The Cooks River is a 23km long river that stretches from Yagoona in the south west of Sydney to Botany Bay in the east. Since European settlement, it has undergone many transformations and alterations, not all in the best interests of the river. Changes in the past few years are starting to bring the river back to a healthy state.
This part of the river was the home to the Wangal clan of the Dharug (Daruk) nation and as such we pay our respects to the elders past and present for allowing us to travel through this land.
In 1808, 800 acres (324 hectares) west of Canterbury Vale was granted to William Faithful. He later exchanged it for better land and the emancipist merchant Simeon Lord took up the property. It was called Brighton Farm and extended along the Cooks River as far as the Punch Bowl ford of the river on the old Aboriginal pathway.
In 1824, Simeon Lord sold Brighton Farm to William Henry Moore, the crown solicitor, who immediately closed off the Old Road to Georges River. Instead, he opened up a road on his western boundary leading from Liverpool Road to the Punch Bowl. This road is today's Coronation Parade, Enfield.
On the opposite side of the river to where you stand, the Catholic Archpriest Father John Joseph Therry was granted 47 acres in an area called ‘Bark Huts’ in 1837. Father Therry offered 4 acre blocks for £25, to fund the construction of the original St Ann’s Church. A further 134 allotments were offered for sale in 1854.
During the 1990s there was a plan to build a motorway along the Cooks River in the Strathfield LGA but this was abandoned and the ‘county road’ reservations were formerly dedicated as parks including Bark Huts Reserve and Elliot Reserve (named after the Elliott Estate).
In 1976 the Southend Tennis Centre on Chisholm Street Strathfield South was opened. This site was once occupied by a dairy according to early maps.
Information sourced from: Dictionary of Sydney, Strathfield Heritage, Cooks River Alliance, City of Canterbury and Wikipedia