But you mentioned how in the first half century of colonisation, the poorer white invaders also derive resources from the swamp too.

Yeah.

I mean, colonists didn't occupy and try to live on this area until really about the 1850s or 1860s.

But before that, the valley was ringed by quite dense... areas like Camperdown, Redfern, Newtown.

So yeah the area was a magnet really and treated I mean what colonists brought was an understanding of commons you know that there was that a commons was an area often a wasteland that you could roam over and find enough to survive on.

And I think colonists here treated Gumbamurra in much the same way, as an informal commons in a sense.

It was owned by Robert Wardell and the eastern side by Thomas Smyth, but people nevertheless walked down, found eggs, duck eggs, took wood for their fireplaces, cut grass for their bedding, and used the resources of the swamp in order to kind of help them survive in lean times.

Why is that important?