For all of Armidale's history, the creeklands have been open lands of some description. This is not uncommon for towns in northern NSW. Compared with the towns and cities in the north eastern area of NSW, it can be seen that dedicating the lands around creeks to parks and playing fields is common, such as Armidale has done (see fig. five).

When the town plans of Armidale are compared with the topographic map, much of the development in the town has been concentrated in the valley between North Hill and South Hill. In general, towns and cities are built on floodplains because they are flat and next to water (Christopherson, R., 2000:421), as Armidale has been. The areas around the creek that have been left as open space (see fig. six) would have been left for flooding reasons, as the town is not built above the flood zone. As there are some sections of the creek that are heavily built up, these open areas are needed as a place for flood waters to go.

Figure Five: Landuse of watercourses in north-eastern NSW towns

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Figure Six: Creeklands below Kirkwood Street