Iron Cove Creek
| Iron Cove | |
| Creek | |
 Iron Cove Creek looking towards Iron Cove.
|
|
| Country | Australia |
|---|---|
| State | New South Wales |
| Municipality | Sydney |
| Part of | Parramatta River |
| Source | Ashfield Park |
| - location | Ashfield |
| - coordinates | 33°53′20″S 151°7′30″E / 33.88889°S 151.12500°E |
| Mouth | Parramatta River |
| - location | Iron Cove |
| - coordinates | 33°52′13.4862″S 151°8′31.02″E / 33.870412833°S 151.1419500°ECoordinates: 33°52′13.4862″S 151°8′31.02″E / 33.870412833°S 151.1419500°E |
Iron Cove Creek (also known as Dobroyd Stormwater Channel), a southern tributary of the Parramatta River, is an urban stream west of Sydney Harbour, located in the inner-western Sydney suburbs of Croydon, Ashfield, Haberfield and Five Dock in New South Wales, Australia.
Iron Cove Creek traverses mostly through residential areas and parkland, making a 2 kilometres (1.2 mi) journey from where it surfaces in Croydon to where it empties into Iron Cove, which is a bay of the Parramatta River, at Five Dock. It also forms much of the border between Croydon and Ashfield upstream from Parramatta Road. Once a natural watercourse abound with native vegetation and wildlife, Iron Cove Creek was transformed in the late 19th century into a stormwater channel that drains a fairly large catchment area in Sydney's inner-western suburbs.
In the 1860s Iron Cove Creek was a freely flowing waterway which in places broadened into ponds that made excellent and picturesque swimming holes. Water birds and snakes were abundant in this area and these, like the possums and gliders that inhabited the treetops, often fell victim to the predations of children with improvised bows and arrows and slingshots and their elders armed with more sophisticated weapons.
During the 1890s the character and appearance of Iron Cove Creek was dramatically altered. As early as 1880 Iron Cove Creek was perceived to present hazards both to the health and convenience of the local community; it tended to flood in heavy rain and to become stagnant during dry weather and, with the sanitary conditions that then prevailed, was a source of typhoid fever. Plans were made to concrete its banks, but major work did not commence until 1891. The construction of the banks was carried out by the Department of Public Works and was supervised by a local resident, William Best Chessell. It took five years and had a profound effect on the appearance and future development of Croydon. In his book Between Two Highways: the story of early Croydon, Eric Dunlop points out that as a result of the construction of canals and tunnels:
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