In her 2019 essay on Gumbramorra Swamp, local Historian Sue Castrique wrote, “ … We live uneasily over the swamp: looking for the eels and the mullet, waiting for the paperbarks to flower and dangling our feet in its salty waters. We are haunted by water. And every thunderstorm, the water remembers the way… Is it possible to recover Gumbramorra Swamp? If not to retrieve the past, then to re-create it?”
The Gumbramorra Wetland Re-creation Project, located in Mackey Park in Marrickville, officially opened on Sunday 12 July 2026. Dr Andrew Thomas (Cooks River Alliance Executive Officer) and Dr Varsha Sivagurunathan (Senior Catchment Officer) joined colleagues at Parramatta River Catchment Group and Inner West Council staff at the launch.
The Gumbramorra re-creation project has returned part of the lost wetland landscape and create a thriving ecological space that will offer the community a renewed connection to the river, historical connection and a culturally significant place to gather.
For the Cooks River Alliance (of which Inner West Council is a member), this project represents the transformation taking place across the catchment. It creates opportunities for people to experience nature close to their backyard river. The Gumbramorra Wetland is not a standalone project. It’s part of a much bigger story. As the Cooks River Alliance develops the Cooks River Catchment Master Plan, we’re bringing together projects like this under a shared vision for the future of the river. Not just a collection of ideas, but a coordinated approach to improving water quality, restoring habitat and creating great places for people.
For more information on the project, visit the Inner West Council’s project page here.
Photos: Nadia Young