Introduction

The Catchment

The upper Parramatta River catchment forms the headwaters of the Sydney Harbour catchment and drains an area of 110 km2. The catchment is highly urbanized with a population greater than 250,000 people and with less than 5% remaining as open space and bushland. It extends from Parramatta in the east to Blacktown in the west, and from Castle Hill in the north to Merrylands in the south. Parramatta is the geographic and demographic centre of greater Sydney. It is a thriving urban area and a major regional centre for Western Sydney and NSW.

The catchment was originally home to the Dharug Aboriginal tribe, who inhabited the area for more than forty thousand years before British settlement in 1788. Very early in the history of white settlement in Australia the soils of the Cumberland Plains provided the arable land which enabled the fledgling colony to become self sufficient for food.

The history of the upper Parramatta River district is closely interwoven with the colonial history of New South Wales. The development of farms, vineyards, tanneries, woollen mills and quarrying occurred in and around Parramatta. The town of Parramatta was laid out in 1790. The first land grants in the Blacktown district were in 1791, the same year as the founding of Toongabbie.

Rationale

There is growing community concern about the state of waterways in NSW. In the NSW EPA survey "Who cares about the environment in 2000", water pollution was seen as the single most important environmental issue, with a substantial % of people believing that water quality in NSW rivers, lakes and creeks had deteriorated over the past three years. The same survey indicated that education about the environment was the single most important environmental initiative that the NSW Government could take over the next few years.

New Stage 4, 5 and 6 Science and Human Society and Its Environment curricula were introduced into NSW schools in 2000. A new Environmental Education Policy was introduced in July 2001.

The Upper Parramatta River Catchment Education Resource Kit
This kit is a valuable teaching/learning resource in raising environmental awareness, pride in the natural environment, social and civic participation and an understanding of the biodiversity on which all life ultimately depends.

The kit has been developed for:

The kit comprises:

" Information Sheets at a catchment and sub-catchment level on a range of topics such as biodiversity, landuse, geomorphology, rainfall and environmental issues pertinent to the catchment.
" Links to the Geography and Science curricula.
" Links to the Department of Education and Training Environmental Education Policy.
" Local catchment and school based teaching and learning activities for Science and HSIE curricula.
" Field trips with all needed logistical and background information detailed.
" Additional resources such as topographic maps, geomorphology maps, social maps and aerial photos.

Aims