Stoney Creek

Stony Creek lies within the Lake Macquarie Catchment area to the northwest of the lake. Its headwaters are in the southwest of the catchment, south of the town of Awaba and it flows into the Lake at Fennell Bay.

The creek flows under the Great Northern Railway Line through culverts and then passes under an old wooden road bridge on Wilton Road. From this bridge the creek flows north parallel to Wilton Road and passes under Awaba Road and the Great Northern Railway Line to end up on the western side of the line. There are three main culverts under the Great northern Railway Line to convey flow towards Toronto, with an additional smaller culvert slightly to the south. The creek flows past the west Toronto Industrial Area. Just downstream of the industrial area, at the High Street Ford, a weir across the creek forms the tidal limit for the Lake Macquarie waters. Further downstream, the creek flows south of Blackalls Park Sewerage Treatment Plants. Past this location the creek flows through pipeline bridges, a disused railway bridge, a pedestrian bridge and the Railway Parade Bridge, before entering the Lake at Fennell Bay.

In 1834, missionary Lancelot Threlkeld published information about Kur-rur-kur-ráu, the petrified forest that exists in the bay that is the source of Stoney Creek. Threlkeld misunderstood Dreaming “Stories” as many people still do today. These were not fanciful narratives but rather spiritual allegories that infused knowledge about “the origins of the environment, how the Spirit Ancestors formed and gave life to the land and laid down the Law: structures of society, rituals to maintain the life of the land, rules for living. Above all, Dreaming stories are the stories of the land, living with the land and belonging to the land.” Threlkeld, while focused on the names and animal embodied forms of spirits (in this case the spirit in question was an Iguana) within this allegory, does manage to escape his European condemnation of such a concept to impart that the Awabakal people explained that the petrified forest was “one large rock which fell from the heavens and killed a number of … [the community who] … were assembled where it descended, … collected together in that spot by command of [the spirit] … in consequence of his anger at their having killed lice by roasting them in the fire…” Hence, the victims became the petrified trees. Today, freed of the arrogance of cultural condemnation of Indigenous heritage, and beginning to understand the informative nature of Dreaming Stories, Australians of European heritage can see that this allegory is about the consequences that can be wrought upon a community when they destroy an element of the ecosystem. While lice may not be deemed important to humans, they are an important part of the environment and the Awabakal warn that there will be real and possibly fatal implications if parts of the ecosystem are needlessly or inappropriately damaged or killed. Likewise, this allegory shows that it is the entire community who are affected when environmental damage is caused, not just those involved in the destruction. This is a vital moral and scientific point the Awabakal people teach us through this Dreaming story. And this same message has travelled from Edmunds Bay and down Stoney Creek to Blackalls Park, as the history of Stoney Creek embodies the European struggle between industry and the environment. It is also a history that shows, like the Awabakal Dreaming story, that the community collectively suffer the degradation of the environment, but on this physical rather than metaphysical plane, the community also have the power to protect the environment and thus their lifestyle when they band together.

Like so many places in Lake Macquarie, Blackalls Park was not a single industry town. Instead, the land was granted and sold sporadically, beginning prior to 1870, with Europeans moving to the area predominantly for two competing reasons: wealth or lifestyle. Nilsen comments that even as late as the 1920s, there were few houses in the area and those evident were dotted about amongst bushland and unconnected roads. Many people drawn to the area for day trips were picnickers, who were seeking the beauty and recreation of the Lake as part of church groups, unions and sporting organisations. The beauty of the area drew community groups to it. However, others came into the area for its resource wealth. Early farms saw the mass clearing of bushland in the name of crop planting. Likewise, the environmental microcosm inevitably found on islands in the lake, would have been destroyed by the farming of goats on one of the islands at the mouth of Stoney Creek. Trees in the area were felled and a saw mill established for the purpose of supplying pit props and related needs to local coal mines, including the Olstan mine and its adjoining quarry established in the area in 1919. The early industry in the area actively changed the face of the beautiful, natural setting.

But it was the establishment of an arsenic smelter in the area that finally put the local people in conflict with industry. In 1923, the plant was being constructed and a brickworks had been established for this purpose. Likewise, a light gauge rail line was constructed to transport the resources to produce the arsenic and export the finished product from the factory. But arsenic was made by burning arsenic bearing rocks in a furnace. The toxic smoke that came from this furnace started killing the bushland in the area and wafting over the houses of those who lived at Blackalls Park and Fassifern. A public meeting was held and according to local oral history, it was this meeting, and the discontent voiced by the local community about the destructive effects of the plant, that saw it abandoned by 1927. The community had banded together to end the destruction of the local environment and their lifestyle. This was to be the first of a number of successes the local community had in environmental protection and protecting their lifestyle.

Laws banning daytime ocean bathing were lifted by various local councils around the country after Federation. This saw an explosion in beach culture, as did the development of bathing costumes that were tighter and more focused on the safety of the swimmer rather than modesty, although the policing of bathing costumes on public beaches in Sydney continued until 1961. But this cultural focus on the beach saw the development of swimming clubs across the state, as it was recognised that people needed swimming skills to remain safe in and around the water. The Stoney Creek Swimming Club was established in 1930. An area of Stoney Creek was roped off and used as a pool. The club established interclub competitions and which brought in visitors to the area, while also allowing Stoney Creek to still be used by locals as a popular swimming hole. The club held carnivals, and club meets regularly, as well as offering swimming instructions to locals. A bathing shed and clubhouse was built on the banks of the creek. Electric lights were strung across the creek to allow for night training and a small jetty was constructed and used as a diving platform. Stoney Creek was being used as a natural resource that established both a community safety asset as well as a source of entertainment that solidified swimming and water activities as part of local culture.

Unfortunately, poor environmental management of the area began to impact the locals’ use of Stoney Creek. The water in the creek became significantly polluted. One reason for this was the build up of sediment that muddied the waters and inevitably alters oxygen and pH levels and thus the biodiversity of the waterway. The sediment was a side effect of the clearing of all vegetation from the banks near the swimming club, which saw the banks erode into the water. This was exacerbated by waves washing up on the eroded shore due to the movement of ever-increasing numbers of motor boats. Likewise, the driving and parking of cars along the bank also increased sediment and erosion. Other forms of pollution made its way into the creek due to runoff from Lake Street having unimpeded flow directly into the creek. Until 1942 there was no sewerage service provided to the area and thus sewerage could easily have flowed into Stoney Creek from septic tanks and other personal sewerage systems during heavy rain events. Even after sewerage was provided to Stoney Creek, it was not extended to meet the needs of other residents in the area until 1963. Industry and transport needs also had a constant environmental impact on the area. The Excelsior Company's tramway commenced in 1891. It was built along side of the rail line. Part of its construction required the bridging of Stoney Creek and the sediment issues this process creates. Inevitably, bridges require upkeep or rebuilding. The current concrete bridge over Stoney Creek was built in 1963. More sediment would have been added to the system of waterways in the area when Mudd Creek (which is connected to Stoney Creek) was also bridged in 1975. By 1980, the pollution in Stoney Creek made swimming in it not only unpleasant but also dangerous to human health. As such, the Swimming Club closed after 50 years of community service. The jetty was demolished in 1983 due to disrepair.

However, the community soon came together to address the damaged site and establish it for use in other water based lifestyle activities. The Toronto Landcare group, with finding and support of local councils and businesses, redeveloped the site, with the construction of a sea wall to prevent further erosion and the shore line, the laying of turf in the park and the establishment of native gardens to prevent vehicles getting onto the site and to prevent water runoff from Lake Street getting into the creek. While the site is no longer used for swimming, it is now a well managed site that will not increase pollution of the creek and can be used by locals for picnics, fishing and other water based lifestyle activities. The focus on improving the health of the waterway and the reduction of sediment and waste water entering the system has also seen a massive improvement in the health of the waterway and an increase in both aquatic and bird life in the area. Stoney Creek is a place where the failures of Europeans to protect the Australian environment have been seen, but they have also been addressed as locals banded together to save their environment and their way of life.

This work by Lake Macquarie City Library is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License