Prospect Creek (New South Wales)

Prospect Creek is an urban watercourse of the Georges River catchment that is located in the western region of Sydney, in New South Wales, Australia. Situated within the local government areas of Fairfield City and Canterbury-Bankstown Councils, the creek is 26 kilometres (16 mi) long, starting at the Prospect Reservoir at the top of the catchment and flows south-east to the Georges River at Georges Hall, as its tributary. In the north, the creek forms the border between Cumberland and Fairfield City Councils. Running through a prominent open space corridor, Prospect Creek drains the encompassing floodplain.^[3]

The creek offers provides 8 km (5.0 mi) of recreational area and winds through a number of parks and reserves, including walkways and cycling paths that parallel the creek.^[3] As Prospect Reservoir forms a part of the Sydney metropolitan water supply, the flow of the creek is regulated in accordance with the operational requirements of Sydney Water. The catchment area of the creek is approximately 98 square kilometres (38 sq mi), and is largely urbanised with industrial land uses, residential and open space for recreation.^[2] For the early British settlers, the creek and the surrounding offered essential food and water resources, and thereby encouraged the development of local agriculture and industry.^[3] The creek becomes affected by tides in the south.^[4]

Prospect Creek was a traditional travel route that connected the Darug and D'harawal people. Early colonial evidence also indicates that the Bidjigal people lived closed to the creek.^[6] There have been Aboriginal camps along the creek and as well as other areas of Sydney through the late 19th century and to as late as the 1950s.^[7] For the Aboriginal Australians, the creek and surrounding areas provided areas for hunting and gathering. Casuarina nuts were used in traditional medicine and basalt pebbles were used to create traditional axes.^[3]

In the late 1780s, William Bradley went on an expedition from Rose Hill to Prospect Creek to determine whether Prospect Creek led to Botany Bay. Bradley described a place on the Creek where the water changed from fresh to salt with a drop of 4 feet (1.2 m). The presence of salt water confirmed Prospect Creek's connection to the sea.^[8] Prospect Creek provided a camp for Pemulwuy, a Bidjigal warrior leader who led in the resistance against the British during the early colonisation.^[3] In 1785, George Bass and Matthew Flinders began exploring the Georges River and went as far as Prospect Creek.^[9]

In 1789, Governor Arthur Phillip probed the country between Salt Pan Creek beginning at Prospect Creek.^[10] In December 1790, Captain Watkin Tench's party scoured the entire area from Cooks River to Prospect Creek to search for a group of resisting Aboriginal people during the Hawkesbury and Nepean Wars. In January 1797, Governor John Hunter travelled to Botany Bay to track the Georges River up for 40 kilometres (25 mi). Whilst doing so, he examined Prospect Creek, before he travelled to Parramatta.^[11]

In 1798, First Fleet Captain George Johnston received a land grant and constructed his first home located near Prospect Creek, close to Henry Lawson Drive and Beatty Parade. In 1800, just beside Prospect Creek, Lieutenant John Shortland from the First Fleet acquired an initial grant of 100 acres over the northern part of Lansdowne Reserve which he increased to 380 acres (154ha). ^[12] On January 1, 1806, two grants were made to James Gowan, one of them being on the northern bank of the creek. On January 1810, settlers Thomas Hanson and James Larra also received land grants just north of the creek, proximate to the Carramar railway station.^[13] By 1860, an industrial zone (that included tannery, flour mills, a brewery) also became established in the area near the Prospect Creek.^[3] In 1832 Surveyor-General Thomas Mitchell commissioned David Lennox for a sum of £1,083 ($2,166)^[14] to build Lansdowne Bridge "at the intersection of Prospect Creek and Southern Street"; it was completed in 1836.^[15]

During the 20th century, the lower Prospect Creek was a large part of life for residents in the Fairfield local government area with numerous pleasure grounds and recreation spaces along the creek including Latty's Pleasure Grounds, the Butterfly Hall, and Hollywood Park.^[16] These venues were quite popular among tourists due to the area's rural feel and close proximately to the waterway, so popular in fact that the first games of Rugby League football in Australia, in early 1908, were trial games that took place in Lansvale, at Latty's Pleasure Grounds.^[17] From the 1970s to 1990s, a small amusement park named Magic Kingdom operated in Lansvale on the banks of the creek and was a popular attraction for visitors.^[18][19] Over time the creek has also slowly lost its shine as successive governments and communities turned their backs on the waterway, this coupled with industrialisation occurring upstream led to the declining water quality which is reflected in warnings today from authorities to avoid swimming in the catchment as it is not recommended.^[20]

In 2005, a chain of illustrative Indigenous artworks were placed on the banks of the creek to encourage awareness about the Indigenous identity of the creek's corridor. The project constituted of four groups of artworks and path markers, displaying the flora and fauna of Prospect Creek, as observed by the Darug people. The artworks include four stories passed down through generations of Darug people, such as, the Australian raven and crows, The Eagle Warrior, The Casuarinas, and The Story of the Local Wattles.^[21] In 2023, Sydney Water Corporation was convicted and fined $200,000 in the Land and Environment Court of NSW after 282,000 litres of sewage was spilled into the creek.^[22]

Prospect Creek rises below Prospect Reservoir, north of Bulls Hill in Prospect, within the Blacktown local government area, and flows generally southeast by east, through the Holroyd, Fairfield, Liverpool and Bankstown local government areas, before reaching its confluence with the Georges River, at Georges Hall, spilling into Dhurawal Bay in the Chipping Norton Lakes.^[1] From north to south, the creek runs across the suburbs of Wetherill Park, Greystanes, Smithfield, Fairfield, Yennora, Canley Vale, Carramar, Lansdowne and Georges Hall. The creek's corridor extends across the Aboriginal Land Councils of Deerubbin and Gandangara.^[3]

From northwest to southeast, the creek crosses roads such as Prospect Highway, Gipps Road, Cumberland Highway, Fairfield Road, The Horsley Drive, Fairfield Street, Vine Street, Hume Highway and then meanders parallel of Henry Lawson Drive as it heads south to Chipping Norton Lake (Dhurawal Bay).^[3] Prospect Creek's tidal limit is located around the Liverpool & Inner West Line crossing at the Canley Vale/Carramar border and the tidal reach may extend to the confluence of Orphan School Creek just south of Riverview Road at the Fairfield/Canley Vale border.^[4]

Bridges crossed include Carramar (Sandal Crescent) Railway Bridge which was constructed when the Main South Line was extended from Regents Park to Cabramatta in 1924,^[23] Waterside Crescent Pedestrian Bridge which connects Cook Park in Canley Vale to Carrawood Park in Carramar, and Lansdowne Bridge, a sandstone arch bridge which has the largest span of any masonry bridge in Australia.^[24]

The creek's strip, being located between urban and industrial area, is a green natural corridor used for recreation purposes and ecological conservation, in addition to the environment having indigenous significance. The creek consists of remnant and altered vegetation communities, artificial and natural wetlands, grassy open areas and as well as detention basins. Its riparian vegetation is rather diverse and often compact, which consists of around 125 native and 96 introduced species. The creek features remnant vegetation ecozones such as Coastal Swamp Oak Forest, River-flat eucalypt forest and Shale-Gravel Transition Forest, with the first two being the most prominent zones.^[3]

In the wetland parts south of the Cumberland Highway feature the regionally uncommon bird species such as the Australasian swamphen and the Night Heron, in addition to frogs, mammals, reptiles, fish and other invertebrates. The strip between Widemere Road and the Cumberland Highway is the most abundant with species and lacks weeds, and therefore it is the most ecologically important zone. Its detention basins help the creek during periods of powerful flows, thereby hindering the banks from eroding. ^[3]

Within the past 200 years the creek has been impacted by the surrounding unsustainable rural and urban development which has degraded its natural environment, in addition to the creek's health also being an issue with several State Government accounts. Industrial discharge (through stormwater), illegal dumping of cars and wastes, algae bloom, grease spills and raised fecal coliform levels have impacted the creek, in addition to a significant pesticide leak in February 2002.^[3]

Revegetation and works improving the habitat on the creek's strip have been running since the 1986, which included removal of weeds and comprehensive tree planting (generally between Gipps Road and the Cumberland Highway). The Friends of Prospect Creek (FPC) was a group created to arrange successful Clean Up Australia Days, where local residents volunteer to clean up waste and plant over 17,000 trees and shrubs in Long Street Park at Smithfield, the location where the Warali Wali Track of the Great Kai'mia Way route was planned.^[9]

The most prominent recreational areas on the creek's corridor include, Gipps Road Sporting Complex, Rosford Street Reserve and the contiguous Long Street Park in Smithfield, Fairfield Park Precinct and Cawarra Park in Fairfield, Fairfield Road Park in Yennora, Makepeace Oval in Fairfield, Carrawood Park in Carramar, Mirambeena Regional Park in Lansdowne, Garrison Point and Henry Lawson Reserve in Georges Hall, going from northwest to southeast. It also flows on the western fringes of Fairfield High School and just north of Bland Oak, a historical tree. Recreational hobbies in the creek's strip include dog-walking, cycling, playing and observing the local wildlife.^[3]

There are walkways or cycling paths that parallel the creek, with one major one being the Prospect Creek cycleway, which is the longest, continuous shared walking path that runs alongside creek starts from Widmere Road, adjacent to the Liverpool–Parramatta T-way, in the northern periphery of Wetherill Park, and ends at Fairfield Road Park in Yennora, opposite of Yennora Fire Station. The walkabouts are within the surroundings of the Australian bushland, which include native trees such as eucalyptus.^[25] Starting at Cook Park in Canley Vale, before crossing the creek into Carramar's Carrawood Park the path continues to the Lansdowne Bridge and Hume Highway then passes through Shortland Brush and Flinders Slopes in Mirambeena Regional Park before finishing in Garrison Point Reserve at Georges Hall. The walkways and cycling paths are situated within an Australian bushland settings with many native trees such as eucalyptus found by the water's edge.^[26]

The creek corridor's features interpretive signs for visitors to represent the creek in terms of Aboriginal legacy. Its visitors include local residents (as well as those outside Fairfield and Cumberland LGA areas), employees, sport teams, bush regeneration groups and school students, and is even used as a commuting substitute to driving. Though surveys have shown that the visitation rate is low, and people in the area are not informed about its existence.^[3] Most forms of fishing are permitted in Prospect Creek, in both the tidal (lower) and freshwater (upper) catchments with fishing subject to bag and size limit regulations.^[4] All vessels are permitted to travel along the creek including jet skies and boats although a limit of 8 knots is enforced by the relevant authorities.^[27]

The creek's catchment area itself is a sub-catchment of the Georges River catchment, where it covers an area of 98 square kilometres (38 sq mi). Areas within the Prospect Creek Catchment include, Fairfield City (65.6%), Cumberland Council (13.7%), Canterbury-Bankstown (10.5%), Blacktown (7.8%) and Liverpool (2.4%). Some of the streams and drainage lines in the catchment do not permanently transport water, and rather would only do so after rain events.^[28]

Wetlands and ponds within the Prospect Creek catchment include, Warren Road, Woodpark (an artificial wetland); Gipps Road Park, De Freitas Wetland at Vine Street, Clarevale Wetland, Lake Mirambeena (Lansdowne) and Lake Gillawarna (Georges Hall). Burns Creek, Clear Paddock Creek, Green Valley Creek and Orphan School Creek are all part of the Prospect Creek catchment, in addition to being Prospect Creek's tributaries (with Burns Creek being the smallest tributary of the creek at Fairfield East).^[28]

Storm water drainage release into the creek at roads such as Long Street, Cumberland Highway and Gipps Road. There are sewage and water supply pipes that are affiliated with Long Street Park and Fairfield Road Park facilities, and as well as a sewer main on Long Street, and a portion of the Sydney Water Supply Pipeline that meanders along the western border of the creek.^[3] Other systems that supply to the Prospect Creek include:^[28]

• Wetherill Park Drain, a concrete bordered canal that releases water near the source of the creek
• Smithfield Main Drain, a natural waterway and piped system which drains areas of Fairfield West, Fairfield Heights and Smithfield
• Bellingers Drain, a piped system that drains portions of Fairfield and Fairfield Heights, where it discharges into a 400 metre long natural waterway before it runs into the creek

There are catchment drains that lead to Prospect Creek in a northeasterly direction; They consist of three concrete-lined, trapezoidal-shaped channels that are 3.8 kilometres (2.4 mi) in length, 1.5 metres (4 ft 11 in) to 1.75 metres (5 ft 9 in) in width and a height that ranges from approximately 2.0 metres (6 ft 7 in) to 3 metres (9.8 ft):^[29]

• The "Main Channel" is 1,655 metres (5,430 ft) metres long, which is a culvert underneath the Cowpasture Road/The Horsley Drive roundabout that leads to its outlet into Prospect Creek, adjacent to Widemere Road in Wetherill Park.
• "Tributary 1", which is the next longest channel, has a length of 1,380 metres (4,530 ft) metres, where it starts from Potter Close in Wetherill Park to its merging with the Main Channel.
• The shortest channel, the "Rosford Channel", is 775 metres (2,543 ft) metres in length, which begins from Victoria Street, traverses Redfern Street to the east, ending at Hassall Street in Smithfield.
• There is also a minor detention basin in Emerson Street Reserve which is bordered by The Horsley Drive to the north and Emerson Street to the east, and a large pipe drainage network, which normally drain into one of the aforementioned channels or into Prospect Creek. Their construction was completed in the mid 1980s.

In 2020 a proposal was submitted to upgrade a 6 kilometre (4 mi) stretch of Prospect Creek river status.^[30] In September 2020, this proposal went before the Geographical Names Board of NSW (GNB) after Community Advocate Lachlan Hyde with the support of local state MPs^[31] pushed the New South Wales Government on the matter.^[30] This section would then be named Lennox River to honour Scottish-Australian stonemason David Lennox who designed and oversaw the construction of the Lansdowne Bridge which crosses this waterway.^[30]

• "Georges River catchment" (map). Office of Environment and Heritage. Government of New South Wales.