History
The use of the site as a waste disposal operation for customs, and neighbouring councils including Waverley and Woollahra Councils, is quite different from its earlier history as a major industrial site, milling flour in the early 19th century and producing bricks through the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
Even more different still is the earliest known use of the site as the hunting, fishing and living ground of the Kamilaroi people, a sub-clan of the Eora who were the first Aboriginal people to make contact with European explorers.
The Waterloo Flour Mills was the original business to operate on the site. The Mill, which was owned by Daniel Cooper and Solomon Levy, was one of the largest commercially successful employers of labour in the district during the first decades of the 19th century.
The Waterloo Company & the Industrial Brick Co, which operated on the site between c.1914 and 1966, were similarly successful major employers. A number of large quarries were excavated across the site (and other parts of the Green Square Town Centre) during this period top extract sand and shale. These quarries were subsequently backfilled with hard fill material, generally originating from road works in the area.
The Waverley and Woollahra Councils jointly purchased the site in 1966 and obtained approval to construct the Incinerator in 1968. The Incinerator commenced operation in 1972 and operated for some 25 years before closing in 1997. The site has remained disused since this time.
