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Dictionary of Sydney

The Dictionary of Sydney
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Tempe on the Cooks River 1840s

The Dictionary of Sydney was archived in 2021.

Tempe on the Cooks River 1840s

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National Library of Australia

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Damming the Cooks River

Subjects

Residential building Rivers and Catchments

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Tempe House

Natural features

Cooks River

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Tempe

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Cooks River dam

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Clarke, James

National Library of Australia

Damming the Cooks River

Once considered 'the greatest boon ever conferred upon the town', the Cooks River dam became an endless source of environmental blight and misery to Sydneysiders and by the turn of the century was demolished

Residential building

Rivers and Catchments

Tempe House

Home built on the bank of Cooks River by Alexander Spark which became a social mecca for Sydney's merchants and bankers. It is a rare remaining example of Neo-Classical Georgian architecture in Sydney.

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Cooks River

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River that flows through south-west Sydney, starting at Graf Park, Yagoona, through to Botany Bay at Kyeemagh. The river was extensively polluted by industry and its course was changed to accommodate the runways of Sydney Airport.

Tempe

Inner-west suburb on the northern bank of Cooks River which grew from the workers camp established to build the Cooks River dam in 1839. By the 1850s it was also home to limeburners, woodsmen and fishermen.

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Cooks River dam

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Dam constructed by convict labour at Tempe using quarried stone from the nearby cliffs. It allowed a road link to the city but quickly caused problems of pollution and flooding.