Continuity on the River

For many people prior to the Second World War, the Georges River was a place for recreation, fishing, and swimming; a place of leisure. During and after the war, however, with an increasing population, expanding industry and the need for larger facilities, the river experienced rapid change. There was a push for more factories and subdivisions for housing with many people ‘slum cleared’1 out of the crowded inner city. These developments brought with them urban encroachment, pollution, clearing of the bush and changing community access to the river. By the 1960s there was public concern about the environmental state of the river.

For Aboriginal People this period was also one of great change. Fewer locations were available along the river to live, and many Aboriginal People were forced to move away. At the same time Aboriginal People from regional areas in New South Wales sought better work, health, and educational opportunities by moving to the inner city. Aboriginal communities around the Georges River had been able to fend off encroaching interests along the river, but the war ‘finally made such resistance impossible’2 . Families moved into public housing at Herne Bay (later Riverwood), Green Valley and further up the river at Campbelltown and Macquarie Fields during the 1950s and 60s. This occurred at a time when there was increased public pressure to ‘assimilate’ Aboriginal People into mainstream Australia. Despite this, Aboriginal People continued to maintain geographic and community connections to the Georges River.

Joan Hatton, Herne Bay public housing centre, 1957 Facsimile photograph, Herne Bay (later Riverwood), NSW Georges River Council Libraries Local Studies collection