The gambion retaining walls at Ballast Point Park at Birchgrove are made up of rubble and recycled material encased in a wire frame, from the buildings on this former oil refinery site. If you look closely, you can see that this wall features engraved padlocks. The padlocks are locked by romantics to preserve their everlasting love, with the key thrown into Sydney Harbour. The tradition seems to have originated in Italy, where couples attached padlocks to the Ponte Vecchio Bridge in Florence and threw the keys into the river. The Sydney city skyline can be seen in the distance, across the harbour.
What a fascinating wall. Love the locks and missing keys. :)
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what a neat idea and very romantic.
ReplyDeleteGill in Canada
Interesting idea!! Boom & Gary of the Vermilon River, Canada.
ReplyDeleteHow romantic and how very interesting. Thank you for explaining the locks.
ReplyDeleteThat looks quite pretty, actually, and the padlock idea is romantic lol.
ReplyDeleteThanks a lot to share your pictures too and thanks for your comment !
ReplyDeleteGreetings from France...
Pierre
Great shot Jim,. I've seen pictures of the bridge with padlocks in Paris too, tres romantic!! The wall itself is interesting too, we have one here in Perth, such a good idea.
ReplyDeletedid you see my paddock? LOL,
ReplyDeleteI agree with using recycle material. Good on the builders.
Ann, there's more than a hundred padlocks there now. It would take me quite a while to check out all the engravings. :)
ReplyDeleteThe rubble looks surprisingly attractive in this wall. I was interested to read your explanation of the padlock tradition.
ReplyDeleteWe have one for our family on that wall, the kids love to visit it!
ReplyDelete