes to wetlands probably started to change effectively in the 1980s, and so a small area of the 'Dismal Swamp' remains and is highly likely to be preserved now indefinitely.    Because it has already been so cut off by all the land fillings downstream of it, maintaining an effective 'natural' seawater circulation over the wetland is perhaps the biggest challenge for its healthy conservation.   This might end up requiring the regular pumping of water to the upstream end of the area. 

 

 

The past of Homebush Bay

 

To effectively interpret the past of Homebush Bay would require a significant amount of drilling.  No funding for that has been forthcoming since a couple of short bores were put down (by a study team at Macquarie Uni?).   Location of the core, if preserved, is unknown.  

 

Homebush Bay is perhaps one of Sydney's most intensely altered landscapes, the area having seen a vast amount of sediment/rubbish movement and emplacement.

 

Major change to Homebush Bay wetlands came in, or maybe even before,  the 1880s.   The government resumed the northern penisula of land west of Hamlam's Creek (also know as Haslem's Creek).   This became a military reserve, and was later on used for munitions storage.   The resumption, of about 237 acres, east of Jamieson Street (still exists) and north of Blaxland Street (now gone) was in 1882.    Someone, presumably the government, thew up an embankment or great 'dyke', running  around the low water edge of the flanking mud flats.    These were the extensive mud flats which in the early years of English settlement had given the bay its name of "The Flats".    The great dyke was called the "Fascine Dyke" (and it is not known where or if any of it still exists but it was still evident in 1919).  

 

A fascine is a rough bundle of brushwood used for strengthening an earthen structure.   That it was the government that constructed any long fascine dyke is supported in the Annual Report for 1892 of the Department of Public Works ("At Homebush Bay, 2 miles of fascine banks have been formed, an area of 500 acres of mud flats are in process of reclamation....... Four miles higher up the river a novel description of fascine dyke had been constructed ..."; not seen, information received second hand).   Similar "reclamation work" was also being undertaken along the Cooks River at the same time, it would seem.   The  Sydney Morning Herald of  23 February 1888 page 11, reports on fascine dyke work there for which "110,000 bundles of ti-tree faggots have been used in the fascines".   About 30 acres of mangrove swamp had been cleared and it was reported on how "what is now comparatively speaking and unsightly waste will be transformed into one of the most attractive spots around Sydney".   The article mentioned the likelihood of making a 'sanitorium' there.  McLoughlin (2000). 

 

Behind this 'Fascine Dyke' at Homebush Bay about 200 acres of mud flat had been "reclaimed" by 1890 and fide the 1892 Annual Report of the Department of Public Works this was part of a target of 500 acres to be reclaimed.

 

Exactly what early "reclaimed land" consisted of is often not certain.    In later years with easy trucking the term reclamation meant significant tipping of fill over the area being reclaimed.    In earlier times the reclamation works might have been more of the nature of 'drainage' than major infilling?

 

Works to 'drain and reclaim' the flats of Homebush Bay seem to have commenced very early.   This is known from the notes of Louisa Meredith, an Englishwoman who lived at Homebush in the 1840s (Meredith 1844).   Meredith wrote, "Through these marshes deep drains had been cut and embankments formed, evidently at an enormous expenditure of labour, but for what purpose we could never devine". 

 

Originally Homebush Bay was called "The Flats".   The first Europeans sometimes regarded this as the head of the river (no longer so because of dredging) ["It is clear from a number of accounts (Bradley 1969, Phillip 1978, Paine 1983) that ‘the Flats’, the extensive intertidal mudflats and limited channels upstream from Uhrs Point (Fig. 2), were regarded as the head of the harbour", McLoughlin,  2000b  p. 593). 

 

The Flats, said David Collins, began where the "creek" leading to Parramatta entered the harbour.  This conception of things is clear on William Bradley's map 11.   This depicts "the Channel to Rose Hill [later named Parramatta]" having its mouth at "Beginning of the Mud flats at the head of Port Jackson".  

 

 

William Bradley: "A Voyage to New South Wales 1786–1792", Chart 11 dated 1789 "The Channel to Rose Hill from

the beginning of the flats at the head of Port Jackson to the wharf where the stores are landed for Rose Hill’. 

(Repository: Mitchell Library, State Library of New South Wales)

 

 

 The early two great estates - Newington to west of Haslam's Creek and Homebush

between the Haslam and Powell creeks.

 

 

George Caley, who was employed by Sir Joseph Banks to collect botanical specimens had made friends with Aborigines and recorded that The Flats was a popular hunting/fishing place for the natives - "the water there is shallow, and at ebb tide a great proportion of the sand is left bare, which, with some marshy land adjoining, forms a convenient resort for several species of birds".  The settling of Rose Hill forced out the Aborigines there and they moved further downstream.  Governor Phillip noted in dispatches to England that the natives were very angry at having been dispossessed by "so many people being sent to Rose-hill, certain it is that wherever our colonists affix themselves, the natives are obliged to leave that part of the country".   When Phillip received noted of the natives being angry he reacted by reinforcing the troops at Rose Hill the following day.   The occupation of the Parramatta area had been a true military invasion.  It was done by a detachment of Royal Marines being sent there to build and earthworks fort, near where the old Government House stands.   The Aboriginal population was swept by smallpox in April-May 1789.  In 1791 the Aborigine Ballooderry who had befriended whites and was trading fish to Parramatta had his canoe maliciously sunk.  He was so enraged that he put on war paint, and with all his spears and woomera, appeared back in Parramatta threatening revenge on the culprits.  He later speared a convict at The Flats, whereupon Phillip ordered Balloderry to be shot.  But Balloderry died naturally that year, perhaps from the common cold or influenza, and was buried in the Governor's garden at Circular Quay.   Reverend Samuel Marsden of Parramatta noted as late as 1814 that "numbers of natives were wont to resort there", at The Flats, for purpose of fishing.  (These notes are from - Smith, K.V., 2005.  An Aboriginal history of Ryde.  City of Ryde)

 

The environment along the Powell's Creek canal line was probably more open water in the past.  The 'creek' is artificially channel-ised as a stormwater canal north of Mena Street, or further south, with wetlands (Mason Park) immediately to the west such as to suggest the creek line may not have been here in the past.  Past maps of the area have not yet been sought but in general it is known that the creek was 'straightened' and moved eastwards to some extent from the 1930s onwards, and finally transformed into a concrete stormwater canal after reclamation infilling in 1948.  Infilling along the eastern side of Powell's Creek canal north of Conway Avenue continued as late as 1982.  

 

The original mouth of Powell's Creek remained in place but its meanders were cut off.  Parts of  the original Powell's Creek may be along what is now a truncated shallow stretch referred to locally as 'The Billabong'.  Such reduction of flow in a tidal channel system can affect soil moisture and generate acid sulphate problems, it is thought.  The re-routing of Powell's Creek and various infillings had a detrimental impact on the wetlands ecosystem, which at the time was probably envisaged as intended for eventual total eradication, but which now has instead been slated for retention and for improvement/restoration of whatever remains of it.  Parts of the concrete near the mouth of the creek began being removed in 1993 t restore a more natural state.  A sewer main is also located underneath the cycle/walkway adjacent to the Powell's Creek canal.  There was some excavation work along this in 2006 (somewhere between Pomeroy Street and Conway Avenue) but possibly penetrated only previously disturbed or emplaced material?). 

 

 

 

 

 

The heavy blue line (1) is Powell's Creek and the photo shows its artificially straightened lower

course.  The Mason Park wetland can be seen just east of "3".  It lies between Powell's

Creek and  another small creek, Saleyard Creek, which joins it near Conway Avenue

and has its head at the Hudson Park area in Homebush West.

 

 

Human modifications 'clog' Powell's Creek valley, cutting off the upper wetlands

 

The progressive impacts of human modifications in the lower, estuarine, tract of Powell's Creek came to cut off the upper wetlands area.   It became the 'dismal swamp'.    The construction of concrete-bounded Salesyard Creek canal running right across the old original channel of Powells Creek caused the mangroves along the old channel above that point to die as there was no longer seawater circulatin to them.   The mangroves in the old channel survived below that point (until they were covered by later placed fill).

 

The main encroachment that gave rise to this, besides the canalisation of the creeks, was the commencement of a spur railway line to connect from the brickworks line across to the Main Northern line north of Concord West.     

 

The major "terrestrialisation" blockage across the Powell's Creek tract pro-graded from the west.    Originally a railway branch line had been built to the State Brickwork and later on a spur off that was commenced to cross Powell's Creek, heading to join the main Northern Line near Concord West station.    Massive dumping of earth was emplaced to raise a high route for this line and the work proceeded to near the creek but was aborted before crossing it.   The heavy load of rock and earth pushing out over the soft estuaring sediment of Powell's Creek mouth here caused the underlying sediments to flow out from underneath.   As a result sedimentary layering, including peat beds, appeared with near vertical dip - forced up along the northern flank of the advancing mass.

 

This spur line was never carried across Powell's Creek canal to completion.   It was a proposed link across to the main Northern line, to join that south of Rhodes station (on the up side).  There was a signal box built there which was never commissioned, and remained as an empty shell until demolition about the 1980s.   The line embankment is also constructed to lesser degree on the eastern side of the creek but no bridge was ever commenced.   Today there is a footbridge about where the railway bridge crossed Bennelong Road.  This project stood in limbo for many years, and deteriorated or derelict Sydney suburban railway carriages were shunted onto this line for storage.  Here they stored the old suburban "red rattlers" before they went off to be scrapped.  They regularly shunted in and out many carriages and often had something like 20 at any given time sitting atop of the relatively tall embankment with the line atop it.  This and other inactive lines around the stock salesyards were often used for rolling stock storage.  One night many carriages burned there, probably set alight by vandals:

 

 

The night the railway carriages burned somewhere near the Salesyards.  A fire on the evening of Friday

19th October 1981 which destroyed many carriages.   Photo source and exact locality unknown.

 

Later on the building of Bicentennial Park facilities (information centre, tea house, picnic areas), the Homebush Bay Drive, and a large elongate hill of waste at Bressington Park continued the emplacment of more material across Powell's Creek valley hereabouts.    

 

The abovementioned works virtually "cut off" or isolated whatever was left of Powell's Creek swamp land upstream.   This area became the 'Dismal Swamp'.    It was dismal as it seemed sure to die.   The plan had probably been to totally fill it in.   The playing fields named Mason Park are fill that was extended eastwards over the wetlands.   From the south it was being filled in by the Electricity Commission (Homebush Substation area).     

 

 

 

 

Mouth of Powell's Creek in 1943, showing the artificial straightening and widened artifical canal.  The

arcuate area of former channel to east of the excavated canal is also seen below in modern view.

Note that the original creek also seems to have had bounding banks contructed each side of it.

The area is now Bincentennial Park as shown below.

 

 

Same area today, after the aborted ENE trending railway construction corridor had become Bicenntenial Park.

 

 

 

Bicentennial Park is based around where the infilling and linear mound building (P10f to Trelliage was extended from 

off the railway track (seen at left) to proceed NNE across Powell's Creek.   The water body at

"Observation Tower" is bend of the former Powell's Creek.

 

 

The 1943 view of the former trend of Boundary Creek to join the former Powell's Creek.   It too had constructed

side walls of some sort.

 

 

 

 

 

 Present day closer view of the arcuate area of the former channel that is cut off and lies to the east of the excavated canal.

 This piece of original canal segment is also seen in the below banner head of a Sydney Olympic Park newsletter,

although the image there seems to be accidentally reversed.

 

 

 

An extensive Aboriginal history/archaeology program was carried out by the Sydney Olympic Park Authority

and one of the outcomes was noting an interesting site at Conway Avenue.  This is considered herein.

 

 

 

Powell Creek Delta.   Same scene as above, at low tide, showing dendritic drainage across pro-grading deltaic

shallow depositional area.   By comparison of the 1789 William Bradley chart and an 1891 one it would seem

that  the mudflats at the mouth of Powell's Creek had pro-graded 190 m out into the Bay as a result of a

century of clearing and accelerated siltation in the catchment of Powell's Creek. 

 

 

 

Very rough outline of landfilling history ( off www.sydneyolympicpark.com )

The NE-elongate chunk falsely shown as land near the mouth of 

Powell's Creek in 1988 is the 'Bressington hill' that cut off the

small outlier of wetland remaining at Mason Park.

 

Just to the north of Conway Avenue is an installation of an Atlantis Water Management stormwater storage and recycling system large sign (about using "Atlantis grass geo block, eco soils and hydronet" for water treatment - the "New Atlantis concept - to integrate urban development with nature, creating ecologically sustainable cities and communities").   It is not yet known if any subsurface investigation was done for this - but possibly not as Atlantis system works are often shallow in depth; mainly a kerbside treatment system.  The works here filter runoff from five streets that run downslope from George Street towards Powells Creek.  What is besides the creek might be collection tanks(?).   Also in recent time (2008) some digging has been done at two of more places along the eastern side of the Powell's Creek canal (enquiries made to Canada Bay Council), and trenching in the parkland north of the pedestrian bridge over the canal revealed the land there to be artificial fill.    

 

 

Mason Park

 

The early history of Mason Park, when it was formed, or about the garbage tip that used to be there, is not yet compiled.   Strathfield Council inherited it from Homebush Council after the latter council was abolished.  The park was named for Albert Mason, a former Mayor of Homebush Council..  The Homebush Council area was amalgamated into Strathfield Council area in 1947.   Albert Mason was also the chief electrician of the nearby Arnott’s Biscuits Factory in George St, Homebush.  According to Cathy Jones (in Parks, Reserves & Memorials, 2004), Mason developed a unique approach in turning the swamp into useable land.   Arnott’s Biscuits were originally sold in tins and empty tins from the shops were returned to the tin recycling department at the Homebush factory.   Tins that could not be recycled were either crushed and buried in the company’s bowling green and car park in George St or else combined with ash from the biscuit factory’s engine room and used to fill the wetlands at Mason Park ( http://www.strathfield.nsw.gov.au/page/parks-and-recreation/parks-in-strathfield/mason-park ).   Or "Some tins were melted and used for land reclamation in nearby Mason Park. Albert Mason was the Mayor of Homebush and Chief electrician of Arnott’s Biscuits. The park is named after him" (Written by Cathy Jones 2006,  http://strathfieldhistory.org/buildings/industry-commerce/arnotts-biscuits-homebush ) 

 

Mason Park is mentioned in a Sydney Morning Herald (9 September 1939, page 29) house sale ad; No. 111 Underwood Road opposite Coleman Avenue, near to  the park and stated to be about 2 acres, extending to Powell's Creek in the rear.  No such private land now exists but it is seen as a tapering elongate block, visible on the 1943 photo and seen now as incorporated in the electricity transformer station land.

 

 

 

Mason Park surrounds in 1943.   The blue dotted line shows where the fill was later extended to

 (i.e. compare with modern image as shown below.)   Re the heaped up northern bank of the 

creek note this had ceased being made upstream here on the southern side, and the

bank on the northern side gave an abrupt turn into a NNE running dyke.

 

In 1943 it is seen that the contruction of Salesyard Creek canal resulted in the death of all mangroves upstream of there in the former channel of Powell's Creek.   There are also no mangroves present as later developed at the northern end of the near-supratidal mudflat remnant (indicating a piercement of the canal side occurred there later on?).    Land to the west is all stock paddocks in 1943.    The house block land which extended "irregularly" down to Powell's Creek at the back (advertised 9 September 1939) is here evident as a tapering block.   In 1943 it is seen that a "Mason Park" already existed at the southern half of the present park, and at that time dumping was proceeding to form the northern end.   It appears that there were formerly earth embankments for some reason running along both sides of Powell's Creek here

 

 

 

Same area today.   As can be seen, the southern part of Mason Park (already formed in 1943 photo)

was not very much more prograded over the wetland but the northern end was.   The younger 

age of the NE corner of the park is reflected by its lighter colour there.

 

 

 

Powells Creek wetlands remnant between Mason Park and West Concord (the 'dismal swamp') - 

 

 

 

The sole remnant stretch of the original Powell's Creek course today.   On northern side the heaped up bank turned

away from the creek to run as a NNE dyke.  The more natural bank then continues as marked by low shrubs.

Who made the original bank.dyke and why it turns is unknown but it presumably followed some former

property boundary.  

 

 

Same patch shown water covered in 2007 (perhaps with park runoff, as the surrounding wetland is

not at that time covered with seawater ... ?

 

This much degraded remnant of 'original' (pre-settlement) times is also the mouth of the birthplace of free settlement in Australia - Powells Creek.  Up this creek in 1793 sailed of rowed the first free settlers.  Australia (Sydney) was founded by men and women who had little choice but to come, be transported, to the place.  It was a penal colony.  Why the first free settlers, who would have been given their choice of a large variety of places very likely, choose here is not known.   Perhaps it was suggested to them?   For whatever reason, they proceeded up this creek and selected their allotments, the groups of which was christened Liberty Plains.   Was this creek ever much used for traffic to Liberty Plains, or was a foot/horse track more or less along the course of Parramatta Road very soon the preferred route?   What actual "use" was made of the creek back then is uncertain.   Haslam's Creek, by contrast, probably did have regular early boat traffic.

 

There's two ways of approaching this spot - either from Conway Avenue on the eastern (Concord West) side, or from Mason Park playing field on the western side.    If approaching from the west you can park in Underwood Road near Bellona Avenue.  The later is named after the ship Bellona, which brought the 1793 free settlers to Sydney.

 

 

 

 

Very little remains today of the former Powell's Creek wetlands, just a struggling small patch

behind Mason Park, which has been encroached upon by infilling from  all sides.  During

most of 2008 when this project was underway this area had shallow water as  shown

in the above photos but in November  the area seen above became a  waterless

expanse of cracking mud, still a bit  moist but generally firm enough to walk

across, and with some small areas of salt crusting around the periphery.

(Photos:  John Baker)

 

 

Normal current day panarama of the very shallow marsh.  This is as it 

appeared on each of many occasions the area was sighted during

2008 other than in November when it suddenly began drying up

rapidly.    In early November between two successive

sightings most of the water had disappeared.

 

Same view as above, when in early November 2008 the wetland began to suddenly dry up rather rapidly.  This apparently was not any failure of the witholding floodgates at the tidal entrance weir but a climatic/tidal vagary.   Just days after this photo there was a high or king tide, at which Council also opened the weir gates.   Following that, water was back over the slightly lower (northern) expanse, and on 17 November it was noticed that water had by then also spread back over the slightly more elevated southerly part, returning the whole area to its normal appearance as in the photo above the above one.  See below for close up of the white saline areas seen in this photo.

 

 

Close-up of my keys and a very thin 'salt' crust as formed in areas of the above view in early November 2008.

Because all of Homebush Bay has a reputation for chemical nasties I didn't dare taste if it were salt but

in the past Homebush Bay area (Newington) was the production centre for most of  Sydney's salt.

.

 

 

 

Educational signage at the swamp or wetlands.  (Photo:  John Baker)

Also called the 'dismal swamp' or 'old rubbish tip' by the locals,

although none spoken with actually recalled seeing rubbish

dumped  there themselves [none have lived there long?]

 

 

Same view, November 2008, with more new plantings.  This is the 

path which runs along the western side of the concrete canal and

is presumably built atop of spoil excavated directly from the

hole dug for the canal.

 

 

 

 

Wetlands area vegetation and water behind Mason Park.  The lower two photos, looking north, shows the

Bressington "mountain" or hill (composed of dumped material) in the background.  

 

Aerial view of the wetlands area in 1995.  (Photo: per Strathfield Council, unknown source).   Some of the likely most recent emplaced material (or just ecently reworked or cleared off?) filling is seen at lower right,  and to  left of that is the small remnant mangrove area.  At top right is seen a narrow crudely circular 'moat'/track or  unknown origin (and clear in any other views but compare with low mound in seen at right in  Nov 2008 dried-up  view sixth photo above  [mason-pk-nov08.jpg] ).   Linear mounds that are presumably along early pipeline excavations divide the wet area into northern ("A"+"B" in labelled map below) more-flooded, and southern less-floodable (labelled "C") sub-areas, and also subdivide the northern one in two.    Flood tidal inundation renewal at the wetlands remnant occurs via an inlet at the mangroves area, so that on re-floodings the northern sub-area fills up first and the southern sub-area subsequently.   Similarly the southern sub-area is likely to dry up first.

The above 1995 photo shows mangroves restricted to a rather small area of the Mason Park wetland.    According to maps (air photo interpretations) in Clarke and Benson (1988), it might seem that the mangrove growth over the wetlands remnant here has varied.  Their maps show the isolated patch of wetlands as cut off by east prograding dumping to the north, by 1961, and in that year it had a small fringe of mangroves right around the northern end.   However, their next map, for 1970 depicts the entire remnant patch as having mangroves from north end to south end.  Then by 1978 the mangroves patch constricted back to the northern end.   And finally, in the Clarke and Benson series, the northern patch of mangroves narrowed but still fringed all of the norhern end by 1983.   Clarke and Benson (1988) added that for Homebush Bay generally "extensive areas have been cleared since 1983).    By 1995 mangroves were reduced to being across only half the northern fringe of the wetland remnant.    This seems to date the change in attitude about destroying this wetlands remnant to likely somewhere between 1983 and 1995.

 

Stone hatchet

 

The reported stone axe/hatchet  find was at Conway Street (No. 18), which is on the southern side, third house from the end;  and this area is shown below.

 

 

Geotech report on No. 18 Conway Street:

 

City of Canada Bay Council, File DA No. 317/06/D

 

Lot 68, DP 15973.

 

Geotechnical report 11143/1, carried out in July-August 2006 for the owners Mr and Mrs Terence (Terry) and Helen Gors by Geotechnique Pty Ltd of Penrith.

 

An acid suphate soils assessment was required (the site lies within zoning Class 2 on the Acid Sulphate Soil Planning Maps of the Concord Local Environment Plan No. 108].

 

The residential lot is 12.5 wide along Conway Avenue frontage and 35m deep.  The site dips 2-5 deg west towards Powell's Creek.  Two short (1.5m) boreholes were drilled, BH1 and BH2 close to the rear western boundary.  A sewer 'main' runs along or close to the eastern boundary of the property.  

 

The profile shown by drilling was:

 

Topsoil:   0.3m (BH1) to 0.45m (BH2)

 

Residual clay:  From topsoil to 1.5m penetration base

 

The 'residual clay' is mottled yellow-brown, grey and red; stiff to very stiff.   Becoming lateritic below 1.4m in BH1.

 

Tests showed subsoil at 0.5-0.8m is subject to high to very high swelling potential.

 

Samples for acid sulphate soils assessment (0.3-0.6m BH2 and 0.8-1.2m BH2) were tested and it was concluded that "Overall, the results indicate that the naturally occurring subsoils, comprising silty clays of medium to high plasticity, within the proposed building addition/extension, are actual acid sulphate".

 

The determined Total Potential Acidity (at pH 6.5) values were 69 (BH1) and 110 (BH2).   [Note, BH2 is the slightly lower elevation spot].

 

[ NB:  This investigation only extended to 1.5m depth.   The property owner, Mr Terry Gors, tells the writer that house pier holes were dug a little deeper, to 2m and that they did reach shale.]

 

 

 

The areas A,B,C rise slightly in elevation southwards.  A lift board weir is at northern  end of area A and this is

generally inundated and has mangrove growth (mostly  colonisation post the weir?).   Area

B may dry out, and area C even more so, as shown in photos herein.  

In 1998 Strathfield Council installed a single-vent dropboard weir inlet at the north-east corner of the wetland (northern end of area A just south of the Conway Avenue pedestrian bridge, at the mangroves area.  This was the first stage of a program to reinstate tidal flow and flushing of the wetland from Powells Creek.   Areas A-B are shallowly flooded as a result of tides above 1.7 metres.  Area C is likely higher and also cut off somewhat by a low earth ridge alongside the former path of Powells Creek.  It is thought to receive little or no flooding even from the the highest king tides (2.1 m).   As a result it mainly gets seepage and rainwater drainage, and frequently dries out.  Acid sulphate soil has been reported from testing done on the area, most likely in area C.  Even this area might still be very occasionally flooded by seawater, as during the recorded exceptional tide of 2.4 m in 1974.  A swale adjacent to the southern Energy Australia boundary receives some tidal flooding during ‘king tides’ (1.9 metres or greater).  Saline water backfloods to that area from a minor drain into Powells Creek.  Future proposal to improve overall flushing is for the inlet to be moved to the southern end, and the current weir area to become the outlet.

 

 

In 1943 the junction of the two creeks lay well to the west of where the canals now join (near middle of this

photo near left hand side).   The northeasterly trending line across the white area of wetland was in

1933 the boundary of recreation reserve land to the west and it ran north to the edge of the 

furrowed area between Conway Avenue and Argonne Street.  Argonne and Mena streets

extended theoretically to that NW line and the streets further south to the old line of

Powell's Creek prior to canal construction.

 

 

Conway Avenue in 1943.  Note the longitudinal furrows, and that these cease westwards at about the western boundary of the Morgan home at 18 Conway Avenue (suspected to be because there was once a drop/terrace there going towards the creek (all this since filled in?).  In an old oblique air photo (pre-1933) this pattern is seen more strongly,  and extending northwards for a couple of blocks.  Talking to locals here in October 2008 the writer was told that the area was once "Italian" market gardens, and that there also used to be "charcoal pits".   This was just old passed-down information without precise reference but the old air photos confirm that an extensive area had been furrowed and may well have been a market gardens area.   A rough line is seen crossing the furrows at about the eastern boundary alignment of No. 18 which might be a meagre fence or a ditch.  The (?later) sewer main that was put in would run parallel to and just east of that line (viz. showing tall sewer vent showing in the photo below).

 

This is the area (at the suspected small 'terrace' maybe) re which the writer (JGB) on the first day of commencing his 'Strathfield Project' (a small grant study of the past supported by Strathfield Council) came upon, in Strathfield Library, record that a Mr Alan Morgan (or his family) had found a stone axe in the 'backyard' at Concord West when Mr Morgan was a boy.    Door to door enquiry along the streets running down to Powells Creek canal eventually located where the 'Morgan' house is.   The house still stands, with renovation-addition to the back.   Further search through the Aboriginal study records of the Homebush Bay authority found that Mr Morgan was still working in the area (with the Royal Agricultural Society of NSW).   There are several pieces of record relating to the stone axe of Conway Avenue, and circumstances etc.   There are slight variations in the records (some of which is published in newsletters) but chiefly it would appear that Mr Morgan related finding the axe near or even within shells, that other shells occurred nearby which are dumped product of dredging but Mr Morgan distinguished between nearby dumped shell and the shells found at Conway Avenue (or within the family's garden).   These circumstances suggested to archaeologists at the time of the main Aboriginal study of Homebush Bay that maybe a midden was/is present at this location.    If a midden was there, and if a small terrace was once there, then this suggests support for the small "Holocene higher sea level" which some have believed in for a long time.    The writer therefore enquired to all Councils along both the Parramatta and Cooks River where is there any acid sulphate soil (as might be expected to be findable still from a Holocene higher sea level).   Only one Council, Leichhardt, could confirm that acid sulphate soil was known of.

 

 

The palm visible in the lower left corner of the above photo is probably the nearby palm seen at the spot where a photo was taken looking over the western fence of this large open space (backyard of Nos. 154/154A George St. )  and which identified this space as "The yard at Concord West where the axe was found (SOPA "Aboriginal History & Connections"  Issue 4 - Summer 2004).  This land had chooks  when looked at in October 2008.   The lady who with her husband bought it and moved here in 1959 was found.  She said that when they arrived the land was just 'rubbish' land, and had never been used for anything.  She was not aware that there had ever been market or vegetable gardens there.  Thus the furrowing may have been smoothed  out between 1943 and 1959.

 

 

View over western fence in SOPA AHC newsletter issue 4 - Summer 2004. The same

spot is still easily recognisable in 2008 but with a lot of bamboo on western,

side of fence where the photographer for this photo had been standing.

 

[ I am also informed that this open space was once locally known as "Mario land" - JGB.]

 

 

Historical records

 

The Strathfield and Concord (Canada Bay) Councils were contacted about what is the history of the land beween Powells Creek, Conway Avenue, the railway line and Parramatta Road.    It was suggested that around Conway Avenue had once been market gardens, judging from old photos.    Nobody at either council was found who could confirm that or give any other information on the area.   The string of streets that are a 'run' of 'similar' overseas names were presumably all constructed at much the same time (i.e. Argonne, Mena, Brussels, Lorraine, Warsaw) but again nobody knowing about this or knowing where old street plans were could be located at Council.   Strathfield Council did have the below map but did not known its source or date (but which from wording on it must be post-1927; this map is suspected to be a 1960s re-draw/update of something earlier).    This map shows that the suspected market garden area north of Argonne Street had once been Portion 186 (DP 15973), and that the wetlands area west of there (perhaps once portion 118, C.2856 [2030 R] was dedicated for Public Recreation on 16 December 1927.  

       

 

 

From a map held at Strathfield Library.  Note along the east side of Powell Creek the dedicated recreation ground. The land at Conway Avenue (portion 186) was previously held by James Hortle but southwards between Conway Avenue and Argonne Street had been the boundary to portion 191 held by Stephen Burr.  The pre-1943 linear markings are confined to the portion 186 area.   Note the municipal or parish  and police district boundary marked as ".+.- - .+.-".   Such was no doubt defined along the original trace of Powell's Creek, and shows how much the canalisation to a concrete stormwater channel shifted the waterway to the east. 

Being unable to so far find any Council records for the area around Conway Avenue across to Bressington and Mason Parks the next main resort has been to old street directories.    Strathfield Library has a few copies from such which are informative about the area's past.   The 1926 "Wilson" Street Directory shows the Pomeroy Street bridge as then referred to as the "Pittson & Badgery Bridge" and the street map thereabouts suggests that north of there in 1926 there was little or no habitation west of the railway line.   Another slightly later street directory, the 1930 "Premier" directory shows that Lemnos Street was then the furthest that housing had spread north from Parramatta Road (when did Arnott's biscuits factory commence there?).    This 1930s directory showed Lemnos Street as then the only street running down towards Powell's Creek from George Street (approximately where "Corona St", name no longer extant, appears in the below map of "Concord" by Higinbotham & Robinson in the ?1890s.   On this map, the northern termination of George Street looks to be about where Argonne Street is now.

 

 

Concord in the ?1890s in a map by Higinbotham & Robinson.  This shows the "swamp" land  west of

Concord West, and the sparsity of development west of railway for most of the distance between

Concord West and Parramatta Road.   [For more Higinbotham & Robinson maps see

http://www3.photosau.com/CoSMaps/scripts/home.asp ]

 

There is a good map in Clarke and Benson (1988, p. 12) of unattributed source and labelled "A map of Homebush Bay drawn in the late 19th Century".   That map labels the land between the railway line and the bay as thinly timbered grassy slope paddocks, owned mostly by A.L. Bray and Thomas Walker.   The map is post 1882 as it annotated land resumed in 1882 (liklely drawn in 1890 by some government surveyor)..  That "late 19th Century" map presumably predates the above one (and hence dates that to 1890s not 1880s), for it shows two reserves conjoining at a salient west of West Concord just like the above map shows, but the reserves were then smaller(?).   According to the linework on the map in Clarke and Benson (1988) the 'swampy' reserve land lay east of their depicted high water mark.   Thus this area then was apparently above reach of normal tides - just as the remnant wetlands area between Mason Park and Conway Avenue is today.

 

 

Enlargement of the swamp area as in the ?1880s map.   Judging from another old map (Clarke and Benson 1988, p. 12)

the 'swampy' reserve land was above normal high water mark.

 

 

Same area in 1943.    The drainage earlier depicted across the swamp to south of Victoria Avenue is not discernable.

"RES" area of former 'swamp' is now the Powell's Creek Reserve.   The large buildings shown to the east of

it in 1943 are still there - see below.

 

Powell's Creek Reserve today is a playing field.  Not at all swampy and possibly much fill has been placed there(?).   Note also the major growth of mangroves since 1943 that are infilling the then excavated canal.   The other major change has been the construction of the Homebush Bay Drive motorway.   An original slight topographic drop of terrace down to the former swamp land might have been immediately west of Rothwell Avenue and the bases of buildings there are noticeable below street (Rothwell Avenue) level. 

 

 

Flat land at Powell's Creek Reserve - former swamp land likely raised somewhat with dumped materials.

Higinbotham & Robinson were publishers and lithographers in late nineteenth century Sydney, well known for printing and publishing maps. Their maps are recognisable by the “HR” monogram and “Fiat Lux” motto impaled on the arrow indicating North.   Between about 1885 and 1890 they published a sequence of suburban maps based on municipalities, within the greater Sydney area.   Herbert Edward Cooper Robinson (1857? - 1933) set up the firm in 1882 as Higinbotham, Robinson & Harrison, map publishers and lithographers. Harrison withdrew from the venture in 1887 and next April Higinbotham & Robinson was declared bankrupt.   Despite this H & R's set of municipality maps seems to have sold in 1890.   Robinson rejoined the public service as a contract draughtsman in the Department of Mines.   In 1895 Robinson set up his own map-publishing business again and in In 1925 the firm took over the Premier Street Guide and developed it as Sydney's leading guide.  The street guide mapping side of the Robinson business interests was later absorbed by Gregory's Guides and Maps Pty Ltd., and the remainder became a subsidiary of Angus & Robertson Ltd..

Although some regard the Higinbotham & Robinson "Maps of municipalities surrounding the city of Sydney" as produced in the 1880s there are also found referred to as 1890s publications, e.g. at http://nla.gov.au/nla.map-raa40 which shows all of them.  

 

It would seen that the main subdivision and housing development of this North Strathfield to Concord West area west of the railway line, north of Lemnos  Street began only in the 1930s (or later 1920s)?   Conway Street was perhaps put in, or formed better than a track, in 1932.   It may be that some rough lane or something existed there in 1926-1929.    The best information on this so far is from the Sands and Robinson published mapping as follows:

 

Extracts from Sands Directories of 1926 - 1932/3 for this area:

Conway Avenue

Does not appear in Sands Directory before 1932/1933

It is listed in 1932/1933; but no houses or businesses are listed in the avenue.

Conway Avenue is shown on a map of Concord published by H.E.C. Robinson Ltd, dated 28^th August 1929 (held in Local Studies, City of Canada Bay Library Service),  hence may have been in existence before 1929.    However, as Argonne Street does not appear before 1926, Conway Avenue was likely made sometime in 1926-1929.

Argonne Street   ( Does not appear in Sands Directory before 1926).

Sands 1926

Lists only J.E Lackey living in the street.

Sands 1927

South side: -  J.E. Lackey

North side: - J.R. Perkins, J. Savage, H. Woods  

Sands 1928  [house numbers appear for the first time]

South side: - 14  J.E. Lackey,  4   J.H. Morrow

North side:  1  J.R. Parkins,  3   G. Player,  11   G. Savage

Sands Directory 1929

South side: - 16 V.  O'Meally,  14  J.E. Lackey,   4   J.H. Morrow

North side: - 1  J.R. Parkins,   3   G. Player,   11   G. Savage

Sands 1930

South side: - 16  V.  O'Meally, 14  J.E. Lackey,   4   J.H. Morrow,   2   Joseph Beaman  

North side: - 1  John R. Parkins,  3   G. Player,  7  Alfred Law,  11   George Savage

Sands 1931

South side: - 16  V.  O'Meally, 14  J.E. Lackey,   4   J.H. Morrow,  2   Joseph Beaman

North side: - 1  John R. Parkins,  3   G. Player,  7  Alfred Law,  11   George Savage

Sands 1932/1933

South side: - 16 V.  O'Meally, 14 J.E. Lackey,  -  - Johnston,  4   J.H. Morrow,  2   Joseph Beaman

North side: - 1  John R. Parkins,  3   Mrs J. Dowsett,  7  Alfred Law,  11   George Savage

 ~~ End of Sands

 

The current residences of this area were doorknocked  and people spoken to for any knowledge of the past.   Most were relative newcomers, including the current owner of Mr Morgan's house at  No. 18 Conway Avenue, and knew little of the area's past.

 

However, the writer was informed that that the soil at No. 18 Conway Avenue (signage "Construction Site" and fenced off with tall cyclone wire fencing in October 2008) was featureless clay down to weathered shale at about 2m depth and had required a geotech report being done on it because a Council mapped acid sulphate zone boundary went through the property.   The owner did not remember what the results of the soil testing actually were, but to be on the safe side some soil had been removed from the property.  This soil had been let sit out front for some months to leach, and thereafter was disposed of.   The owner had been advised that if it truly was acid sulphate soil then it would likely change colour noticeably during lengthy exposure.  That, however, never happened.

 

The sum of local knowledge of the past was found to be very little.   It was vaguely thought, from things residents had been told by others, that past usage of land between Argonne Street and Conway Avenue was part of a stretch of vegetable gardens that had once extended north for a block or two further, and that there also used to be "charcoal pits" in the vicinity (details/purpose etc. unknown).   It was not known if the operation of "charcoal pits" was during the market gardening phase or some earlier timber clearing phase.   According to current signage, Strathfield Partners Real Estate had sold the large elongate residual-core block of land between Argonne Street and Conway, with frontage as Nos. 154-154A George Street, Concord West.    Strathfield Partners were contacted to see what they might know of this land.    Similarly, any information on the area was also sought from Concord Historical Society and the Council of the City of Canada Bay.

 

 

Junction of channelised Salesyard and Powell's Creeks.  The original mouth of the Saleyard Creek, meeting

Powells Creek channel and the width of marsh land was near the lower left corner of the image.  Old maps

suggest that Powell Creek channel in the marsh land then swung again to the east, so that somewhere

near top of this image was a relatively narrow (at low tide) part of the wetlands.  This is likely where

the Olympic Bay Drive now crosses.   Bressington "mountain" or hill area there now is a case

of much over-fill.  It conforms to the man-made canal pattern and hence almost  certainly

postdates them in, at least its final form.  The canals may date from 1934.

 

 

Closer view of Bressington hill, showing dump load hummocks on its surface.

 

 

The area in 1943.  The bridge over Powell Creek canal at the end of Conway Avenue was there then,

and at that time lead directly west to another footbridge over the Salesyard Creek canal (which 

bridge since removed and replaced  further north).   The old ?original canal lying to the west

of the concrete channel is still quite evident in the 1940s but is only vague now (below).

 

 

Near the base of this photo is seen the northern boundary of the Homebush Substation.  The streets at the right

are Lorraine Street and Brussels Street.  The northwesterly trends seen in the centre-lower part of the above

image are more or less above where old maps suggest the former course of the Powells Creek channel

went as it crossed the intertidal flats.   Old maps are not all too definitive but one of circa 1859 

suggests that the intertidal strip of marsh land started here and as Powell Creek entered it

the creek swung into a strong westward arc, at the western edge of which the

Saleyard  Creek entered Powells Creek.

 

 

Mena Street (centre) in this 1943 view extened slightly closer to the canal than the adjacent streets.  Whether or

not these streets ever had any further habitation westwards, before construction of the concrete canal, 

is not known.   Request to City of Canada Bay to find any earlier street plans has, 

at August 2008, not yet yielded any result.

 

 

 

 

Powell's Creek canal on the right, and wetland flats at left show polygonal network.   The circles and

crescents are presumably artefacts of human exuberance ("doing wheelies" activity).

 

The small remnant of the wetlands at Mason Park is up-valley from a major over-filled transverse progradation tip emplaced from the west - Bressington "mountain" or grassy hill, named after George Bressington, the 1906-1937 Homebush Council Overseer of Works, later Alderman and Mayor (1937-1947).  Mason Park is named after Albert Mason, the chief electrician at Arnott's Biscuit Factory nearby, and Mayor of Strathfield in 1947.  Mason Park was filled largely with ash and reject biscuit tins from the bisuit factory.

 

Environmental and Earth Science (1999) sank 8 bore holes to a maximum depth of 2.4m in the flats at the Mason Park wetlands area, west of the present cannalised Powell's Creek.  The deeper material penetrated is more consolidated grey brown clay with Fe/Mn nodules.  Above that is less consolidated or unconsolidated clayey sediment with fewer nodules and with variable silt and sand and some jarosite staining.  At the northern end of the area, near surface peat is present, to a thickness of 20 cm.  Areas of intersected fill went to a 1m depth.

 

 

REFERENCES

Blaxell, Gregory, 2010.   The River: Sydney Cove to Parramatta [2nd Ed].  Published by Sydney, Halstead Press.  (First Ed. was 2004 by Brush Farm Historical Society).

Clarke, Peter and Benson, Doug, 1988.  The natural vegetation of Homebush Bay - Two hundred years of change. Wetlands (Australia), vol. 8, no. 1, pp. 3-15.

Irish, Paul. , 2005.  Aboriginal People at Homebush Bay: From the Wann-gal to the present day.   Report to the Sydney Olympic Park Authority.

Irish, Paul  - a fuller listing of reports by this author = http://dl.dropbox.com/u/5737284/Paul%20Irish_publications_reports_list.pdf

McLoughlin, L. C., 1998.  Season of burning in the Sydney region: The historical records compared with recent prescribed burning.  Australian Journal of Ecology 23 (4), pp. 393-402.

McLoughlin, Lynette, 1988.  Landed peasantry or landed gentry: A geography of land grants in the County of Cumberland to 1821. In A Difficult Infant: Sydney before Macquarie, ed. by Graeme Aplin, UNSW Press.

McLoughlin, L. C., 1999.  Environmental history, environmental management and the public record: will the records be there when you need them? Australian Journal of Environmental Management, 6, pp. 34-45.

McLoughlin, L. C., 1999.  Vegetation in the early landscape art of the Sydney region, Australia: accurate record or artistic licence? Landscape Research 24 (1). pp. 25-48.

McLoughlin, Lynette C. , 2000a.   Shaping Sydney Harbour: Sedimentation, dredging and reclamation 1788-1990s.   Australian Geographer,  Vol. 31, Issue 2, 2000, pp. 183-208.

McLoughlin, Lynette C. , 2000b.   Estuarine wetlands distribution along the Parramatta River, Sydney, 1788–1940: implications for planning and conservation.  Cunninghamia Volume 6(3),  pp. 579-610.

McLoughlin, L.C., 2000b.  Changes in estuarine wetlands distribution along the Parramatta River, Sydney, 1788-1940: implications for conservation and planning. Cunninghamia 6 (3), pp. 579-610.

McLoughlin 2000b is downloadable = http://www.rbgsyd.nsw.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0009/87795/Cun63579McL.pdf

McLoughlin, L.C., 2000.  Shaping Sydney Harbour: sedimentation, dredging and reclamation 1788-1990s, Australian Geographer.  Vol.  31 (2), pp. 183-208.

Meredith, Mrs C., 1844.   Notes and sketches of New South Wales.  John Murray, London (or Facsimile ed.  Penguin Books).

 

REFERENCES TO MASON PARK AREA:

Environmental and Earth Science, 1999.  Mason Park Wetland Acid Sulfate Soil Action Plan, Homebush, New South Wales.  Report to Strathfield Municipal Council.  

 

Strathfield Council:  Various small details pers. comm.

 

RELATED WEBPAGES

Homebush Bay overall  =  http://dl.dropbox.com/u/5737284/homebush-bay.htm