Rhodes

Rhodes is an Inner West suburb of Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia.

Rhodes is an Inner West suburb of Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. Rhodes is located 12 kilometres west of the Sydney central business district, in the local government area of the City of Canada Bay. It was formerly part of Concord Municipality until a merger with Drummoyne Council to form Canada Bay in December 2000.

Rhodes sits on a peninsula between Bray Bay and Homebush Bay, on the southern bank of the Parramatta River and is located about 3 kilometres from Stadium Australia, Sydney Olympic Park, Sydney International Aquatic Centre, Bicentennial Park and Millennium Parklands.

The pedestrian, cyclist, transport and emergency services Bennelong Bridge from Rhodes to Wentworth Point opened in May 2016.

Rhodes was named after the home of an early resident, Thomas Walker (1791–1861), which was built on the north-eastern side of the peninsula. Walker named his property Rhodes after his grandmother's home, Rhodes Hall, in Leeds, England. The house was demolished in 1919, when the land was purchased by the John Darling Flour Mills, later owned by Allied Feeds Limited.Industry invaded the once picturesque and heavily forested isthmus in 1911 when Messrs. G & C. Hoskins established a large foundry specialising in the manufacture of cast iron pipes for gas and city water reticulation purposes. In 1930 their operations moved to Port Kembla, and in 1935 the site was taken over by CSR. During the period from about 1930 to the mid-1980s, the western part of the suburb between Homebush Bay and the railway line was taken up by chemical manufacturing.

The main manufacturers were Berger Paints, CSR Chemicals, Union Carbide, and Allied Feeds.The former Tulloch Limited Phoenix Iron Works were located between the railway line and Concord Road, south of Mary Street. They gave their name to Tulloch Avenue and Phoenix Avenue. This is now the site of the Hewlett Packard offices in Sydney. Tullochs manufactured rolling stock for the New South Wales Government Railways.

In October 2010, the City of Canada Bay approved a plan which would allow up to 5 buildings of 25 storeys in this Western section. The expected population in this western section is over 11,000, making it one of the most densely populated areas of Sydney outside the CBD. There are no facilities for organised active recreation or school education within this area.

With the exception of the area bounded by Mary, Walker, Marquet and Gauthorpe Streets, almost all of the land on the western side of the railway line has needed remediation.Most of the sediments along the sea wall from Oulton Avenue to the northern tip of the peninsula also require(d) remediation. The balance of the bay remains contaminated by numerous chemicals including phthalates, dioxins, lead, heavy metals and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (coal tars), but to a lesser extent than the areas closer to the sea wall on the eastern shore of the bay.The remediation of the former Union Carbide site, the former Allied Feeds site and a strip of heavily dioxin contaminated sediments in Homebush Bay, have been the subject of extensive analysis, investigations and community activism, including by the Rhodes Peninsula Group. The remediation is approved and monitored by the Department of Planning & Environment with extensive community consultation. A strip of sediment in Homebush Bay between 40 and 100 metres wide and about 850 metres long along the eastern foreshore is being excavated and processed by direct thermal desorption and incineration to remove dioxins and other volatile organics. The remediation proposals were subject to a Parliamentary Inquiry by the NSW Standing Committee on State Development Committee. The remediation was completed in February 2011.The former Berger Paints site near Oulton Avenue, and the CSR Chemicals / Orica Chemicals site on the southern side of Mary Street west of the railway, were also remediated. The Rhodes Waterside Shopping centre is located on the former Berger Paints site. Apartments are being developed on the former Orica Chemicals site, with commercial buildings along the railway line. Apartments are being developed on the former Union Carbide site and the former Allied Feeds site.