Smelly: The Shell oil refinery at Clyde, which is closing this month, has been blamed for the smell of chemicals that wafts over parts of Parramatta. Picture: Wolter Peeters
REPULSED by an odour that wafts over their neighbourhood, those living near Parramatta's industrial precinct of Camellia and Clyde have taken to social media.
Parrastinks is a Facebook page and Twitter handle used by a resident to complain about foul odours attributed to nearby industrial plants.
The convener and administrator of the social media sites believes the Shell oil refinery at Clyde and several food processing plants are the main culprits.
But he also fears he will come under fire from the large corporations and goes only by the alias Joe Tracy.
"There's a few different kinds of smells," he said. "Sometimes it's a petro-chemical smell, like living in a petrol station, but much worse.
"Sometimes it's a chemical odour, which is apparently from a solvent they use — that can be pretty crook."
The Camellia peninsula has long been industrialised, but residents say the odours have worsened.
Mr Tracy has lived in Ermington for four years but said he was driven to complain only about 12 months ago.
"Apparently Shell refinery is closing but it seems to have really ramped up what it is doing out there," he said.
"The smell is disgusting."
Not far from the industrial precinct, outside the Aldi supermarket on Grand Avenue, Rosehill, Kamna Adlakha said she often had to deal with the offensive odours.
"Sometimes I walk back from here to Parramatta, George Street where I live, and it gets bad," she said.
"Just near the bridge (over the James Ruse Drive) that's where it is bad.
"It smells of petrol and chemicals."
Shell Australia did not respond to a request for comment from the Sun.
A spokeswoman for Parramatta Council said several industrial sites had been contacted about odours.