Prospect Creek (New South Wales)

Prospect Creek rises below Prospect Reservoir, north of Bulls Hill in Prospect, within the Blacktown local government area, and flows generally southeast by east, through the Holroyd, Fairfield, Liverpool and Bankstown local government areas, before reaching its confluence with the Georges River, at Georges Hall, spilling into Dhurawal Bay in the Chipping Norton Lakes.^[1]

The catchment area of the creek is approximately 98 square kilometres (38 sq mi), and is largely urbanised with industrial land uses, residential and open space for recreation.^[2]

Most forms of fishing are permitted in Prospect Creek, in both the tidal (lower) and freshwater (upper) catchments with fishing subject to bag and size limit regulations.^[3] In 2023, Sydney Water Corporation was convicted and fined $200,000 in the Land and Environment Court of NSW after 282,000 litres of sewage was spilled into the creek.^[4]

The creek's catchment area itself is a sub-catchment of the Georges River catchment, where it covers an area of 98 square kilometres. Areas within the Prospect Creek Catchment include, Fairfield City (65.6%), Cumberland Council (13.7%), Bankstown (10.5%), Blacktown (7.8%) and Liverpool (2.4%). Some of the streams and drainage lines in the catchment do not permanently transport water, and rather would only do so after rain events.^[5]

Wetlands and ponds within the Prospect Creek catchment include, Warren Road, Woodpark (an artificial wetland); Gipps Road Park, De Freitas Wetland at Vine Street, Clarevale Wetland, Lake Mirambeena (Lansdowne) and Lake Gillawarna (Georges Hall). Clear Paddock Creek, Green Valley Creek and Orphan School Creek are all part of the Prospect Creek catchment, in addition to being Prospect Creek's tributaries (branches).^[5]

Other systems that supply to the Prospect Creek include:^[5]

• Wetherill Park Drain, a concrete bordered canal that releases water near the source of the creek
• Smithfield Main Drain, a natural waterway and piped system which drains areas of Fairfield West, Fairfield Heights and Smithfield
• Bellingers Drain, a piped system that drains portions of Fairfield and Fairfield Heights, where it discharges into a 400 metre long natural waterway before it runs into the creek

 

There are catchment drains that lead to Prospect Creek in a northeasterly direction; They consist of three concrete-lined, trapezoidal-shaped channels that are 3.8km in length, 1.5 metres to 1.75 metres in width and a height that ranges from approximately 2.0 metres to 3.0 metres:^[6]

• The "Main Channel" is 1655 metres long, which is a culvert underneath the Cowpasture Road/The Horsley Drive roundabout that leads to its outlet into Prospect Creek, adjacent to Widemere Road in Wetherill Park.
• "Tributary 1", which is the next longest channel, has a length of 1380 metres, where it starts from Potter Close in Wetherill Park to its merging with the Main Channel.
• The shortest channel, the "Rosford Channel", is 775 metres in length, which begins from Victoria Street, traverses Redfern Street to the east, ending at Hassall Street in Smithfield.
• There is also a minor detention basin in Emerson Street Reserve which is bordered by The Horsley Drive to the north and Emerson Street to the east, and a large pipe drainage network, which normally drain into one of the aforementioned channels or into Prospect Creek. Their construction was completed in the mid 1980s.

 

The creek winds through a number of parks and reserves, with the most prominent ones being, Gipps Road Sporting Complex, Rosford Street Reserve and the contiguous Long Street Park in Smithfield, Fairfield Park Precinct and Cawarra Park in Fairfield, Fairfield Road Park in Yennora, Makepeace Oval in Fairfield, Carrawood Park in Carramar, Mirambeena Regional Park in Lansdowne, and Henry Lawson Reserve in Georges Hall, going from northwest to southeast. It also flows on the western fringes of Fairfield High School and just north of Bland Oak, a historical tree.

There are walkways or cycling paths that parallel the creek. The longest, continuous walking path that runs alongside creek starts from Widmere Road, adjacent to the Liverpool–Parramatta T-way, in the northern periphery of Wetherill Park, and ends at Fairfield Road Park in Yennora, opposite of Yennora Fire Station. The walkabouts are within the surroundings of the Australian bushland, which include native trees such as eucalyptus.^[7]

In 2020 a proposal was submitted to upgrade a 6 kilometre (4 mi) stretch of Prospect Creek river status.^[8] In September 2020, this proposal went before the Geographical Names Board of NSW (GNB) after Community Advocate Lachlan Hyde with the support of local state MPs^[9] pushed the New South Wales Government on the matter.^[8] This section would then be named Lennox River to honour Scottish-Australian stonemason David Lennox who designed and oversaw the construction of the Lansdowne Bridge which crosses this waterway.^[8]

• "Georges River catchment" (map). Office of Environment and Heritage. Government of New South Wales.