People make the world go around

Whilst mooching around waiting to have coffee with friends who are down for the week from the North Coast, I headed over to the old Camperdown Cemetery which is huddled around St Stephen's in Newtown. I think this intersection could be called 'busy' even with no human activity whatsoever! Not sure I would have a lot of confidence riding a bike around that corner.

Woodblocking

As Sydney matured as a city, the citizenry felt the need to upgrade city services. During the 1880s the push was on to 'do' something about the state of the dirt cart tracks that passed for city streets.

Wood was used to weigh down manhole covers too. This gem is in Philip Street outside Football (NRL) headquarters.

This perceived need arose at around the same time as the development of the northern side of the harbour which was covered with tallowwood trees - a variety of eucalypt. Nowadays we may suck in an audible sigh of dismay, but the supply in those days appeared plentiful. The trees were felled and milled into blocks for creating 'paved' roadways. Well before the days of Mr Ford's assembly line, a team of men and boys would pass the blocks, stomp the blocks, tar the blocks, then sand the blocks. It was backbreaking and menial and assaulted the sinuses!

These two examples, both found in Philip St, show the gradual change from woodblock to bitument and concrete to weigh down manhole covers

Woodblocking fell into disrepute and disuse by the end of the 1920s when it was clear the motor car was here to stay and that woodblocks would not survive both the increased weight and the increased traffic. Woodblocking gave way to bitumen.


Above is a photograph from The City of Sydney site, showing Castlereagh Street in the early '20s. Part of the road surface has been washed away and spot filled with bitumen, even though the rest of the surface was woodblock.

Below is a section of George St (North) outside the Orient Hotel where a sample of woodblocking has been recently relaid to enable us to see how it used to be. Not far away, through the Argyle Cut and beside the Garrison Church there is a section of road surface where the layers of bitument are washed away during periods of intense raid, exposing the woodblocking beneath.

A haven for foodies

Glebe Point Road runs the full length of the spur, from near the intersection of Broadway, Parramatta Road and City Road, the 2kms down to a dead end at the water's edge that is Johnson Bay/Black Wattle Bay. The first 500m of this is awash with ethnic eateries: sprouting up to cater for the massive influx of international students to the two universities in close proximity - The University of Technology and The University of Sydney - and to the experimentation of the general student population.

Glebe Point Road is a prime example of the geographer's term "ribbon development".

Homeward bound

As this lad is wending his way home from uni on a Friday afternoon, so today I wend my way home after ten days in and around Hobart.

Home where my thought's escaping, Home where my music's playing, Home where my love lies waiting Silently for me.

Coffee dean

What is a coffee "dean"?

I know a coffee bean. I know a coffee den.

But what is a coffee "dean"?

Switching to autopilot whilst I galivant around southern Tasmania for 10 days, returning Monday 5th October.

Street & Lane: Lombard

Part of my morning walk: east of Glebe Point Road, between Bridge Road and Ferry Road.

Performing Arts - Treading the boards (1)

Walsh Bay, and the timber wharves extending out from Hickson Street, is rapidly becoming Sydney's performing arts "engine-room". The wharves house The Sydney Theatre Company, The Sydney Dance Company, The Philharmonia Choirs and The Song Company. It is the site for The Sydney Writers' Festival each May.

Much of the Walsh Bay wharf area was demolished and rebuilt after the devastating 1913 bubonic plague which the government of the time used as an excuse to reclaim large swathes of land along that short wharf section of the harbour, and back up the slope to The Rocks. This was prior to the construction of the approaches to the harbour bridge and the massive works required for the southern pylon of the bridge. Due to shortages of materials after World War 1 timber was used instead of the planned concrete. The wharves were two-storey with steel bridges - originally planned for 1921 but put on hold until the 1930s - giving upper and lower access.

Hickson Street - named after Robert Hickson, an Irishman who was the first president of the Sydney Harbour Trust - was carved from the steep slope that ran down to Walsh Bay. Henry Walsh - after whom the wharf area was named and who migrated to Australia from Ireland in 1877 - was the Chief Publc Works Engineer between 1901 and 1919 instigating improvements to the ports of Sydney and Newcastle.

Never more than a couple of minutes away

Five years ago, there was never one around when you wanted one. Maybe it is just that I live on the airport corridor. The drivers are more knowledgeable and friendlier and the vehicles are cleaner and more comfortable.

Yesterday, a driver (with a young family) was saying that the GFC has decimated his takings over the last two months - mainly because CabCharge is not being taken up by businesses.

This is taken along George Street near the intersection of Park Street - the premier block of the city, adjacent to the Town Hall.

Tasteless visibility

Who had this brilliant idea?

They simply look like boy-toys. They look little different from the street-racers they are supposedly meant to curb. How is garish modernity meant to inspire admiration and respect?

The symbol of The Cross

It is difficult to convey to people who do not live in Sydney, how iconic the Coke sign at the top of The Cross is. Kings Cross is an inner-city suburb of Sydney - on the first ridge eastwards - and has a reputation for crime and a range of unsavoury behaviours. When I was coming of age it was the suburb with the highest density of people per-square-whatever, although I suspect this has now been overtaken by Pyrmont.

The neon sign - erected in 1966 - dominates William Street and is a recognised Sydney meeting point, along with "under the clock at Central" and "on the Town Hall steps". This old newsprint image - taken at the end of 1974 - shows KX tunnel under construction.

Transported by sleeve

In 1992, 60 years after the Sydney Harbour Bridge was opened, a second crossing was forged from East Circular Quay to North Sydney, easing considerably the congestion on the Bridge. However, this time the crossing was below the water. The first photograph shows the entrance to the Harbour Tunnel from the Domain descending gradually beneath the Botanic Gardens about 35m below ground level, the tunnel continues beneath the Opera House Forecourt until it enters the immersed tunnel section which rests on the seabed 25m below water level.

It continues through this sleeve for about 1km before gradually rising the 55m to where my father is sitting on the bench surfacing about 300m behind him. The two photographs on either side of Dad, show a similar scene to each other but from opposing directions. The photo on the left is taken from the northern shore and shows the greenery of the Botanic Gardens in the centre of the image and the stretch of water to the right of the SOH beneath which the tunnel rests. The photo on the right is taken from the Tarpeian Way (on the southern shore )within the greenery of the Botanic Gardens. Beneath that chugging ferry, 86,000 cars each day pass through the immersed sleeve that is two totally separate 2 lane highways (oops ... lowways). The sleeve rests in a trench carved through the sea-floor (which was back-filled) with the sleeve then encased in a form of rock armour to protect it from maritime disasters and earthquakes.

I have not been able to date this old photograph of that sweep of Circular Quay that I have now shown on a couple of occasions. However, there is a horse and cart in the foreground, the tram appears to be of the trolley variety pre-electrification, and I can see the towers of Fort Macquarie on Bennelong Point which makes it pre-1905 at the latest. The tunnel now goes beneath that steam ship that is on the diagonal.

Going home

Going home, going home I'm just going home Quiet light, some still day I'm just going home It's not far, just close by Through an open door Work all done, care laid by Going to fear no more. Annie Haslam

Cahill Expressway above Circular Quay, 6pm. Traffic mainly heading North toward the Bridge.