HISTORY OF THE SITE AND PARRAMATTA RIVER
yam agriculture and activities such as net weaving, manufacturing tools and cooking. The river itself was used for transportation and aquaculture including fishing for eels and shellfish.3
The Geological and Ecological History of the Parramatta River The watercourse now known as the Parramatta River was created 15 to 29 million years ago as water began carving through 200 million year old sandstone topography. 10,000 years ago, Sydney Harbour began to form as rising seawaters from melting glaciers filled the dry valley that had formed. At this time, the river’s foreshore is thought to have consisted primarily of saltmarshes, particularly on the flatter southern bank of the river.1 The Parramatta River is an estuarine tidal waterway, with both saltwater and freshwater sources. Only the first kilometre of the river from Parramatta is truly freshwater, with the rest of the river having varying mixes of saltwater and freshwater depending on the tides and rainfall. The river can be described as roughly divided into two main parts. It is shallow and narrow from Parramatta to Homebush Bay, before widening significantly into a series of bays and islands into Sydney Harbour.2 The Sydney Olympic Park site sits at the transition between these two conditions.
Drawn by J. Eyre; engraved by P. Slaeger [sic], A native camp near Cockle Bay, New South Wales with a view of Parramatta River, taken from Dawes’s Point, National Library of Australia, nla.obj135782267.
Colonial Uses of the River The Parramatta River was used as a means of travel and exploring by early European settlers, and its foreshore land was starting to be modified for agricultural purposes such as citrus orchards and vineyards as early as 1791, only 3 years after Sydney was first colonised by the British. In 1830, the wetlands at Homebush Bay were drained to create agricultural lands, and the Parramatta River foreshore was divided into large waterfront estates. The Sydney Olympic Park site was bought some time between 1788 and 1811 to form two large estates: the Newington Estate was used for salt panning, cattle grazing, logging and as a salt mill, and the Homebush Estate was used as a horse stud and race track during the 19th century. later in 1882, a powder magazine was established on the site by the NSW Military forces.4
Diagram of geomorphic zones in the Parramatta River. Source: Williams, Allen & Kelleway 2011 “Saltmash of the Parramatta River: Determination of Cover and Species Composition Including Comparison of API and Pedestrian Survey” Cunninghamia, 12, 29-43.
Indigenous History of the Parramatta River The Parramatta River is deeply connected to the dreaming and traditions of the Wann-gal people, who are thought to have occupied the lands stretching from current-day Cockle Bay and Rose Hill for 20,000 years. The river is considered by the Wann-gal people to be a living entity and was vital to day-to-day life. Its banks were used for grain and
Painting from 1798 titled ‘Captain Waterhouse’s Riverfront Estate The Vineyard’ from the City of Parramatta Research & Collections, www.historyandheritage.cityofparramatta.nsw.gov.au
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