The Botany Bay Hotel at Banksmeadow is one of the oldest pubs in the eastern suburbs, built in 1865.
Mill Pond is part of the wetland area in the southern suburb of Botany. The clouds were reflected beautifully in the pond on this day. This view is from Botany Road, looking towards the elevated Southern Cross Drive and underpasses. The view in the opposite direction can be seen here.
St Mark's Anglican Church is located on the corner of Darling Point Road and Greenoaks Avenue in the eastern suburb of Darling Point. This heritage listed sandstone church was designed by Edmund Blacket in 1852 in the Victorian Romanesque style, based on the 13th century English Gothic style. It was the venue for the fictional wedding in the classic Australian comedy movie Muriel's Wedding.
This ferry wharf sits at the end of McKell Park, in the eastern suburb of Darling Point. It is serviced by Sydney Ferries which provides a regular service between Circular Quay and Watsons Bay. Clark Island is the small island that can be seen a short distance away in Sydney Harbour. Clark Island gets its name from Lieutenant Ralph Clark who cultivated a vegetable garden there in the early days of the colony.
The Rocks Aroma Festival is an annual celebration of coffee, tea, chocolate and spices which was on again yesterday at The Rocks. Last year, a similar sculpture of the Mona Lisa using 3,604 cups of coffee achieved a Guinness World Record. This year's sculpture was even bigger, made up of 5,200 cups using 68 litres of milk and 78 litres of coffee. It featured Marilyn Monroe from her movie 'Some Like It Hot' and was located at the Overseas Passenger Terminal Forecourt, beside Circular Quay.
The John Whitton Bridge is a railway bridge that crosses the Parramatta River between the suburbs of Meadowbank and Rhodes. The 1980 welded steel box girder bridge on concrete piers, also known as the Parramatta River Underbridge sits on the western side of the 1886 truss bridge, that was then known as the Meadowbank Bridge. The bridge is named after John Whitton, who was appointed Engineer-in-Charge for the New South Wales Railways from 1867 and was responsible for the completion of 2811 miles of railway around New South Wales and Victoria over 32 years. A Rivercat Class ferry is seen here travelling east along the Parramatta River.
This walkway along the shore of Homebush Bay and in front of blocks of flats is in the inner west suburb of Rhodes. This is another suburb along the Parramatta River that was once an industrial area but has been redeveloped into a residential and commercial area in recent years. The suburb was named after a property on the peninsula that was demolished in 1919 to build flour mills. Heavy industry in the suburb included a sawmill with timber yard from 1900, foundry manufacturing iron pipes from 1911 and a number of chemical manufacturers from 1930.
A winter sky over the community hall in the inner west suburb of Breakfast Point. The Breakfast Point Community Hall was only built in 2005 but the style and material makes it look like a church built in another century. The suburb was named to honour the point of contact between Europeans and Aborigines. Captain John Hunter's expedition were exploring the Parramatta River and having breakfast here on 5th February 1788 when they encountered the traditional owners of the land, the Wangal Clan. John Hunter, later became the Governor of New South Wales.
This white gazebo looks splendid in the sunshine on the village green, surrounded by many new apartments in the inner west suburb of Breakfast Point. The clouds rolling in behind it look rather menacing though. This is a relatively new residential suburb on land that was once the site of the Mortlake Gas Works of the Australian Gaslight Company from 1884 to 1990. The site beside the Parramatta River was ideal for the shipping of coal used in the process of carbonisation to obtain gas. This process was discontinued in 1971 when natural gas from the interior of Australia began being piped here, processed by giving it an odour for safety reasons and then distributed to consumers throughout the Sydney area.
This cruise ship on Sydney Harbour, accompanied by a tug boat, is heading towards the Sydney Harbour Bridge at sunset. It had been moored nearby at Barangaroo and was making its way past the wharves on the Walsh Bay at Dawes Point.
Bondi Beach has this week been transformed into the Bondi Bergstation, a replica of a European Alpine Village, as part of the Winter Festival. It features a 500 square metre outdoor ice skating rink overlooking the Pacific Ocean. There are also a number of ski huts and chalets serving alpine delicacies such as Goulash, German Bratwurst, Pretzels, Gluhwein, and Schnapps. I was there when the ice was cleared for a brief performance by a young skater before regular skaters slowly returned to the rink, late in the afternoon and continuing into the night.
This green CBD shuttle is a free bus service that circles the Central Business District between Circular Quay and Central Railway Station. Route 555 operates every ten minutes and runs mainly along George Street and Elizabeth Street, in both directions. This service is popular with locals and tourists and connects well with rail, buses, ferries, light rail and the monorail. This bus stop is located on Alfred Street, close to Circular Quay. One of the regular blue Sydney Buses can be seen behind it.
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Allawah Hotel, built in 1928, is a notable example of interwar architecture in the southern suburb of Allawah. The name of the suburb comes from an aboriginal word meaning meaning 'make your abode here' or 'remain here', which is a suitable name for a mainly residential suburb.
Thrillseekers were recently able to walk on water in one of the fountains, in the square beside Cook and Phillip Park. The 3.2m clear plastic inflated orb has double-sectioned balls, with one ball inside the other and an air layer in between. Zorbing usually involves an orb rolling downhill or off a ramp but in this case the rolling was on water. The rope ensured thrillseekers didn't end up rolling down the hill into the park or into the traffic on College Street or William Street. It was one of the attractions here at the recent Australian Winter Festival which also featured an ice rink.
A group of Aboriginal buskers can usually be found at Circular Quay making music using a didgeridoo and clapsticks. Last week, NAIDOC Week celebrations were held across Australia to celebrate the history, culture and achievements of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.
This monument sits on Molineaux Point in the eastern suburb of Port Botany. It commemorates the sister ports relationship between the Sydney Ports Corporation and Yokkaichi Port Authority at Mie, Japan. Botany Bay can be seen in the background, with La Perouse on the north head to the left and Kurnell on the south head to the right.
The old Treasury Building in Macquarie Street has been incorporated into the Hotel InterContinental Sydney. The original sandstone building designed by Walter Liberty Vernon was built in 1896 and the hotel tower was built in 1984. The building has used for the former Colonial Secretary General and then for the New South Wales Premier’s Office. I took this photo during the recent Vivid Sydney festival which featured light projections on many buildings in Macquarie Street. The simple lighting on the facade of this heritage building also looks impressive to me.
The underside of this bridge and trees along Macquarie Street were lit up with colourful lights during the Vivid Sydney festival, which brightened up the night sky. This is my final look at the light installations and light projections on show at the festival this year.
Fire Water was a performance at The Rocks which was part of the Vivid Sydney festival. The finale featured this tall ship entering Campbells Cove with glowing light installations, sailors descending down on aerialist tissus, cranes unloading glowing barrels into the harbour and billows of colourful smoke bursting forth. It recreated the 1797 trip of a tall ship from Calcutta to Sydney, for the merchant Robert Campbell.
Fire Water was a performance at Campbells Cove at The Rocks which was part of the Vivid Sydney festival. There were three shows a night over four nights of the long weekend, 11th-14th June. This year, the show was based on the voyage of the tall ship Sydney Cove, which was sent from Calcutta to Sydney in 1797 by merchant Robert Campbell. It included Aboriginal performers, Bollywood inspired dancing, glowing light installations and fire sculptures. The show ended with a glowing tall ship entering the cove, sailors descending down on aerialist tissus, cranes unloading glowing barrels into the harbour and billows of colourful smoke bursting from it in the style of the Indian Holi festival.
The Sydney Conservatorium of Music on Conservatorium Road in front of the Royal Botanic Gardens featured light projections as part of Macquarie Visions for this year's Vivid Sydney Festival. The theme of this display was Pastimes, reflecting on the broader cultural and social life which Governor Lachlan Macquarie and his wife Elizabeth Macquarie created for Sydney. The Macquaries began a new era in Australian popular culture by instigating annual fairs and workers public holidays for commemoration, hosting balls, founding parks, gardens, sports fields and the first horse race. Many of these social activities and pastimes are still enjoyed in Sydney today along with many more.
