Quarry Road Trailhead

Ponds Creek Reserve North

A feature of the Ponds Creek Reserve South are the open grassy settings you travel through along the way.

Here you can see a range of different forest types including Sydney Turpentine Ironbark Forest fringing the creek line. This vegetation type is now rare due to land clearing and is specially protected under the NSW Biodiversity Conservation Act 2016.

The trees here are home to a range of wildlife including ringtail possums. These nocturnal animals can be spotted at night using torches. During daylight hours be sure to listen out for the medium sized birds that frequent the area.

Descriptions of these birds can be found on the track posts along the walk.
 

Early Settlement of this Area

The Ponds Creek was originally a series of swamps and ponds draining through the Dundas Valley to join with Subiaco Creek and flow on into the Parramatta River.

In July 1791 Arthur Phillip settled 14 former convicts and marines on 30 to 50 acre crown land grants along these creeks..

Large areas of land in the valley were acquired by William Cox, who expanded his Brush Farm holdings into the Dundas Valley. With the amalgamation of the smaller grants the landscape changed from isolated subsistence farmlets into large estates farming wheat, corn, sheep and cattle.

A memorable event in the life of the valley occurred in 1920 when Arthur Yates and Company (seed supplier and publisher of the Yates Garden Guide) established an extensive 47 acre (19ha) seed testing trial ground along The Ponds Creek.

On the farm 1000 different flower and 500 vegetable varieties were grown to determine the suitability of imported seed under Australian conditions.

To irrigate the plants, water was provided by a small dam near present-day Sturt Street and supplemented with water from within the disused Pennant Hills Quarry. The seed trial gardens disappeared when most of Dundas Valley was resumed for housing in the 1950s.