Sydney Suburbs continued: Bonnet Bay, Bonnyrigg, Bossley Park, Botany

Continuing a brief look at the suburbs of Sydney . . .

BONNET BAY
Location:	Located 29 kilometres (18 mi) south of the Sydney central business district in the local government area of the Sutherland Shire
Name Origin:	The suburb was named in 1969.  It was originally proposed to name the area Kirkby (after David Randolph Kirkby, Shire Clerk 1929 – 1963), however a nearby cave in a locality known as “The Bonnet” in the suburb of Como (the cave is shaped like an old woman’s bonnet) prompted the suggestion to name the area Bonnet Bay.
About: ·     Bonnet Bay is mostly residential, with a small shopping centre. ·  A reserve originally known as "Jannali Reserve" was renamed in 2005 to commemorate Burnum Burnum, the prominent indigenous Australian and Sutherland Shire resident. A small plaque details his speech in England at Australia's bicentenary in 1988. ·       The Burnum Burnum Declaration England, 26th January, 1988 "I Burnum Burnum, being a nobleman of ancient Australia do hereby take possession of England on behalf of the Aboriginal People. In claiming this colonial outpost, we wish no harm to you natives, but assure you that we are here to bring you good manners, refinement and an opportunity to make a Koopartoo – “a fresh start.” Henceforth, an Aboriginal face shall appear on your coins and stamps to signify our sovereignty over this domain. For the more advanced, we bring the complex language of the Pitjantjajara; we will teach you how to have a spiritual relationship with the Earth and show you how to get bush tucker. We do not intend to souvenir, pickle and preserve the heads of 2,000 of your people, nor to publicly display the skeletal remains of your Royal Highness, as was done to our Queen Truganinni for 80 years. Neither do we intend to poison your waterholes, lace your flour with strychnine or introduce you to highly toxic drugs. Based on our 50,000 year heritage, we acknowledge the need to preserve the Caucasian race as of interest to antiquity, although we may be inclined to conduct experiments by measuring the size of your skulls for levels of intelligence. We pledge not to sterilise your women, not to separate your children from their families. We give an absolute undertaking that you shall not be placed into the mentality of government handouts for the next five generations but you will enjoy the full benefits of Aboriginal equality. At the end of two hundred years, we will make a Treaty to validate occupation by peaceful means and not by conquest. Finally, we solemnly promise not to make a quarry of England and export your valuable minerals back to the old country Australia, and we vow never to destroy three-quarters of your trees, but to encourage Earth Repair Action to unite people, communities, religions and nations in a common, productive, peaceful purpose. Signed – Burnum Burnum” Upon conclusion of the declaration Burnam Burnam says: It’s too cold here, I want to go home…

Gallery:

Burnum Burnum delivers his 1988 Declaration

Bonnet Bay

  

BONNYRIGG
Location:	Located 36 kilometres west of the Sydney central business district, in the local government area of the City of Fairfield. It is part of the Greater Western Sydney region.
Name Origin:	Bonnyrigg is named after a Scottish village of the same name, meaning "pretty hill".
About: ·      Bonnyrigg was a poorly planned developed suburb of the late 80's and 90's. Currently areas of Bonnyrigg are being redeveloped to create a more friendly safe environment and minimise the ghetto look that was created by the abundance of Housing Commission houses. ·      Currently the town centre is undergoing a major regeneration through a new housing scheme - Newleaf Bonnyrigg. This will replace over 800 dwellings with 2,330 new homes that will see the town's population increase by over 3,000 people over 12 years to 2022.

Gallery:

The Newleaf estate

The Assyrian genocide monument is a memorial site for the Assyrian community.

The Ming Yue Lay Buddhist Temple, Bonnyrigg

BOSSLEY PARK
Location:	Located 36 kilometres west of the Sydney central business district in the local government area of the City of Fairfield. Bossley Park is part of the Greater Western Sydney region.
Name Origin:	Bossley Park was named after John Brown Bossley (1810–72), an English chemist who purchased a large block of land on Smithfield Road. He named his property Edensor after a village in Derbyshire, England. When the area north of Edensor was subdivided in 1890, it became known as Bossley Park.
About: ·      After World War II, Bossley Park received many migrants from Italy, who have since played a large role in the local community. Bossley Park and its surrounding suburbs were rural areas until the 1970s, when they were developed into a residential settlement. ·      According to the 2016 census of Population, there were 14,585 residents in Bossley Park.  45.5% of people were born in Australia. The most common other countries of birth were Iraq (16.4%), Italy (4.0%), Vietnam (3.9%), Philippines (2.0%) and Syria (1.6%). 32.6%% of people only spoke English at home. Other languages spoken at home included Assyrian Neo-Aramaic (11.6%), Chaldean Neo-Aramaic (8.4%), Arabic (8.1%), Italian (5.9%), and Spanish (5.9%). The most common ancestries in were Italian (11.1%), Assyrian (9.6%), Australians (8.7%), English (7.6%) and Chaldean (6.5%). ·      Home of Club Marconi.  The Marconi Stallions currently are members of the National Premier Leagues NSW 2, effectively the NSW 2nd Division, and they play their home games at the 9,000-capacity Marconi Stadium.

Gallery:

Club Marconi

Club Marconi

  

BOTANY
Location:	Located 11 kilometres south of the Sydney central business district and is part of the Bayside Council.
Name Origin:	Botany Bay is where Captain James Cook first landed on 29 April 1770, when navigating his way around Australia on his ship, the Endeavour. The ship's English botanist Joseph Banks and Swedish assistant botanist Daniel Solander, spent several days on shore collecting vast numbers of specimens, that were previously unknown in Europe. Cook's journals first referred to the bay as Sting Rays' Harbour, then later Botanist Bay and finally both these names were crossed out by him and replaced with Botany Bay. The suburb name comes from the bay it stands on.  It can therefore claim to be the oldest place name in Australia. Botany Bay was originally given the name Stingrays Harbour by Cook because of the number of stingrays they caught. Cook's log for 6 May 1770 records "The great quantity of these sort of fish found in this place occasioned my giving it the name of Stingrays Harbour". However, in the journal prepared later from his log, Cook wrote instead: "The great quantity of plants Mr. Banks and Dr. Solander found in this place occasioned my giving it the name of Botany Bay".
About: ·   Cook’s recommendation and Banks’ enthusiasm led to the British government establishing a penal settlement at Botany Bay.  Captain Arthur Phillip however found the water shallow and the area swampy, so he relocated to Port Jackson. ·    Port Botany is the site of Sydney's major port and as such, Botany is a suburb with extensive commercial development centred on shipping and freight. Botany also has a large chemical production facility owned by several companies including Huntsman and Orica (previously ICI). The plant was built in the 1940s and has been owned by Orica since 1997. The plant once manufactured paints, plastics and industrial chemicals such as solvents, and is responsible for a large groundwater plume of pollution in the area. The main shopping centre in Botany runs along Botany Road. ·    Sir Joseph Banks Park comprises Foreshore Reserve and the Sir Joseph Banks Pleasure Gardens. Foreshore Reserve is 28 hectares of bushland on land reclaimed from Botany Bay. The Reserve features walking tracks through sand dunes to protected wetlands, formed around a network of ponds. The Pleasure Gardens reflect the history of the area with a zoo playground featuring life size animal statues, a mosaic depicting Banks’s journey, decorative flag terrace, Banksia garden and the central oval running track. A statue of Sir Joseph Banks examining botanical specimens is located in the pleasure gardens.

Gallery:

Sir Joseph Banks Hotel, Anniversary Street, beside the Pleasure Grounds

Arbour in Sir Joseph Banks Pleasure Gardens

Botany

It was announced on 29 April 2018 that a $50m revamp of Botany Bay will include a $3m aquatic memorial to Captain James Cook to celebrate the first encounter between Europeans and Indigenous Australians. There will also be a museum, visitors’ centre and ferry wharves. will allow the country to "celebrate, understand and interpret" the "momentous place" it is. It is intended to have it all completed before the 250th anniversary of Captain Cook’s first contact with Australia and its indigenous inhabitants. Needless to say, aboriginal elders and spokespersons are less than enthused. Not only is Australia Day, the commemoration of the first settlement of Australia in 1788, regularly called Invasion Day, it also inspires mass protests from black and white alike. More monuments for the man frequently described as having "discovered" Australia is not a proposal uniformly supported.

Presently the only monument to Cook’s landing is at Kurnell on the shore of Botany Bay, where he stepped ashore:

The press releases for the planned Botany Bay revamp did not mention that on the first day of contact in 1770, Cook’s party shot an aboriginal. Whilst exploring Botany Bay in 1770, his party shot an indigenous male for throwing stones at them, thereby setting the tenor of relations with indigenous Australia. 

From Cook’s journal, 29 April 1770:

“We then threw them some nails beeds &Ca a shore which they took up and seem'd not ill pleased with in so much that I thout that they beckon'd to us to come a shore but in this we were mistaken for as soon as we put the boat in they again came to oppose us upon which I fired a musket between the two which had no other effect than to make them retire back where bundles of thier darts lay and one of them took up a stone and threw at us which caused my fireing a second Musquet load with small shott and altho' some of the shott struck the man yet it had no other effect than to make him lay hold of a target [shield] emmediatly after this we landed which we had no sooner done than they throw'd two darts at us this obliged me to fire a third shott soon after which they both made off, but not in such haste but what we might have taken one . . .”