About this time Council was running out of places to dispose of municipal rubbish. It was raised in November 1971 by Mayor Rathbone that the market garden should be considered as a short term measure. About 1972 the weekly tenancy of the Chinese market gardeners, Fun Low, Chune Hor and Ah Look, was terminated. An aerial photo of 1977 shows the site cleared of garden beds, levelled and in use for sports. The Rockdale Women's Netball Complex opened officially on 2 April 1978. The cottage has been used by Rockdale City Council as storage rooms for salvaged interior fixtures and plant nursery equipment, in a public park. Wilson's Cottage has been empty for many years and is in a very poor and vulnerable condition. The future of this diminutive 19th century cottage will only be made possible if its conservation and restoration is undertaken and the building is given a viable future use. Description Wilson's Farmhouse sits in the north-west corner of the Women's Sports Field, approximately 10m from a dark brick 1970s two-storey house on the neighbouring site to its north. It is now located in a shallow hollow created by filling the former market garden area to create netball courts and their associated car parking area. The site contains few elements relating to its early development. The only remaining site element relating to the history of Wilson's Farmhouse is one Peruvian peppercorn tree (Schinus molle) to the north-west of the cottage. The open space formed by the netball courts to the south of the cottage occupies most of the land retained by James Wilson after his 1863 sale to John Bowmer. It also includes the land on the other side of Muddy Creek sold to John Bowmer. A suburban housing subdivision now occupies the northern boundary along Bryant Street. The rest of Wilson's land is still open space. The farmhouse is one of the earliest surviving houses in Rockdale from a period when the place was undeveloped and the land was rural. It is associated with early market gardening in the area, has a long association with the Wilson family who farmed the land, which was originally 18 acres and 20 perches. The property is also associated with Chinese market gardeners who leased the land from 1930 to 1952. An earth berm that raises the level of the ground adjacent to the netball courts runs parallel to the