Latest news with #NicoleXiang
Sydney Morning Herald
19-05-2025
- General
- Sydney Morning Herald
This council spent millions on a beach. Just don't bring your cossie
Manicured gardens give way to gleaming sand, as the water sloshes gently against weathered stone blocks. You could be at Lake Como – or Barangaroo's Marrinawi Cove. You might even be tempted to take a dip. An angry red warning brings you to your senses: 'This is not a designated swim site,' it reads. 'Use of this facility may be hazardous.' But McIlwaine Park in Rhodes – part of a project to make the Parramatta River swimmable by 2025 at a cost of $8.7 million – won't be hosting bathers any time soon. Nicole Xiang, 44, regularly brings her children to the park. They enjoy the new playground and picnic shelters from an additional $1.6 million upgrade this year, but she remains unconvinced by the foreshore. 'I wouldn't call it a beach. I think it's more like a large sandpit. We hardly use it,' she says. She has no illusions about going for a swim in the suburb where Union Carbide manufactured Agent Orange during the Vietnam War. 'You just don't know what's what in the water.' Loading The authorities do: although McIlwaine Park was identified as a possible swim site in 2018, testing later deemed it unsafe. Canada Bay Council, with state funding, went ahead with the beach, which is separated from the water by a sandstone seawall. Visitors are encouraged to wade in tidal rock pools at the water's edge, though Xiang says she remains wary.
The Age
19-05-2025
- General
- The Age
This council spent millions on a beach. Just don't bring your cossie
Manicured gardens give way to gleaming sand, as the water sloshes gently against weathered stone blocks. You could be at Lake Como – or Barangaroo's Marrinawi Cove. You might even be tempted to take a dip. An angry red warning brings you to your senses: 'This is not a designated swim site,' it reads. 'Use of this facility may be hazardous.' But McIlwaine Park in Rhodes – part of a project to make the Parramatta River swimmable by 2025 at a cost of $8.7 million – won't be hosting bathers any time soon. Nicole Xiang, 44, regularly brings her children to the park. They enjoy the new playground and picnic shelters from an additional $1.6 million upgrade this year, but she remains unconvinced by the foreshore. 'I wouldn't call it a beach. I think it's more like a large sandpit. We hardly use it,' she says. She has no illusions about going for a swim in the suburb where Union Carbide manufactured Agent Orange during the Vietnam War. 'You just don't know what's what in the water.' Loading The authorities do: although McIlwaine Park was identified as a possible swim site in 2018, testing later deemed it unsafe. Canada Bay Council, with state funding, went ahead with the beach, which is separated from the water by a sandstone seawall. Visitors are encouraged to wade in tidal rock pools at the water's edge, though Xiang says she remains wary.
