Oatley Bay is a bay located in the

Georges River Council Georges River Council is a local government area located in the St George region of Sydney located south of the CBD, in New South Wales, Australia. The Council was formed on 12 May 2016 from the merger of the Kogarah City Council and Hurstvi ...

, surrounded by the suburbs of Oatley, Hurstville Grove and

Connells Point Connells Point is a suburb in southern Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. Connells Point is 20 kilometres south of the Sydney central business district and is part of in the local government area of the Georges River Counc ...

The bay is part of the

Georges River The Georges River, also known as Tucoerah River, is an intermediate tide-dominated drowned valley estuary, located to the south and west of Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. The river travels for approximately in a north and then easterly ...

waterway. It is popular for cycling, walking, children's play, picnics and barbecues, and is also used for boating. The area around the bay is built-up. Reserves and parks in the bay include: Poulton Park, Redin Place Reserve,

Oatley Point Reserve Oatley Point Reserve is a reserve located in the Sydney suburb of Oatley. It has panoramic views of Georges River and Oatley Bay, as well as some of the highest quality remnant coastal forest in the Municipality of Kogarah. It is home to a c ...

Oatley Pleasure Grounds Oatley Pleasure Grounds is a bush park located in Oatley, New South Wales. The whole park is . History A private park was started by Harry Linmark before 1934. A band, weekly on Sunday, previously held entertaining shows at the park. Chinese Ne ...

and

Moore Reserve Moore Reserve is a 14.2 hectare park surrounded by the Sydney suburbs of Oatley, New South Wales, Oatley, Mortdale and Hurstville Grove. It is the second largest public space in the Municipality of Kogarah. Originally part of the north west arm ...

. The bay has a shallow depth, averaging about 1.5 metres, and is the end point for all run-off from the approximately 468-504

hectare The hectare (; SI symbol: ha) is a non-SI metric unit of area equal to a square with 100-metre sides (1 hm2), or 10,000 m2, and is primarily used in the measurement of land. There are 100 hectares in one square kilometre. An acre is a ...

Oatley Bay catchment. There is a ramp for access by boat.

Ecology

The bay contains endangered flora and ecological communities, with more than two hundred plant species recorded. Oatley Bay also has one of the largest areas of

mangroves A mangrove is a shrub or tree that grows in coastal saline or brackish water. The term is also used for tropical coastal vegetation consisting of such species. Mangroves are taxonomically diverse, as a result of convergent evolution in several ...

in the Georges River, on the eastern shore at Poulton Park. There was a history of

oyster Oyster is the common name for a number of different families of salt-water bivalve molluscs that live in marine or brackish habitats. In some species, the valves are highly calcified, and many are somewhat irregular in shape. Many, but not al ...

fishing in the bay. HurstvilleGrove

Ecological damage, protest and regeneration

The bay, mangrove swamps, rivers and bushland were damaged in the twentieth century by material dumped into them, partly as a result of the council's land reclamation policy. The material dumped included toxic chemicals from industry. Moore Reserve was the site of a municipal rubbish tip. Dredging had also been carried out from the 1930s. All this resulted in "extensive destruction of habitat". Building along the shores of the bay also resulted in vegetation and tree coverage in the parks being almost completely destroyed. From the 1960s, residents protested about the environmental damage to the bay, and asked that the council act to protect the landscape and its native plants. This has been described as a "campaign ... attempting to defend a damaged and polluted river and the scarred remnants of its endemic bushland". As of 1999,

water quality Water quality refers to the chemical, physical, and biological characteristics of water based on the standards of its usage. It is most frequently used by reference to a set of standards against which compliance, generally achieved through tr ...

continued to be affected by chemicals leaching from the material dumped in the water and the swamps. Current council policy, as part of the Oatley Bay Creek Rehabilitation Project, is to regenerate, re-vegetate and conserve the biodiversity of the area, including the bushland and wetlands, and to improve the marine habitat. Some parts of Oatley Bay Creek continue to have high levels of biodiversity. Council policy is also to maintain the area for public recreation, both passive (play, picnics) and active (sports). As of 2003, there continue to be environmental problems caused by mountain biking, rubbish and foxes. In 2003, the bay was proposed for inclusion in the Great Kai'mia Way. As of 2002, there was an incomplete

Aboriginal land claim Aboriginal title is a common law doctrine that the land rights of indigenous peoples to customary tenure persist after the assumption of sovereignty under settler colonialism. The requirements of proof for the recognition of aboriginal title, ...

relating to some of the bay area.

References

{{coord, 33, 59, S, 151, 05, E, display=title, region:AU_type:waterbody_source:GNS-enwiki Bays of New South Wales Georges River Council