No-one knows what this was called, or whether it had a name at all. Only a few Indigenous words referring to specific sites survive, such as Gum-an-nan (Sydney Airport) and Gumbramorra, a massive tidal swamp covering most of Sydenham.
There is some conjecture the river was known as Goolay’yari, meaning pelican, based on a creation story involving a long-beaked bird crossing the river on islands near its mouth and becoming a man.
“There are lots of people, Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal people, who would like the river to have a name other than [explorer Captain] James Cook’s name,” says Jennifer Newman, a Wiradjuri woman who has lived on and studied the river for almost 20 years. “No-one has yet arrived at a single name … For me, that’s indicative of the way the old people think about the river, not as a stretch of water … but as a flow through a series of sites.”
How Sydney’s most toxic river is fighting back (SMH, June 2023)
WalkSydney hosted a Sunday afternoon walk along the Cooks River between the Beamish Street pedestrian bridge and the Sugar Mill pedestrian bridge in Hurlstone Park. The area around Campsie, Sydney, NSW, was traditionally Wangal land, a clan of the Darug (or Dharug, Dharuk, Daruk) tribe or language group, who used the Cooks River for sustenance and had a deep connection to the land and its resources.
The walk was attended by about 15 people, including people from the local community and WalkSydney members,
The purpose of the walk was to reflect on how the Cooks River has changed over the past 2 centuries of European settlement – and is used as a transport and recreation corridor, utilities, urban renewal and habitat. The river is loved by the local and broader community but is struggling under the weight of litter and water pollution.
With the opening of Metro at Canterbury Station – the connection of the Cooks River cycleway to the Metro extends the catchment of potential users. The cycleway is a great and easy way to access the Metro station.
The River corridor provides space for major power infrastructure, drainage, sewers, and aviation fuel infrastructure.
The River is being transformed by Council, Sydney Water and local people to be more natural, this process takes time, there’s lots to do.
The River is important habitat – there is an abundance of birdlife along the river. Mangroves are gradually creeping west towards the source of the river.
Absolutely beautiful day, the weather was perfect ! Shout out to the Cooks River Alliance for organising and to all the volunteers at the Mudcrabs – they are the beating heart of the River’s habitat renewal and restoration.
The Mudcrabs meet regularly / monthly to care for the Cooks River and foreshore by collecting rubbish and restoring the bushland. The group was formed after observing the amount of rubbish remaining after the 2005 Clean Up Australia Day, and the group was born.
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