The Environmental Olympics
 Homewood
Bay has been the site for a saltworks, an abattoir, a brickworks,
a naval armaments depot and a waste dump. Nearby are many
abandoned industrial plants. In the early 1990s, soil and
water tests estimated there were 9 million cubic metres of
domestic, commercial and industrial waste in the area, much
of it infill that destroyed the natural wetlands. Contaminants
had leached into the bay and much of the natural flora had
been destroyed.
The New South Wales Government and Greenpeace
worked together to remove waste and cap it under the golf
course and a nearby landfill site. The leached water is pumped
into tankers and treated at the nearby waste treatment plant.
Native trees and wallaby grass have been planted on the site.
Homewood Bay has been dredged to remove the heavy contaminants
from the nearby industry.
Nature itself has also contributed to the clean
up. Mangrove trees remove pollution as do certain reeds and
grasses planted in the rivers and bay. Naturally occurring
microbes break down the waste left behind by an old gas plant.
Green and Golden Bell
Frog
While surveying the area for the Olympics, investigators
found bell frogs living in the Brickpit, an area slated for
use as a water reservoir, the Olympic area being set up to
use its own water for various uses rather than tapping into
the Sydney supply.
Over the last 20 years, the golden bell frog
has disappeared from much of its warm temperate habitat in
Eastern Australia. The Homebush Bay colony is one of only
19 breeding colonies in Sydney. The frog is a distinctive
green and gold but can change color to brown when under a
log. The frog is unusual for an endangered species in that
it will populate areas that have been disturbed by human activity.
To minimize the impact of Olympic development,
the OCA and the contractors have created additional habitat,
constructed frog-proof fences and built underpasses to stop
frogs from crossing busy roads.
At the end of the Olympics, the Homebush Bay
area will be turned from a polluted industrial wasteland into
the Millennium Parkland, Sydney's biggest urban greenspace.
As of now, pollution is no longer entering the creek and wetland
systems, the cleaned up sites do not threaten public health
or the environment and the diversity of birds, animals and
plants has increased.
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