Once a natural watercourse abound with native vegetation and wildlife, Iron Cove Creek was transformed in the late 19th century into a stormwater channel that drains a fairly large catchment area in Sydney's inner-western suburbs.

Water birds and snakes were abundant in this area and these, like the possums and gliders that inhabited the treetops, often fell victim to the predations [citation needed] of children with improvised bows and arrows and slingshots and their elders armed with more sophisticated weapons [ambiguous].

As early as 1880 Iron Cove Creek was perceived to present hazards both to the health and convenience of the local community; it tended to flood in heavy rain and to become stagnant during dry weather and, with the sanitary conditions that then prevailed, was a source of typhoid fever.

In his book Between Two Highways: the story of early Croydon, Eric Dunlop points out that as a result of the construction of canals and tunnels:[citation needed]the waters now drained away quickly, the swamps and pools disappeared, and as the banks of the main stream were filled in and leveled to the edges of the canal its wooded foreshores vanished and more land became available for settlement.Iron Cove Creek begins as a tiny trickle in a narrow channel near Norton Street in Croydon, where it appears as a stormwater tunnel finally exiting into daylight.

The course of Church Street was originally defined by the track used by Burwood residents to attend St John's Ashfield, who crossed the Creek at a conveniently located large fallen tree.

This problem is enhanced by the fact popular fast-food restaurants and a service station are located adjacent to Iron Cove Creek on Parramatta Road.

Increasing salinity in the lower sections of Iron Cove Creek largely controls partitioning between the particulate and dissolved phases of copper, lead and zinc.