Sunday in my City - Potts Point

Sydney Harbour is a drowned valley, a series of scalloped bays sliced from one another by ridge lines that run back up to the plateau of the land mass. This is more obvious on the northern shore of the harbour, man having levelled much of the southern side. From the Bridge, heading East we have:

George Street running down to Dawes Point (Harbour Bridge)
Sydney Cove
Maquarie Street running down to Point Bennelong (Opera House)
Farm Cove
Art Gallery Road running down to Macquarie Point
Wooloomooloo Bay
Macleay Street running down to Garden Island.

The other day, I sauntered (maybe even 'flaneured') from my apartment down Macleay Street.


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Darlinghurst Road magically becomes Macleay St just where the kink is at the Fitzroy Gardens. Kink is a non-subtle word to use around this area! Up until the kink, it is Darlinghurst Road in the suburb of Kings Cross. After the kink, it is Macleay Street in the suburb of Potts Point.


The difference is quite discernible. Kings Cross is all sleaze, single doors opening onto dingy stairs, adult bookshops, and burly bouncers. It is populated by addicts, pimps, whores and crooks all closely followed by coppers. Potts Point is more refined, with terraces built towards the end of the 19th century and quaint post WW2 apartment blocks full of character. It is populated by the ageing bohemians of the '50s, pallid poets, would-be intellectuals, and travellers from distant lands. Not tourists, but travellers!

One could find renewal, a new sense of self, in Potts Point.


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Sunday in the City - Greening the City

The City of Sydney council is the local government entity that governs Sydney in the Australian system of governance. The incumbent Lord Mayor is Clover Moore who also represents my electorate in the New South Wales state government. It is an independent/left/green amalgam with the logo "The city of villages". Over the weekend, the Town Hall was reopened to the public after a $40 million dollar refit which took two years to complete. The work has included an overhaul of fire and safety standards, implementation of environmentally sustainable design initiatives, inclusion of a multi-purpose space for exhibitions and community activities and aesthetic updates to many of the rooms.

In the town square, adjoining the Town Hall, there was a Live Green exhibition endeavouring to explain how the individual can reduce their own carbon footprint.



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Sunday in my City - Surviving with style

Established in 1895 by Gastav A. Zink, this elegant store is now owned and run by the Jones family who bought it from Thomas Zink in the late '50s. The much admired art-deco shopfront was added in 1937.

Old monochrome images sourced from City of Sydney: Top: Zink's original store at 112 from 1895 to 1910 Mid left: Oxford Street from Hyde Park corner, prior to the widening showing the old Burdekin Mid right: Oxford Street from Hyde Park corner, after the widening showing the new Burdekin (the council helped each pub rebuild on the same lot!) Bottom: Aerial view in the '40s showing Zink's in the lower left

The comparison is a little presumptuous, but just as Paris was flattened and redesigned between 1852 and 1870 by Haussman, so was Sydney between 1909 and 1920, sadly sans le grand design! As mentioned with the post on Broadway, the 1909 Royal Commission determined that many streets needed to be widened or eliminated. Oxford Street was widened by resuming and flattening the entire north side of the street between 1910 and 1912. Some compensation was paid but not to Zink, who had to move a few doors down the street (from 112 to 56)and start over.


A member of the Sunday in my City community.

Sunday in my City - Splendour in the Grass

Flowers and grasses collected during the week from Centennial Park and North Bondi for you to savour at your leisure.

A member of the Sunday in my City community.

I am sampling the joys of Melbourne - including a day at the tennis. I will be back at my desk on Thursday 28th January.

Then & Now - Trams in Darlinghurst

A tram heading into the city from Bondi, turning from Burton Street into Bourke Street with the Caritas Mental Hospital behind.

Dating this photograph simply involved tracing when “Diamond Horseshoes” was showing at the old Tivoli Theatre in George St, City. “Diamond Horseshoes” played at the Tiv throughout 1959. It was preceded in December 1958 by a season from Winifred Atwell, and followed, in October 1959, by the “Pleasures of Paris”. I can call it the “Tiv” because I have been regaled since childhood of tales from my father’s mad dashes down there each time a new show headlined in the ‘30s, especially if it was Roy Rene and his alter ego Mo McCackie.

Ah, 1959, those were the days. I was 11 years of age, living in the country, learning how to shear sheep rather than chat up boyz. Being an egg-head (aka a geek), I knew that “Martello Towers” won the Australian Derby in Easter of that year at Royal Randwick; I knew that the mighty red’n’whites, St George, won their 6th straight Rugby League premiership by trouncing Manly by 20-0 in the Grand Final in September. Even worse, I knew that Bob Heffron succeeded J.J. Cahill as the Premier of NSW and that Harry Jensen was the Lord Mayor of Sydney. Facts matter to an eleven year old!

Note how the wall that held the Tivoli advert is now converted to apartments with windows

This tram route stopped in 1960. The 389 bus route still follows much of the old tram route from Elizabeth Street to the North Bondi terminus. However, there is still evidence of trams along the way: exposed track, sidings cut back to allow trams a more gradual climb up a hill, the Cutler Footway behind St Vincent’s Hospital, a tram siding near Gurner Street , and many rounded corners to enable trams easier passage round corners.

What a difference 50 years makes!

NB: I know the old photo is time-stamped 4:57pm. But the shadows put the lie to this. That tram is heading west into the city, yet the shadows are being cast by a rising sun.

A 389 bus turning from Bourke St into Burton St, Darlinghurst with the Caritas Mental Hospital diagonally ahead

Part of the Sundays in my City community.

Inheriting a secret river

About 45 minutes North of Sydney by intercity train, flows The Hawkesbury River which empties into the Pacific Ocean through the Brisbane Waters and Broken Bay. As it meanders inland, the Hawkesbury and its tributaries provide much of the fresh water that irrigates the crops that feed the city.

Many of the settlements on the Hawkesbury are isolated and, being within the confines of the Brisbane Waters National Park, are not accessible by car. A private charter company runs a series of ferries much used by locals and tourists alike. Ann, (Sydney Meandering) and I hopped aboard the Riverboat Postman as he made his deliveries.


As these images show, the people of the Hawkesbury are a special breed who would shrivel and expire in the hustle, bustle and competitiveness that is today's Sydney. And this is not just a recent phenomenon.

The Secret River by Kate Grenville provides a fictionalised appreciation of the grit and determination required of the early settlers of our colony AND the early explorers of the Hawkesbury. For those interested in the historical background to this novel, Searching for the Secret River is also extremely rewarding.

Tomorrow, we shall see where these folk live and take a closer look at the glories that are the Lower Hawkesbury.


Part of the Sundays in my City community.