On this episode it’s all about the Marrickville Golf Course. But we’re not talking to any golfers! Instead, the focus is on the place the golf course is in, the landscape itself, the local environment, its history and its ecology, especially its flora.

Come along on a walk around the course with Gabby Richards, local amateur historian of Marrickville and keeper of all the suburb’s stories, as she takes us through the history of this land from before colonisation, through early settlement and into the 20th century. You’ll hear about when it was a productively managed natural landscape, a swampy deer-hunting park, a dairy, a cricket pitch and sheep farm (at the same time), a pleasurable picnicking paradise and, finally, a golf course. You’ll meet characters like the irascible lawyer, landowner and deer (and convict) hunter Robert Wardell, and the one-man golfer’s nightmare councillor Bede Mahoney.

This land has incredible value as a big chunk of the green space by the river, and the existence of the golf course occupying it has always been contentious. Through the last 200 years it has undergone such significant changes, and while today it is utterly transformed from 1788, it is resilient, and its underlying nature has, with a little help, been reasserting itself in recent decades.

Later in the episode there’s a report from the June meeting of the CRVA, featuring Doug Benson and Chris Rapp presenting their recently-published PDF pamphlet on the trees of the Marrickville Golf Course, along with regular association business.

And of course we have all your River News for June 2026.

Guest: Gabby Richards

Host/producer: Niall Edwards-FitzSimons  

Music by: riverkid   

With thanks to Gabby, to Peter Munro for introducing us, to Doug Benson, Chris Rapp and the rest of the CRVA.

This episode was produced on the lands of the Gadigal and the Bidjigal and we pay respect to elders past and present.

 

On this episode it&rsquo;s all about the Marrickville Golf Course. But we&rsquo;re not talking to any golfers! Instead, the focus is on the place the golf course is in, the landscape itself, the local environment, its history and its ecology, especially its flora.
Come along on a walk around the course with Gabby Richards, local amateur historian of Marrickville and keeper of all the suburb&rsquo;s stories, as she takes us through the history of this land from before colonisation, through early settlement and into the 20th century. You&rsquo;ll hear about when it was a productively managed natural landscape, a swampy deer-hunting park, a dairy, a cricket pitch and sheep farm (at the same time), a pleasurable picnicking paradise and, finally, a golf course. You&rsquo;ll meet characters like the irascible lawyer, landowner and deer (and convict) hunter Robert Wardell, and the one-man golfer&rsquo;s nightmare councillor Bede Mahoney.
This land has incredible value as a big chunk of the green space by the river, and the existence of the golf course occupying it has always been contentious. Through the last 200 years it has undergone such significant changes, and while today it is utterly transformed from 1788, it is resilient, and its underlying nature has, with a little help, been reasserting itself in recent decades.
Later in the episode there&rsquo;s a report from the June meeting of the CRVA, featuring Doug Benson and Chris Rapp presenting their recently-published PDF pamphlet on the trees of the Marrickville Golf Course, along with regular association business.
And of course we have all your River News for June 2026.
Guest: Gabby Richards
Host/producer: Niall Edwards-FitzSimons&nbsp;&nbsp;
Music by: riverkid&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;
With thanks to Gabby, to Peter Munro for introducing us, to Doug Benson, Chris Rapp and the rest of the CRVA.
This episode was produced on the lands of the Gadigal and the Bidjigal and we pay respect to elders past and present.
&nbsp;

Goolay’yari/Cooks River is a special place. One of the largest and longest urban rivers in Sydney, among the most polluted, and neglected, but the most cherished too. In this new monthly program from Radio Skid Row and Pelican River Studio we bring you interviews with those who care for the river and the stories, histories, events, news and people that make up this beautiful urban waterway.

Goolay&rsquo;yari/Cooks River&nbsp;is a special place. One of the largest and longest urban rivers in Sydney, among the most polluted, and neglected, but the most cherished too. In this new monthly program from Radio Skid Row and Pelican River Studio we bring you interviews with those who care for the river and the stories, histories, events, news and people that make up this beautiful urban waterway.