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The Dictionary of Sydney
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Botany Heads c1865

Botany Heads c1865

From the collections of the

State Library of New South Wales

[a089744 / SPF/744]

(Mitchell Library)

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The road south Urban growth in the Cooks River valley

Subjects

Parks Rivers and Catchments

Natural features

Botany Bay Cooks River

Places

Marrickville Tempe

Structures

Cooks River dam Unwin's Bridge

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State Library of New South Wales

The road south

Built as an access road to the farmland south of Sydney town, the road south gradually pushed far beyond Cooks River to the Georges River ferry.

Urban growth in the Cooks River valley

Urbanisation, industry and pollution transformed the once lush Aboriginal hunting grounds and picturesque locale of the Cooks River valley into the inner city suburban sprawl we know today

Parks

Rivers and Catchments

Botany Bay

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Large bay south of the city of Sydney, into which the Cooks and Georges rivers run.

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.

Marrickville

Inner-western residential suburb with an industrial heritage on the Cooks River, named after the Marrick estate of Thomas Chalder which was subdivided in 1855. The post-Second World War period saw the influx of mainly non-English speaking people, attracted by the availability of factory work and cheap housing.

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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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Unwin's Bridge

Bridge originally constructed by convict labour in 1836 for Frederick Wright Unwin across the Cooks River at Bayview Avenue, Tempe. It was replaced by the present bridge in 1891.

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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.