In a Nine News segment, reporter Mike Dalton profiles 19‑year‑old activist Lachlan Hyde, who is campaigning to have a Western Sydney waterway—commonly referred to as a creek—officially renamed and re‑classified as a river. Hyde has secured meetings with three state parliamentarians (Cabramatta, Bankstown, Fairfield) and presented a dossier of over 200 years of historical references—real‑estate posters, newspaper clippings, and archival records—showing the waterway has long been called a river by locals. The Geographical Names Board initially rejected the proposal, prompting Hyde to lobby further. The segment discusses how the re‑classification could raise the waterway’s profile, attract government funding for environmental cleanup, and reflect community identity. The interview ends with light‑hearted speculation about Hyde’s future political ambitions.
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More often than not, it takes phone calls, protests, and petitions over an extended period of time to reverse government decisions. But one young advocate has impressed many at Macquarie Street as he takes on the bureaucracy to change the name of a creek running through Western Sydney.
These 3 state parliamentarians, the members for Cabramatta, Bankstown, and Fairfield, have coordinated their busy schedules to meet with this man, 19-year-old Lachlan Hyde. It was a very productive discussion. Are they onside, mate?
That's the million-dollar question, and yes, they are. They're all proudly onside.
Lachlan has organised this meeting to lobby for an idea forged during COVID-induced exercise, to change the geographical reference of this Western Sydney snake of water No one ever says it's a creek, you know, look at it, that's quite clearly a river.
And all the locals say as much? Absolutely.
So Lachlan and his head would take their idea to the government body that names the land, the Geographical Names Board, and they said no.
To which I responded, well, there's, you know, over 200 years' worth of evidence of people, you know, locals calling it a river, real estate posters in the state library calling it a river. Newspaper clippings in the National Archives calling it a river.
And now the baby-faced lobbyist is drafting this Macquarie Street triumvirate to the cause.
The idea of renaming it and also reclassifying it does give us an opportunity to sort of put this place on the map.
Hopefully if they do change the river, it may give us more funding to clean up the river. The Names Board will again consider Lachlan's proposal this month. Any political aspirations, mate?
