Image: Panoramic view of Cook river near Marrickville Golf Club, Marrickville, (2014) by Ashish Lohorung. CC by SA-3.0
The Cooks River has been the subject of extensive pollution since settlement.
The latest in a long line of human transformations of the river concerns the inundation of unsightly plastics – but the river has been abused forever. Flotillas of human refuse that travel up and down with the tides. The point of using heritage is to raise awareness of the river as a resource for the people of the region. Unless the area is looked after, and connections between the community and the river are re-made, the river will continue to be treated as a dump. Most people don’t know it exists, and, if they do, many outsiders regard it as a muddy drain.
Emeritus Professor Ian Tyrell joins us to share the story of Sydney’s Cooks River.