Dictionary of Sydney
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  4. Parramatta River

The Dictionary of Sydney was archived in 2021.

The Dictionary of Sydney was archived in 2021.

Parramatta River

River or creek

Major tributary of Sydney Harbour, which flows east from Blacktown Creek to meet Port Jackson between Greenwich and Birchgrove. The river is tidal to Charles Street Weir at Parramatta, 30 kilometres from Sydney Heads.

-33.842693105712, 151.12344811982

Type
River or creek

River Cycles - A History of the Parramatta River

CC BY-SA 2.0
by
Ian Hoskins
,
2015

Prior to European settlement, the waterway we now call the Parramatta River was a shared food source, a highway and a territorial boundary for the Wangal, Wallemudegal, Gammeraygal and Burramattagal peoples. Colonisation dramatically reshaped the ecology of the river; the natural cycles of climate and tide that had long influenced the waterway have been joined by other diverse social forces; economic, cultural and technological. Agriculture, river transport, land development and heavy industry have left a long term legacy despite recent environmental remediation.

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