page_title: Bayview Park ferry wharf
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: Bayview Park ferry wharf / History
caption_attribution_description: Concord wharf, Bayview Park
context_page_description: Bayview Park ferry wharf is a commuter wharf located in the Sydney suburb of Concord, New South Wales, on Hen and Chicken Bay. It is situated adjacent the namesake Bayview Park reserve, and upon the site of the historical Burwood ferry wharf, where Canadian exiles from the 19th century Lower Canada Rebellion landed in Sydney. Bayview Park was originally serviced by a Matilda Cruises route, before being included on Sydney Ferries' Parramatta River service in 2006, after a brief one-year service by Palm Beach Ferries. Services to the wharf were decommissioned by Sydney Ferries in October 2013, alongside Balmain West after patronage declined to a weekly average of 28 passengers. No operators currently service the wharf, although the structure still remains, with plans to return private ferry services to the wharf as part of a redevelopment project for a factory in eastern Concord.
context_section_description: Bayview Park ferry wharf, and the namesake public park located adjacent to it, is built upon the site of the historical Burwood ferry wharf, which provided vital transport links from the region to Parramatta and the Sydney CBD in the early 19th century. Burwood wharf is most significant for being the landing site of HMS Buffalo on 26 February 1840, which carried 58 patriote exiles who fought against British colonialists in the Lower Canada Rebellion. The prisoners, who were incarcerated at Longbottom Stockade, formerly located at the present site of Concord Oval, were pardoned four years later, and policies pertaining to responsible government for which the Rebellions of 1837–1838 were fought, were eventually adopted in both Canada and Australia in the decades after the rebellions. A memorial stone to commemorate the 130th anniversary of the landing of HMS Buffalo was originally erected at Cabarita Park in May 1970 by Concord Council, and dedicated by Prime Minister of Canada Pierre Trudeau. The memorial stone was moved to its current location adjacent to the wharf entrance following the development of the Bayview Park reserve in February 1984. A similar memorial stone for the exiles of the Upper Canada Rebellion, who were also carried to Australia aboard MS Buffalo, was erected in Hobart, Tasmania. The geographic features of France Bay, Exile Bay, and Canada Bay, were named in honor of the convicts and their landing at the present-day Bayview Park.
  The Bayview Park reserve, along with the wharf, was opened in 1980. Ferry services to the wharf were mostly run by private ventures, with Matilda Cruises operating its Darling Harbour–Homebush Bay service to the wharf until October 2005. Palm Beach Ferries replaced Matilda Cruises services to the wharf afterwards with their new Darling Harbour–Cape Cabarita and Bayview Park service, though decommissioned the service altogether a year later, after it "failed to attract sufficient patronage to be economically viable." In September 2006, after requests from the constituents of Drummoyne, and its member Angela D'Amore in State Parliament, Sydney Ferries began servicing Bayview Park as part of its Parramatta River route, serving as a terminus on its own dedicated limited-stops and shuttle pattern on the route. Sydney Ferries serviced the wharf for seven years. In October 2013, despite a redevelopment of the wharf enlarging the size of the pontoon to house shelter and seating, Bayview Park was decommissioned from the Sydney Ferries network, alongside Balmain West, both due to low patronage. In the last year of the service, Sydney Ferries saw a weekly average patronage of 28 passengers, compared to 870 weekly passengers at Cabarita, the closest ferry wharf to Bayview Park. The wharf's closure was not without controversy, sparking a political row between the Minister for Transport Gladys Berejiklian and the Minister for Drummoyne John Sidoti.
caption: View of the wharf, with its original smaller pontoon, in September 2007
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