Further explorations up Cockle Creek

I ventured into deepest unexplored bush country this morning. Or that's what it felt like. There were hints of disused walking tracks. There were no other humans to be glimpsed, but a large wallaby hopped past at one stage.

Yet the M1 motorway was just above and to my east, and the suburbs of Wahroonga and Asquith were a couple of hundred metres away to either side. What a discovery!

 

 

 

 

I'd entered this secret world by way of an opening in the bush at the end of Stokes Aveue, Asquith, and I exited with the help of a fortuitously placed footbridge which led to a track up to King Road, Hornsby.

 

 

 

 

I think the footbridge is there to service the mysterious 'Chemical Dosing Unit' which is located near there. I feel the need to research this more, but suspect it's more to do with removing nasties from the creek than with adding them.

Ku-ring-gai Chase NP's undiscovered bits #3: Cockle Creek & its tunnel

It's a few hundred metres south of the Banksy tunnel, which carries Golf Course Creek. (See: Banksy Tunnel) This one carries Cockle Creek, as well as the odd adventurous bushwalker commuting between Wahroonga and Asquith.

It's accessed from near Mills Park in Asquith, or from a side track off the Gibberagong Track near its North Wahroonga start.

Who killed Cockle Creek?

OK, I don't think it's quite dead. But it's looking a bit poorly.

Yesterday my bushwalking club did a nice little Ku-ring-gai Chase National Park walk - from North Turramurra down to Bobbin Head and back, coming up via the Gibberagong and Murrua tracks. We were very struck by the badly polluted state of Cockle Creek, especially in the region of the Gibberagong Waterholes. It looked like a big overflow of sediment from some development project upstream.
So today my mission was to track down the culprit.



A couple of kilometres upstream, Cockle Creek runs alongside the M1 Pacific Motorway, and the NorthConnex tunnelling project. A prime candidate for pollution suspicion. So I headed off into the bush on an intrepid journey of discovery out of Asquith, through a proudly graffitied tunnel under the motorway, and down a long, steep, slippery (and unpolluted) creek bed.

















When I arrived at Cockle Creek it was also clean. NorthConnex was off the hook.






Back on the job, I drove to North Wahroonga, and headed off  along the fire trail towards North Turramurra and Bobbin Head Rd. I checked each of the tributary creeks, and every one of them was clean.



Until the last one.  Lovers Jump Creek was cloudy grey and clearly sediment-polluted.

The water dragon didn't seem too put out by it, but there again, he was staying out of the water!


There was a rather ineffectual looking yellow plastic sheet across the creek (a 'water-gate'), implying that the powers-that-be were onto the case. The water gate didn't actually seem to be doing much though.

So where was the source of the problem?

I headed further upstream. And I think I found it. In Karuah Rd, Turramurra, alongside Memorial Park, there had been a landslide/roadworks/failed roadworks episode. The dirt had fallen into the creek. Below that point it was polluted. Upstream it was clean.