Cooks

The Cooks River is a 23 kilometre long urban waterway of south-western Sydney, New South Wales, Australia emptying into Botany Bay. The course of the river has been altered to accommodate various developments along its shore. It serves as part of a stormwater system for the 100 square kilometres of its watershed, and many of the original streams running into it have been turned into concrete lined channels. The tidal sections support significant areas of mangroves, bird, and fish life, and are used for recreational activities.
At Belfield it joins with the Cox Creek Channel and flows in an easterly direction. The canal widens and deepens as it picks up stormwater from surrounding suburbs, such as Campsie and becomes influenced by tidal action.
The river commences at Graf Park, Yagoona, then flows approximately north-west direction through to Chullora. It reaches its northern-most point at Strathfield, where it leads into a concrete open canal, no more than one meter wide and thirty centimetres deep, and heads towards the south-east.
Part of the river, where it runs through Strathfield Golf Course, has had the concrete lining removed and the plants have returned and create an environment where the water is filtered and runs clean, and wildlife has returned. One section here is called the Chain of Ponds.