Darling Harbour, The Millennium Athlete

This week Sydney has been celebrating the 10th anniversary of the Sydney 2000 Summer Olympic Games, which opened on the 15 September 2000. This steel sculpture of the logo sits outside the Sydney Convention and Exhibition Centre at Darling Harbour, which was one of the venue sites. The plaque explains the story behind it: “The Millennium Athlete” logo for the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games, was unveiled on 14 September 1996 by some of our greatest Olympians. This sculpture represents the promise made in Sydney’s Olympic bid to host the Games that would be dedicated to the athletes of the world. The running athlete symbolises, the spirit of Sydney, the Olympic torch bearer and Australia’s indigenous culture. The twelve metre mast supports nearly two tonnes of steel suspended six metres above the ground on a total of 120 metres of special high-tensile woven steel cable.

Botanic Gardens, bridge

A view of one of the bridges across the Main Pond of the Royal Botanic Gardens.

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Botanic Gardens, Lotus Pond

The Lotus Pond is located beside the Oriental Garden, close to the Palm Grove Centre, in the Royal Botanic Gardens. The fountain in the centre, known as the Bird Bath Fountain, was likely installed some time before 1879 for the International Exhibition. Due to damage, it was replaced in 1987 using a marble bowl sourced from Carrera in Italy. There were quite a few flying foxes (or fruit bats) sleeping in the trees above.

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Sydney Conservatorium of Music

The Greenway Building of the Sydney Conservatorium of Music built in 1821, was commissioned by Governor Lachlan Macquarie as the stables for the nearby Government House of New South Wales, adjacent to the Royal Botanic Gardens. It was designed by Francis Greenway and in the Old Colonial Gothick Picturesque style. It became the NSW State Conservatorium of Music in 1916 and is now part of the University of Sydney. This building and a brilliant blue sky are seen here reflected in the glass of a skylight for the underground levels of the school. A side view of the building can be seen here.

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Botanic Gardens, Boy Extracting Thorn

This sculpture on a rocky outcrop in the Royal Botanic Gardens is called 'Boy Extracting Thorn'. It was one of the statues imported from Italy in 1883. This is a marble copy of the famous 'Boy With Thorn' (also known as Fedele, Fedelino or Spinario), a bronze Hellenistic statue that was given  to the city of Rome by Pope Sixtus IV in the 1471, creating the Palazzo dei Conservatori.

Botanic Gardens, A Folly for Mrs Macquarie

"A Folly for Mrs Macquarie" is a sculpture in the Royal Botanic Gardens with breathtaking views of Farm Cove and Sydney Harbour. In architecture, a folly is an extravagant decorative structure designed more for artistic expression than practicality. The Royal Botanic Gardens were developed from 1816 under the direction of Elizabeth Macquarie, the second wife of Governor Lachlan Macquarie. This work was created by Fiona Hall and installed in 2000 at the possible site of an original folly which looks across to Mrs Macquaries Point. Constructed from wrought iron and sandstone, it makes a statement about the follies of white settlement. It depicts a raised arm and clasped dagger from Macquarie's crest, a domed roof of metal Norfolk Island Pine fronds and an underlying, a ceiling of bones representing the animals that once lived in this area, barbed wire walls and an entrance bounded by an axe and scythe.  

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Botanic Gardens, La Ballarina

La Ballarina is a sculpture that sits in a flower bed in the Royal Botanic Gardens. It was one of eight statues purchased for the new Palace Garden in 1883. La Ballarina was sculpted by Charles Summers, a successful Australian sculptor living in Carrara, Italy and was a copy of a work by Antonio Canova, which has since been lost. These Italian statues fell victim to changing attitudes that saw many of the more flagrant nudes removed in the 1910s and later destroyed as a 'menace to public morals'. Others were removed from public view in the 1970s when the mass replication of classical statuary in suburban gardens made the works seem 'low-brow'. The surviving statues were kept in the Stoneyard, known as the 'Graveyard', behind the Succulent Garden. La Ballarina was the first of the Italian marbles to be reconstructed with a new head, hand and foot sculpted by Polish-born mason Jacek Luszczyk from photos provided by the the Canova Foundation in Italy and unveilled in 2009.

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Chifley Square, sculpture

This enourmous sculpture of Ben Chifley, Labor Prime Minister from 1945 to 1949, was created by Simeon Nelson and installed in 1997. It stands in Chifley Square beside Chifley Tower, which were named after this prime minister. This artwork which stands over 9 metres is a cartoon line drawing cut from two flat sheets of stainless steel, narrowly separated by a truss, creating a two dimensional pop art sculpture. It was derived from a small grainy photo of Ben Chifley posing for a group portrait with members of British Prime Minister Atlee’s cabinet in 1947. The wall of glass in the background which is an extension of the outdoor cafe's rear wall is called Lightwall Crucimatrilux.

Sydney Harbour Bridge, Pier One

This view of the Sydney Harbour Bridge and Pier One at Dawes Point at sunset is from Pier 2/3 wharf on Walsh Bay.

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Cockle Bay, Sydney skyline

Cockle Bay Wharf, the Darling Harbour Marina and Sydney skyline reflections in Cockle Bay. The three white office buildings are Darling Park Towers.

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Pyrmont Bridge, lamp

Looking up at the streaks of clouds in an otherwise blue sky, the lamp on the western pylon of Pyrmont Bridge seems to dwarf the giant flag pole in Cockle Bay and Sydney Tower in the distance, from this angle.

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Sussex Street, The Sussex Hotel

The Sussex Hotel is a pub on Sussex Street, close to Barangaroo and King Street Wharf. Established in 1875, this pub was popular with wharfies and labourers who worked on the wharves and in the warehouses in this area. The hotel has been known as The New Hunter River Hotel, The Big House Hotel and Moreton's Hotel until it was refurbished in recent years.

Darling Harbour, Aquarium wharf

The Aquarium Wharf is located close to Sydney Aquarium and Pyrmont Bridge. The last couple of passengers are seen here boarding the Supply, a First Fleet Class ferry acquired in 1984. It is part of the Sydney Ferries fleet that operates on the Inner Harbour. It was named Supply, after one of eleven ships of the First Fleet that sailed to Australia in 1787.

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King Street Wharf, sculpture

This contemporary sculpture is located at the end of the promenade at King Street Wharf. The buildings on the left are a mixture of apartments, offices, restaurants and nightclubs with great views of the wharves and Darling Harbour on the right. 

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Pyrmont Bridge, control tower and gate

 This control tower and gate are located on the Pyrmont Bridge, a swing bridge over Cockle Bay in Darling Harbour. The bridge was designed by Percy Allan and opened to traffic in 1902. It was one of the largest spanning swing bridges in the world and one of the first to be powered by electricity. It was closed to traffic in the 1980s when freeways south of Cockle Bay were built but reopened as a pedestrian bridge with the redevelopment of Darling Harbour in 1988. The bridge also carries an elevated monorail which travels between the central business district  and Darling Harbour. The monorail track rests on a pivot that allows the track to remain stationary while the bridge swings underneath, so that the monorails can continue to cross even when the bridge is opened for large boats and yachts.

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Darling Harbour, Pyrmont Bridge

This giant flagpole rises above Pyrmont Bridge, the swing bridge over Cockle Bay in Darling Harbour. The Supply is the First Fleet Class ferry passing in front, as it prepares to dock at the nearby King Street ferry wharf.

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Darling Harbour, night

 The lights of Harbourside Shopping Centre and the Novotel Hotel reflected in the waters of Cockle Bay at Darling Harbour.

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Sydney Airport, sunset

This sunset produced some wonderful colours over some very ordinary buildings on the remote edge of Sydney Airport at Mascot, near General Holmes Drive.

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Sydney Airport, Terminal Control Unit

The Sydney Airport Terminal Control Unit at Mascot sits close to the runways which jut into Botany Bay, alongside the old airport control tower that operated from 1972. The old tower was designed and built by government departments in an era of entrenched bureaucracy. The engineers did not consult with the air traffic controllers, so it was not tall enough and views were unsatisfactory. It was replaced by the current Sydney Airport Control Tower in 1996 which is functionally and technologically better.

The Rocks Markets (Theme Day: Open Air Markets)

The Rocks Markets are held every Friday, Saturday and Sunday. This view is down Argyle Street to Circular Quay. A Farmers' Market is held in this section on a Friday with food stalls and freshly prepared takeaway food. On Saturday and Sunday the markets also extend into Playfair Street and George Street. The weekend market features everything from food to art, fashion, jewellery, cosmetics and homewares.

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