19 walkers met on a pleasant sunny day at Chiswick Wharf. The walk is through areas which have interesting history of industrial use of the Parramatta River. Chiswick was an early location for industries because of the deepwater access. We could see the sandstone abutments of the original Gladesville Bridge opened in 1881. It was built in five spans with iron pylons and included a swing span which pivoted on a central pylon, giving two channels, each 20 m in width, for shipping to pass through. The structure was designed to be strong enough to carry light rail, and by 1910, the tramline had been extended from Drummoyne to Ryde.
Briefing at Chiswick Wharf
This riverside walk leaves Blackwall Point and proceeds around Figtree Bay to Abbotsford where residential units line the shoreline where as early as 1884, British steel sheet manufacturer John Lysaght established the Sydney Wiremiller, Lysaght Bros and Co. Ltd. on the ParramattaRiver at Five Dock. The introduction of the rabbit to Australia in 1859 and the plagues that followedcreated a huge market for wire netting.
Chiswick Foreshore
The suburb of Abbotsford takes its name from the home built by Sir Arthur Renwick in 1878. He lived there until 1904. He named the mansion after the home of his favourite author, Sir Walter Scott. A.E. Grace of Grace Bros. purchased the property in 1906. The Grace family sold the property in 1917 to the Anglo-Swiss Condensed Milk Co. (Nestlé) and their factory operated on the site until 1991. when redeveloped into medium density housing and the main building restored to a private residence.
Leader gives a briefing on the history of Abbotsford
A short street walk took us to Morning Tea at the end of Great North Road near the Sydney Rowing Club. Built by convict labour, the Great North Road connected Sydney Town to Wiseman’s Ferry and thence to New England. Preliminary surveys for the Great North Road commenced in 1826 and a route following the ridgeline from the Parramatta Road through the Five Dock Farm to this location (now Abbotsford wharf) where a punt service was established. The punt carried people, horses and carriages across the Parramatta River to Bedlam Point. The early punts were eventually replaced by bridges that allowed trams and private vehicle crossings. The Bedlam ferry was superseded by the “old” Gladesville Bridge which opened in 1881 Prior to being purchased for the Sydney Rowing Club the site was the location of the Red House, also known as the Red Cow Inn. It was purchased in 1872 for the use of the Sydney Rowing Club. The finishing line of a 2000m rowing course on the river and for the Head of the River races is marked from Sydney Rowing Club
We crossed the road to walk to Battersea Park. The sea wall forms part of the remains of a salt water swimming pool built by J. Cashman in 1910. The terraces were used by Sydney Rowing Club spectators during the 1920s. The name of the park appears to derive from the pleasure gardens found in Battersea, London. Formerly known as Buckingham’s Reserve, Henry Lawson Park was dedicated on September 3rd, 1938 in honour of Henry Lawson. Two memorial trees were planted by Henry Lawson’s daughter, Bertha, and Dame Mary Gilmore. Henry Lawson lived in Abbotsford for a short time before his death and died in a house in Great North Road opposite Abbotsford Public School in 1922. 
Morning Tea
aIn 1916, the Commonwealth Government acquired land on the Abbotsford Peninsula, overlooking Hen and Chicken Bay for a new Animal Quarantine Station. The Station was of officially gazetted in 1920. The site was chosen because, at the time, Abbotsford was still somewhat remote from any major residential development and it had direct waterfront access via the Parramatta River, making it suitable for bringing animals in on a punt and directly unloading into the Station site area. Road access behind the site was an added bonus.
We walked along the foreshore of Hen and Chicken Bay to Halliday Park. We saw the Bar-tailed godwits which breed on Arctic coasts and tundra from Scandinavia to Alaska, and overwinter on coasts in temperate and tropical regions of Australia, and New Zealand. The migration of the subspecies, Limosa lapponica baueri, across the Pacific Ocean from Alaska to New Zealand is the longest known non-stop flight of any bird, and also the longest journey without pausing to feed by any animal. The round-trip migration for this subspecies is over 29,000 km
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Quaranteen Station Stables Wareemba Foreshore
Bar-tail Godwits Comorant conference
We passed Barnwell Park Golf Course through more low-rise residential development of previous industrial areas to have lunch in Bayview Park. There is a monument there to 58 French Canadians exiled here in 1840.
We finished our walk along Exile and France Bays to Cabarita Point and wharf, for coffee and the ferry to the city. By the end of the walk the day was feeling hot and humid, but we celebrated being out after weeks of drenching rain.
The Ladies in Purple
Walkers: Annette Ell, Michael and Sue, John and Ros, Lyndy, Robyn Ma, John M, Claude and Margaret, Wendy P, Barbara R, David R, Deidre, Lyn, Cleona, Pauline, Don Wo led by Anne G and Anne R.
Photography: Deidre (2, 6), Don Wo (1, 5, 7, 8, 10,11), Barbara R (3, 4, 9) Margaret P (12)