Cooks River - History

History

Prior to European Settlement, the river was part of the area owned by the Cadigal people. The Indigenous Australian population used the river by fishing and gathering shellfish. This had little effect on the river's natural ecology. In 1770, Captain Cook sailed into Botany Bay and made the first written description of the river as follows: "I found a very fine stream of fresh water on the north side in the first sandy cove within the island before which a ship might lay land-locked and wood for fuel may be got everywhere." The existence of the river appeared to make settlement a possibility, however when the First Fleet arrived the river and valley was regarded as unsuitable. Captain John Hunter and Lieutenant Bradley both mentioned the shallowness of the water and large swamp areas.

The first land grants along the river tended to be fairly large and used mostly for grazing and timber with some fishing and lime burning at Botany Bay. Governor Macquarie makes reference to a slender bridge in his 1810 diary, adding that "the soil is bad and neither good for tillage or pasturage". Nevertheless, some farmers did find they could till the land and settlement along the river spread, and roads and crossings were made in several places.

In the 1830s a dam was built across the river, however this did not provide a clean water supply and the structure itself began to damage the river's ecology by preventing tidal flushing of deposited urban silt. A second dam was built to serve a Sugar Mill at the new village of Canterbury Vale. The location took advantage of the water supply and barge transport. The Mill closed in 1855, however other polluting industries were later to follow including wool washes, tanneries and boiling down works. Despite the increasingly doubtful quality of the water, the river remained a popular place in the late nineteenth century for boating, picnics and swimming. In 1894, artist Sydney Long painted an idyllic scene of boys swimming in the Cook's River, entitled By Tranquil Waters, which was so well received that it was bought by the Trustees of the Art Gallery of New South Wales. By the 1880s tree clearing resulted in erosion, silting and expansion of reed beds, blocking river flow.

On the weekend of 25–27 May 1889, 425 millimetres (16.7 in) of rain inundated all the low lying land. At the height of the flood, the top of the Sugarworks Dam was covered by 2 metres (6 ft 7 in) of water. Authorities responded to the extensive damage and loss of animals by removing the dams and weirs. A proposed series of canals connecting the river with Sydney Harbour was not commenced. A sewage farm operated near the mouth of the river from 1889 to 1916. A railway was used in both the construction of mains and filtration buildings, as well as in the day to day operation, moving screened solids throughout the farm.

Concreting of the river banks commenced in the 1930s and the Cooks River Improvement Act of 1946 confirmed the policy this tidying up of an undisciplined stream within neat cement boundaries. Engineers diverted the original river mouth to accommodate Sydney Airport runways.

Initiatives from 1976 onwards have attempted to preserve and return the natural features of the river system with tree planting, pollution traps and landscaping. Footpaths and a cycle track were built to increase recreational usage of the river. The NSW State Government committed A$2.9 million to the restoration of the sheet piling on the banks of the river. In November 2007 the Federal Australian Labor Party, then in opposition, made an announcement of A$2 million for environmental projects on the Cooks River.