Soldier Settlement Park

Looks nice

This reserve is bounded by Valley Road, Macquarie Avenue, and the backyard fences of properties on Valinda Crescent and Lawson Street. Leumeah Creek "flows" through the reserve during times of heavy rainfall, at other times it consists of a series of puddles of stagnant water. There are no picnic tables, BBQ facilities, public toilets, or examples of playground equipment here.

While this reserve offers little in the way of human recreation, it does at least provide some sort of habitat for various species of animals. If you do consider visiting, remember that these species may include snakes and mosquitos. I don't remember previously visiting this reserve during my almost 35 years of living in the area. My conclusion is that I wasn't missing much.

The reserve's name evokes the Soldier Settlement Scheme, whereby soldiers returning from World War One were given the opportunity to be provided with small landholdings complete with a small cottage, the idea being that they could engage in various agricultural pursuits in order to generate an income. The Land allotments in this area of Campbelltown were dedicated to poultry farming.

The scheme was not entirely successful, for reasons including the returning soldier's lack of experience with agriculture, government interference, and the economic depression of 1929. Despite this, the last of these poultry farms in the area around this reserve lasted until 1960, the surrounding land having being rezoned for residential development in 1959. Even today, if you walk the streets of this part of Campbelltown, you may notice one or two of the original farm cottages of the scheme, standing in some contrast to the neighbouring houses that were built in the 1960s or 70s.

This is just a guy's house that is to scared of spiders to go outside so his yard is overgrown.... I think they mean the reserve that is behind the houses but it is not a park, Just a creek....