Exploring the neighbourhood

Tucked away behind some commercial and industrial buildings is the entrance to a small reserve which we stumbled on to by accident. Saira and I went there with our bikes one day and came to a large water weir sort of thing. It was empty then but is a key part of the floodwater management measures taken by the the Upper Parramatta River Catchment Trust after the flooding that took place in the area 1990 and 1999. The picture above is of interest as it shows that someone actually designed the small sign you see over the graffiti! Did not have much effect!

They tell us that

this project involved the construction of a 30 metre high flood retarding basin wall and in an environmentally - sensitive bushland reserve within 100 metres of several homes. The project also included several ancillary environmental measures to reduce major flooding to North Rocks, Northmead, parts of North Parramatta and Rosehill overcome degradation of bushland and reduce stormwater pollution of the creek. It is the largest basin in NSW and successfully integrated flood mitigation and environmental objectives.

Another photo below and some more from the trust are here.