The Legacy of Ernest O’Dea
- Alec Smart
- Jul 14
- 6 min read
Updated: Sep 20
How a Toxic Clay Pit Named After Earnest O'Dea Became One of Camperdown’s Popular Public Parks
By ALEC SMART
O’Dea Reserve in Camperdown was named after the long-serving community-focused career politician Ernest O’Dea (1889 - 1976).
Sandwiched between Ross Street and Salisbury Lane, the small parkland with circular cycle track, barbecues, children’s playground and a fenced-in sandy off-leash dog area is (along with O’Dea Avenue in Zetland) a living memorial to the tireless civic leader.
Viewed from above, the main arena of O'Dea Reserve in Camperdown is oval-shaped. This is not because it was once an Australian Rules football arena. Although organised Aussie Rules matches have been played in NSW since the 1880s (Erskineville Oval nearby, is one of Sydney’s first dedicated Aussie Rules fields), O'Dea Reserve is an oval because it was previously established as a velodrome for bicycle racing and training.
Bike track
Known as Camperdown Velodrome, in 1969 Marrickville Council employees and volunteers from Dulwich Hill Bicycle Club (DHBC) constructed the 250 metre-long concrete track, which opened in 1971.
Motorcyclists would often tow the cyclists into racing position, then accompany them around the course as pacemakers.
Previously, since 1931, cyclists had trained and raced at Henson Park In Marrickville, after it was converted from a deep clay pit for the surrounding brickmaking industries. Over time the pit had filled with rainwater and several boys had drowned, so there was strong community pressure to drain the water and level the ground for sports matches – cycling and rugby.
(Henson Park was then utilised for cycling events at the 1938 British Empire Games, a precursor to the Commonwealth Games.)
Newtown (Jets) Rugby League Club moved to Henson Park in 1936 and co-existed alongside the cyclists for 32 years (the bike track encircled the rugby field). However, in 1968 the cyclists were obliged to move.
According to Sydney Track Cycling History: “Due to pressure from the rugby league club to install television-grade lighting towers (whose recommended location was in the cycling track), the track was removed in the late 1960s and replaced by a grass running track, which is now used in local school athletics carnivals.
“However, in compensation for the loss to the cycling community, the Marrickville Council assisted the Dulwich Hill Cycling Club to find a new venue by providing land that would be suited to a steep-sided concrete velodrome in Ross Street, Camperdown.”
Camperdown Velodrome was the first Sydney cycle arena that featured a slope – 13 degrees – and during its 1970s-80s peak attracted hundreds of spectators to its Friday night races to watch Sydney cycling clubs compete – often featuring world-class athletes.
Abandoned in 1992, by the late 1990s the decrepit former race track was fenced-off from the public, the concrete track overgrown with weeds, the timber seats and shelters rotted. Warning signs were then posted around the perimeter after toxic chemicals from its previous incarnation as a dumpsite were found to be leaching up from the ground.
It wasn’t until 2001 that the site was remediated and converted to the public park, playground, and off-leash dog area that it remains today.
As for those noxious carcinogenic chemicals leaching up through the soil? They were attributed to the park’s pre-velodrome existence as a dumpsite for the neighbouring Fowler Pottery factory.
The aroma of a Caroma
The Fowler Ware pottery business, established in 1837 by Enoch Fowler, began as a single kiln in Ultimo, on a site between what is now Harris and Wattle Streets on Broadway.
In 1854, Fowler expanded the operation and moved his pottery business to Bay Street, Glebe, behind what was then the site of the Lansdowne Inn.
In 1861, Fowler purchased plots of land in the suburb of North Kingston (later renamed Camperdown), in order to be closer to the finest clay sourced from pits in the locale. With the business now diversifying into kitchen ware as well as chimney pots and pipes and pans for agricultural and septic systems, the operation had grown too large for Bay Street.
Fowler established a large factory with several kilns on Parramatta Rd, Camperdown, (between Denison Street and Cardigan Lane), and expanded to cover five acres. Clay was extracted from a pit on land at the rear of the factory bounded by Ross St and Salisbury Lane.
The whole Fowler Ware operation continued successfully in Camperdown until 1906 when it relocated to Marrickville (to be near the clay pits at what became Henson Park football field).
When the Camperdown factory site was closed in 1919, the disused clay pit at the rear was utilised as a community garbage dump for the next 30 years. (Another community garbage dump was located nearby on Frederick Street, Camperdown, which was filled and levelled in 1956 and is now within the grounds of the Royal Alexandra Hospital for Children.)
In 1949, Sydney City Council acquired the former Fowler claypit rubbish tip and covered over the obnoxious waste before redeveloping it as a public recreation area – named O’Dea Reserve – which opened in Oct 1952.
After Enoch Fowler died in 1879, he was buried at Camperdown Cemetery alongside St Stephen’s Church, Newtown. Coincidentally, in 1946, Ernest O’Dea oversaw the conversion of Camperdown Cemetery into a public park, which led to the establishment of the Camperdown Memorial Rest Park.
The Fowler Ware company was sold in 1968 and then subdivided in 1982. In 1987, Australian ceramics maker Caroma – known for their toilets and bathroom suites - bought part of the company. In 2017, manufacturing in Australia ceased and their toilet and bathroom products were made overseas and imported.
Who was Ernest O’Dea?
Nicknamed ‘The Bull’ for his commanding presence and forthright manner, Ernest Charles O’Dea was the son of a bootmaker and initially worked in the family footwear business before becoming active in union organisation. He joined the Labor Party in 1915.
O’Dea was on the right of the left-leaning party, and while a dedicated union activist and staunch supporter of fair wages, he strongly resisted the infiltration of the trade unions by communists.
Curiously, he also opposed retail premises opening on Thursday nights and Saturdays for extended trading.
Born in Armidale, but educated at Christian Brothers College, Newtown (after the family relocated to Sydney), he served as an elected member of the New South Wales Legislative Council for 24 years (April 1943 - April 1967).
He also served as a Councillor on Sydney County Council from 1935 to 1960, having been elected six consecutive times. Furthermore, he was Council Alderman for two separate terms (1924 - 1927 then 1930 - 1965) and simultaneously served four yearly terms as Sydney Lord Mayor (1948 – 1951).
His second wife Joanna was active with charitable organisations during her four stints as Mayoress and subsequently the Camperdown Housing Scheme high-rise apartments for low-income people was named The Joanna O’Dea Court in her honour.
A plaque mounted on a rock remains in Camperdown Park, 100 metres from nearby O’Dea Reserve, which marks Joanna’s planting of a tree. Although the tree is gone, replaced with a much younger sapling, the plaque is captioned: “This tree was planted by Mrs EC Odea 14 March 1959.”
She was named ‘Mrs E.C. O’Dea’ according to the then-tradition that women took not just their husband’s surname, but the initials of his first name too in official communiques.
It was while Ernest O’Dea was President of Sydney Council (1958 – 1959) that he oversaw the upgrade of a toxic tip in the back streets of Camperdown into a community reserve, which then adopted his surname.
According to Sydney Track Cycling History: “The new reserve was opened in October 1952 by then Lord Mayor Ernest O’Dea. At the council’s request it was named after him in recognition of his efforts to create it. At the opening ceremony, the Mayor said that it was the realisation of a 28-year old ambition of his to convert the clay pit (where he used to play as a child) into a playing reserve.
“The former pit was turned into two women’s vigoro pitches surrounded by terraced lawns. It would be used by women at the weekends and children on weekdays….”
Introduced to Australia in 1919, vigoro is a women and girl's sport that is played by two teams of 12 opposing players. Two bowlers take turns to bowl consecutively — one with a red ball, the other with a white ball. Played with a bat shaped like a kayak paddle, it combines elements of cricket and tennis. Popular in the early 19th century, Vigoro is now only played in a few regions in Queensland.
“In July 1968, the management of O’Dea Reserve was transferred from Sydney City Council to Marrickville Council when parts of Camperdown and Newtown were added to the Marrickville municipality.”
Soon after, Marrickville Council converted O’Dea Reserve to a velodrome. The Dulwich Hill Cycling Club relocated to Canterbury velodrome at Tempe (built 1982), where the riders remain.
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