4. What would I miss? Sydney's public transport ...

In October 2009, I had to surrender my Driver's Licence which I had acquired in August 1965 - my 17th birthday. Now that is a massive challenge, but it was done for medical reasons, and there was no arguing. To avoid spiraling into a slough of despond, my camera and I went more and more places. I learned the routes, and checked the timetables. I began to think nothing of changing lines, of changing modes. I qualified for the Seniors $2.50 per day card, and now I have a digital Opal card.

I would miss the public transport in Sydney. I travel by all three of these modes. I also travel by taxi because I have a disabled card that grants me a 50% discount. I know there are many people in this vast city who whinge about trains and buses being late, Who whinge about public transport being dirty, squashed, and smelly. That never occurs to me, but I travel out of peak hours. There is also a light rail system (aka trams) that the government is beginning to construct. So ... if I moved away from Sydney, I would miss the public transport.

Putting my lens where my mouth is

Never one to shirk 'calling' an outrageous claim, I blithely put my lens where my mouth was earlier this week when Peter from Sydney Emerald City claimed that he had found Plane trees with the most autumn colour in Sydney. Having observed quite a few Plane Trees this week, I think I have concluded that they do not have autumn colour, instead the leaves turn yellow, then brown, and when dead, fall off. Semantics, I guess.

I kept my eyes peeled as I took the 389 bus, the 380 bus, the 378 bus, and the train down to Gymea. I found quite a few examples but settled upon this fine stand of Plane Trees along Oxford Street, Woollahra.

They are within a centre verge of Oxford Street, where the carriageway runs along the edge of Centennial Park near the water tower before you get to the Waverley Bus Depot. In fact, this central verge used to house a double tram track prior to the 1960 cessation of that service.

Plane Trees (the London variety) are the tree of choice along the entirety of Oxford Street, from Darlinghurst to Bondi. Give it another 25 years and they will be quite striking, with their winter bones, their summer shade, and their autumn colour. According to a polemic issued by the City of Sydney the Plane Tree is 'the most widely planted street tree in Europe, North America, New Zealand, and Australia.' It has a robust structure, and is resistant to urban conditions. It is tolerant to urban pollution, and compaction. AND ... contrary to popular contention, does not add to the woes of asthmatics.

So, Peter and Jim: here is my riposte. The first image was taken at 5:01pm, and the last image was taken at 3:26pm.

Taronga before the chair-lift

The good ole days weren't really, you know. I don't reckon.

Taronga Zoo has been clinging to a harbour cliffside since 1916, and from then until the very late '50s it was serviced by trams, either that or shanks's pony. Getting over there was the easy part: you went by ferry to bottom gate, or by car to top gate. If you went down, you had to clamber back up to your car. If you came by ferry it was the hard yards as you viewed the animals.


So, Taronga Zoo was serviced by a tram route that took visitors from the Athol Wharf up to the top gate, facilitating an easy ramble one-way only. As I meandered down the other day, I saw remnants of the tramway down Athol Wharf Road. See the image of the black bike? Look at the upper right quadrant and you will see a hook in the rockface for keeping the electric cabelling in place as the trams rattled along. I can find these everywhere now!


But Athol Wharf Road comes off Bradleys Head Road at top gate, and is a very steep incline as some of these images attest. More so than some of the trams could cope with. Three times they careered on down the road, past the wharf and into the harbour, having to be ignominously dredged out by crane. This happened in 1942, 1952 and 1958. This image shows the 1958 plunge.


The trams finished in the late '50s and buses took over the same route. They are still there, the buses. Plying their way from bottom gate to top gate, and thence to Mosman or to Balmoral Beach. I am unable to date the commencement of the chairlift, but here it is in all its glory.

Waverley Depot

In 1902, a tram depot was established on this site in Bondi on the York St boundary of Centennial Park. In 1959 it ceased being a tram depot and instead became a bus depot.


This conversion resulted in the loss of many of the historic, though jumbled, buildings on the site, with just this one original remaining from the 1902 construction period.


Why is it that the past is always so much more romantic, and the present merely pedestrian?

Then & Now - Bondi Junction

My grandmother, devastated by the death of her youngest son in a traffic accident in London, moved from her corner shop in suburban Hornsby to a semi-detached terrace in North Bondi in August 1956. Between then and her death, aged 88+, in April 1984, I spent many a summer holiday in and around the Bondi area. The changes, as you would expect over those ensueing 55 years, were massive.

Compare the first two photographs. On the right-hand-side in each photograph, one can just discern a trio of two storey terraces. Many of the shops retain the shame shell on the RHS but the LHS has been totally rebuilt. In my opinion, the entire mall is sad and faded, and just sooo full of ... of ... stuff!


In the good old days ... Hah!

Electric trams trundled through the main shopping strip of Bondi Junction from 1884, ceasing in 1960. Bondi Junction is up the hill from Bondi Beach. After the wilful destruction of the tramways system by a government lacking vision and unable to stand up to vested interests, a section of Oxford Street was converted into a mall and through traffic diverted to 'Sid Einfeld Drive' which is an elevated roadway a couple of blocks to the right (north) of the top photograph.

The two modern photographs were taken only a few metres apart the first looking west and the one with the buses, looking east . Rising in front of me to the east, was the massive bulk of the new Bondi Junction which is dominated by a Westfield shopping mall streteching out of photo to both the left and the right - into which I hesitate to venture because I so easily get lost and then I panic.

Atop the Cross - William Street

Here we are atop the Kings Cross tunnel looking south at the old fire station. This is the point where Darlinghurst Road and Victoria St cross over (in the form of a x). A whole swag of this land was 'given' to the first NSW Surveyor General, Sir Thomas Mitchell for services rendered. By all accounts a most vengeful and vindictive chap.


Can you just see the fire-station above the tram in the LH image? Both images taken in the late 50s, the second shows the view back up William St from the city proper, about a kilometre. Of course, I am ignoring the elephant in the room: the giant neon Coke sign.


Comparison of two maps: then (1950s)and now. See the tram lines through the centre of William St. Many of those LH buildings down WIlliam Street have been demolished.

View Larger Map

And finally, from beneath the Coke sign, looking west from Kings Cross to the city proper.

Behind Bars

The same Cutler Footway that I have featured this week. The walkway - as opppsed to the viaduct - is encased in barbed wire reminding me of the scenes where Steve McQueen was checking out the fencing on the internment camp in 'The Great Escape'. It is as though every man and his dog is hell bent on ending it all and it is the role of the 'nanny state' to prevent this. The Sydney Harbour Bridge has similar barbed cages.

Now this is really scarey ...

This is the viaduct that I featured on Monday, which crosses Boundary road, Paddington, at the back of St Vincents Hospital. I would cross it every other day, by either foot or bus. It was constructed in 1916 for a second tram route from the city to Bondi. The trams were discontinued in the late 50s and this viaduct became a roadway. The only bus route that uses it is the 389. Andrew found the original plans (how did you DO that?) and the walkway was not included.

And look at the condition of the walkway from underneath!


My guess is that the walkway was attached after the tramtracks were ripped up. We had a governor then with the name Cutler. However, he had a tin leg so naming a walkway after him is a bit off. Australians have an advanced sense of the ridiculous ... but ...

A golden oldie

Thursday evening at the very beginning of the homeward 'rush', commuters stride up the rise to Paddington Town Hall, built in the 1880s, the foundation stone bearing the proud name, Sir Henry Parkes. The clock tower was added in 1905. Within this building is my local library, and a cinema, Chauvel, which screens independent and foreign language films. The last film I saw there was 'Me and Orson Welles. We are looking east.


Looking west in 1960, back the way we just came,we see trams coming and going. Our current Paddington Reservoir Gardens was a delapidated service station. The creamy yellow is a much better shade for the Town Hall, don't you think?


A member of the Mellow Yellow Monday community.

Swinging along the running-board ...

This is a brilliant Australian picture book. I acknowledge Hathorn & Vivas as the owners of this creative work.


When I was eight years old, my grandmother - Sylvia - moved to Bondi. The memory of our holidays at her place ('up near the stink pipe in Blair Street') created within me an enduring passion for Sydney trams and for the trams of both the 380 and the 389 line, both of which terminated at North Bondi. Perfect!

As I write these lines, I can see and hear the conductor call for fares, snap open his ticket book, tear out the required stub and punch it with his doohickey in the corner of his 'book'.


When trams to Bondi ceased during 1960, the terminus remained as a bus turn-a-round and the salt spray and neglect took its toll. It is only in the last 5 years that this little pocket of Bondi is receiving the focus that it deserves. The latte set is moving on in.


This is a delightful book which I am hunting for to add to 'Ma's Chest' for my soon-to-be grand-daughter. I like the idea of connecting her to my past. The story reeks of the working-class during the depression, of uncomplicated people trying to get ahead. The illustrations are a delight and so perfectly complement the text.

So, does Kieran get to work alongside little-mister-tough Saxon? Can he cut it in the big time of swinging along the running-board selling newspapers to the commuters? I am on the look out for my own copy of this masterpiece.


And, yes, the Bondi trams did 'shoot through'. It was a busy run, and to get up the long drag from the beach up to the junction, they needed to be flat-tack. The last Bondi tram to "shoot through" was during the early hours of Sunday, February 28,1960. The R class corridor tram was crammed with last tram riders and had a boisterous journey. It left Bondi at 3.30 am and arrived at the Dowling Street depot minus most light globes, some handrails, all upholstered seat cushions, the lifting jack, a headlight glass and all destination rolls.


'The Tram to Bondi Beach', text by Libby Hawthorn, illustrations by Julie Vivas, published by Harper-Collins in 1992.

Find it. Buy it. Read it. Treaure it. It is the history of this wonderful city.