| Lakemba, New South Wales |
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All of Lakemba is in the Cooks River watershed. This river is tidal up to the edge of Lakemba. A bike and walking trail takes walkers and cyclists all the way from Lakemba to the East along the Cooks River to where it flows into Botany Bay . In the opposite direction the bike and walking trail goes North to Olympic Park and Homebush Bay which is part of Sydney Harbour. Lakemba is predominantly the home of people from British and European heritage and is also noted for being the home of waves of new migrants. It has a large well established Greek Community with Greek Orthodox Club and nearby large, beautiful, and architecturally significant Greek Orthodox Church. It has many other churches for Protestants and Catholics and has one of the largest and most impressive Mosques in Australia. One other most exceptional religious building is the Cao Dai Temple within a 15 minute walk of Lakemba Station. Residents include people from many parts of the world including Lebanon , South Pacific nations (eg Fiji , Tonga and New Zealand ), Sierra Leone , Ghana , Eastern European countries (especially following the fall of communism), South-East Asia , Pakistan , Bangladesh , India , and the Cocos (Keeling) Islands , (which is an Australian Territory). Lakemba is the name of, and is included in, one of NSW's political voting areas. The "Seat of Lakemba" is occupied by the current Premier of New South Wales, Morris Iemma . It is considered to be a safe Labor ( Australian Labor Party ) seat. Lakemba has a large shopping centre where a wide range of international and local foods can be purchased, and often for half the price of those, if available, in large supermarkets. Bordering on Lakemba is Roselands, where the first large covered mall, with attendant parking structures, was built in Australia. It has gone through a number of renovations and is still a major thriving shopping centre. HISTORY The first inhabitants of Lakemba and surrounding areas were Australian Aboriginals who arrived about 40,000 years ago. At the time of British settlement in 1788 the inhabitants were Aborigines of the Darug language group (a way of defining tribe) and they called themselves, and were known as Kuri or Koori. Land grants by the new colonial government began in Lakemba about 1810 . The soil is clay based on Wianamatta shale and is the Eastern edge of the great Cumberland Plain which extends westward to the Hawkesbury river and into the Blue mountains. The topography is low rolling hills. Before settlement, the vegetation was open eucalyptus woodland. Benjamin Taylor had a 22 hectare property in the 1880s . He named his property "Lakeba" (pronounced Lakemba) after an island in the Lau Island group of Fiji where his second wife's grandparents, Rev and Mrs Cross, were missionaries from 1835 . One of the original streets is Oneata Street, named after another small Fijian Island close to Lakeba. The railway line was built to the neighbouring suburb of Belmore in 1895 and extended to and beyond Lakemba in 1909 . The station was named after the house of Benjamin Taylor who was variously Town Clerk, Alderman and Mayor of Canterbury Council, which had Lakemba (the house and new station) in its Municipality boundary. The station was built on Taylor's property. Canterbury is now a city within the Sydney Metropolitan Area. It is interesting to see how Canterbury Road winds its way along the ridge which is the boundary of the watersheds of Cooks River and Wolli Creek to the South. Similarly interesting is the way the Hume Highway winds its way along the ridge which is the boundary of Cooks River and Parramatta River (Sydney Harbour) to the North. The soil on these ridges is flatter, deeper and better drained. The views for settler housing more commanding. The underlying clay of the upper ridges is redder than the less well drained yellow clays down the slopes, and the very poorly drained grey clay soils towards the bottom of the slopes. The soils near the streams (Cooks River barely qualifies as a river) are alluvial. Cooks River has its origins near Yagoona and includes Rookwood although it only flows West of the estuary in response to rain which in Sydney tends to come in storms. Melbourne rain is very different, it is slow and frequent (with many more days of rain than Sydney but 30% less overall rain per year on average). Cooks River flows into Botany Bay which was the original destination of the First Fleet in 1788. This Bay was abandoned within one week by the new British colonisers who established the colony in Sydney Cove, which was quickly recognised to be one of the finest harbours in the world. The name Botany Bay remained seared in the imagination of Britain for many generations as the name of the new colony and remains today as the main gateway into and out of Australia in the form of the international airport which has been built into the bay. Botany Bay was originally called Stingray Bay by Cook for the huge stingrays (eg 200 kg) which were sacred and were not hunted by Aborigines. These stingrays were quickly fished out by the new settlers. Cooks River, like the other four major harbours which can be found in or on the edge of Sydney, is a sunken river valley filled with tidal salt water. Only small areas of these harbours can be considered as brackish and usually briefly after rain. EXTERNAL LINKS
Cao Dai in Wiley Park next to Lakemba {Link without Title} |
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