By Maya Lama
When lifelong Tempe resident Paul Gallanos was growing up around the Cooks River, he wasn’t allowed near it, and occasionally lost his soccer ball in the water. But now, he wakes at 5am to kayak on it each day.
And not just anywhere on the waterway, but to a tiny spot in the middle of the river that he describes as “an icon of the inner west”: Fatima Island.
Paul Gallanos on what remains of Fatima Island, at high tide, early in the morning.Credit: Janie Barrett
A tiny sandy bar sitting in the creek that flows between Tempe and Wolli Creek, the island has occupied a unique place in the region’s cultural and environmental history. But Fatima Island’s days are numbered: it is sinking.
“Sometimes you don’t even see it, it’s just the tree sticking out,” said Gallanos, who owns a kayak hire outlet in the area, and is saddened by how the island has been left to disappear.
Fatima Island wasn’t always as lonely as it currently is. Before the First Fleet, there existed five islands along this stream of the Cooks River, all large. First Nations lore recalls these islands as gathering places, with stepping stones between them allowing easy access.
As the area around the island became industrialised, the flow of water changed significantly. In the late 1800s, convicts cut large sandstone blocks which were placed around the islands and acted as a sturdy barrier against moving water.
“When they were planning to put Mascot Airport in, they wanted to make the river deeper and control the flow so that it didn’t flow out in that way so they could put the runways in,” said Nadia Wheatley, an Australian author who, a decade ago, led a community campaign to save the island.
The sandstone blocks were removed, she said.
“In changing the course of the river, they changed the flow, they made it faster. You have tides coming in and going out. So three or so of the islands completely disappeared.”
A spokesperson for Inner West Council said the island was covered by the Cooks River Plan of Management.
“The … strategy is to retain Fatima Island as a natural system within the river environment and to not encourage access to the island,” they said.
“It is protected as a conservation area for migratory and local species habitat under the Priority Biodiversity Area (Cooks River Corridor).”
Wheatley disagrees.
“One solution we were looking for was to restore what had been sandstone blocks around the island. It was an unnatural solution, I agree, but it’s where we as 21st-century people make a change to the landscape.
“It’s reasonable if we preserve the natural landscape by taking an active role, but the council opted … to let time take its course and let the whole thing sink. I argued that wasn’t the natural solution because we can’t restore the river to what it was in 1788.”
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