Carradah Park – Waverton

Carradah Park is named after the Cammeraygal man, Carradah, who befriended Lieutenant Lidgbird Ball, after whom nearby Balls Head was named in the 1790s. The Aboriginal man reportedly adopted Ball’s surname as a sign of respect. He was one of the few Cammeraygal people specifically named in the early colonial accounts.
Although no known sites remain, this area would have been used by Aboriginals from the Cammeraygal tribe. The first recorded occupation of the area by Europeans was in 1825 when Edward Wollstonecraft acquired a grant of 524 acres of land. The site was leased to the Anglo-Persian Oil Company Ltd (the predecessor of BP) in 1920, and the first storage tank was built around 1923. The terminal was reduced to minimum operation in 1993, and the fuel storage infrastructure was demolished in 1996.
In 1997 the then Premier Bob Carr announced that this site, together with the Coal Loader and Caltex Sites on the western side of the Waverton peninsula would be preserved as Public Open Space. A Strategic Master Plan for the sites was completed in 1999, and construction of the newly-designed park lands was completed in 2005.