Berry Island

HMAS Waterhen AKA "the Chook" in Wollstonecraft Bay Sydney Harbour. (Spot the top of the Coathanger in the background.) The Chook is all about mine warfare and is home to our spiffiest mine countermeasures gear.

The Chook was originally an actual ship before she became a base but was sunk in WWII. "Waterhen, with her sister ships Stuart, Vendetta, Vampire and Voyager became famous as the 'Scrap Iron Flotilla' in the Mediterranean. She was lost at sea 30 June 1941" says the Navy.

Crashed at a mate's last weekend just up the road from Waterhen. We strolled down in the morning to see if we could see any nice sailor boys but they'd all gone home for Christmas.




Wee beach at Wollstonecraft Bay

Nice spot Wollstonecraft. It's three bays west of the Coathanger, a quiet suburb of leafy streets and gorgeous 19th century houses.

It was named after a bloke who was the nephew of Mary Wollstonecraft, one of them suffragette chicks. She was around in the 18th century writing stuff, being in France during the French Revolution and giving birth to Mary Shelley who wrote Frankenstein when she was 19. She started it sitting close by the fire in the summer of 1816. It was a year of "volcanic winter", a year without a summer.

Three big volcanoes went off in 1812 (La Soufrière in the Caribbean), 1814 (Mayon in the Philippines) and 1815 (Mount Tambora in Indonesia). The volcanic ash in the atmosphere build up and up and up and blocked a lot of the sun's light. Temperatures dropped all over the world.

Brown and red snow fell in parts of Europe and the rivers rose. The Napoleonic Wars between France and England had only just finished and food was already in short supply. When there was no summer and no crops there was even less food and the people rioted in the streets just to keep warm.

In America the New Englanders set off to settle the Midwest, also in search of warmth. In Asia China was devastated by crop failure and famine and the rest of Asia didn't exactly do well either.




Art and velocipedes were pretty much the only thing that did any good out of 1816. Some bloke called Turner got all excited by the glorious sunsets the volcanic ash made and got famous as a painter.

Horses starved for lack of oats in 1816 and in Germany in 1817 Karl Drais invented a horse-less form of transport, the ancestor of the bicycle. Which eventually led to the Straylyan poet Banjo Paterson writing Mulga Bill's Bicycle about a bloke who can't ride for shit and goes hurtling down the awful slope towards the Dead Man's Creek.




Balls. Tiny ball-shaped flowers smaller than the tip if yer little finger. No idea what the plant is called, looks like a native though. Growing in the park across from the Chook.

Down here in sunny Straylya in 1816, Macquarie was governor of New South Wales, there was a flood of convicts and free settlers following the Napoleonic Wars and the whitefella population reached a whopping 35,000. Macquarie set up convict Greenway as Sydney's architect, ordered people to get married and named practically everything after himself. Except Australia, which he formally named Australia.

The Year Without a Summer (worldwide info)

Eighteen Hundred and Froze To Death (detailed stuff from North America)

Paintings of striking sunsets show effect of huge volcanic eruptions on climate

Brimstones and Bicycles


Local news

Kitesurfer 'peels off half his face'. Juicy headline no? It's that kite-surfer what slammed into Ettalong last week.

Woy Woy Steve has scary water.


Local photos

Flickerite Bivoir, who appears to be a guinea pig (hamster), has some nice Central Coast photos, particularly this one.


Amusement Park

Homemade lightning


Merry Xmas to all and to all a good night

This is the last Saturday before Christmas so have a good one and I'll see yer in January. May it not piss on yer barbie.

Smiley face in the sky

Bonus post. Once in a lifetime event. Next appearing in Southern skies in 2036 or something.



Taken by a mate in Sydney.

Saw it here too but it didn't show up on my pissy camera. Here it was clearly visible through a light mist of cloud. A big cosmic smiley face up there in the sky. Glorious.

"[O]n Monday (1 December 2008) there will be a spectacular conjunction between the two planets Venus and Jupiter and the crescent Moon. Though the conjunction will be impressive from anywhere in the world, it will only smile on Australia and Australian longitudes almost in the form of a “smiley” emoticon. From the USA, for instance, the conjunction will be in the form of an upside down sad face."

Venus, Jupiter and the Moon: a smiley face in the sky (has photos)

December 2008 night sky guide and podcast

Another Sydney photo


Bugger

Caitlyn says my RSS feed doesn't work. Ta for letting me know. Will fix the bastard as soon as I work out how.




Linkage to my site can be had in the "Compose" tab of Blogger. Click the wee button of a green disc and link.

Or just copy this text link.


Okay, I'd better piss off. I officially started work an hour ago.

Sydney Opera House

Sydney Opera House from Circular Quay (where the Sydney ferries go from).

It appears to float on the water but actually sits at the tip of Bennelong Point on Sydney Harbour. For those vainly scouring international atlases, Sydney Harbour is also known as Port Jackson.

Our Opera House turned 35 on Sunday. Yep, the cool white pointy one on the Harbour. We love our Opera House as much as the tourists do.


House stats
(Bugger the stats, gimme the photos!)

* Planning started late 1940s

* Site chosen 1954

* Competition for design started 1955, got 233 from 32 countries

* 1957 Jørn Utzon's design announced as winner & Utzon arrives to supervise construction

* Old tram depot on site demolished 1958, construction begins March 1959

* 1961 spat erupts about who designed construction method for roof ribs, Utzon eventually buggers off home (Denmark) in 1966

* Opened by the Queen in 1973, a mere 13 years late

* Final bill $102 million, only $95 million over budget

* Made a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2007

* Used for all the usual purposes an opera house is used for: ballet, opera, musical theatre & sumo wrestling

* Roofs consist of 1,056,006 white and cream tiles, which have to be scrubbed every now and then by not as often as you'd think

* Held up by 588 concrete piers sunk up to 25 metres below sea level

* Power supply is equivalent to that needed for a town of 25,000 people and snakes about through 645 kilometres of electrical cable

* covers 1.8 hectares (4.5 acres) of land

* 183 metres (605 ft) long and about 120 metres (388 ft) wide at its widest point





The Coathanger and the Opera House. Seen from Garden Island in 2006.

The House, couple of Sydney ferries & the Toast-Rack



Wiki Creative Commons, high res photo, click for bigger



Wiki Creative Commons, high res photo, click for bigger



Wiki Creative Commons, high res photo, click for bigger



Wiki Creative Commons, high res photo, click for bigger


For your reading pleasure

Sydney Opera House at Wiki

Official website

Opera House paperweights etc

Construction photos

Photos and Art

La Opera de Sídney o Sydney Opera House (Espanol, fotos)

Mitts off our Opera House, writes Paul Keating (former Prime Minister

The House on Flickr (all angles & sides)

The House on Google's logo


Just because



Beverly Hills. In suburban southern Sydney.


In unrelated news

Women office-workers prefer computer to men (Dr* Spike recommends straight guys wash more often)


Stuff up unstuffed

Michael's photos of Woy Woy & nearby are here not there. Only took me three goes to get it right!


Holiday

I'm snatching a holiday while it's snatchable. Back 3rd or 4th of November. Stick yer thingy in the slot for update email. (No bloody spam)

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* Doctorate found in cereal packet

Snow & disgruntlement

"Woy Woy Road is still fucking closed" the sign reads. One for frustrated locals.

Sent in by Steve of woy-woy.com. Ta mate.


In other news

It snowed in Sydney. Well, sorta. There was "soft hail" on the North Shore.

Sydney 'snow' just hail: weather bureau

Flickr photo

Tank Stream

(Sydney walkies)

Bloody hot day for a walk. Even with the midday breeze off Sydney Harbour. Forgot to blog yesterday but here's a treasure hunt post to be going on with.



Biggulate

Elizabeth Street Sydney.

It was a marsh in 1788. That's when the Poms sent the first lot of convicts and soldiers to Port Jackson (Sydney Harbour) and Sydney was started. It was a tear-drop shaped marsh with its bottom in Hyde Park where I'm standing and its tip between Pitt and George Streets near Market Street.

Get off the train at Town Hall, take the Park Street exit and go down Park Street to Hyde Park.



Biggulate

The blue lines are the 1788 shoreline of Sydney Cove (Circular Quay), the catchment area for the Tank Stream (larger area of broken line), the marsh at the head of the Stream (tear-drop shaped), the Tank Stream itself (centre), the tanks cut into the Stream (centre, circled) and the low tide banks at the mouth of the Stream (spotty areas).

From Hyde Park, cross Elizabeth Street, go back along Park Street, turn down Castlereagh Street and walk one block north, towards the Bridge. This takes you across the middle of the old swamp.



Biggulate

Marker #1. In the pavement at the entrance to Sydney Arcade, 185-189 Pitt Street.

The textured stripes mark the direction of the Tank Stream in that spot.

From the corner of Castlereagh Street and Market Street, walk west (towards George Street) along Market Street and turn downhill into Pitt Street. Sydney Arcade is on your left just before King Street.




Mark #1 in close-up.

" 'Into the head of the cove, on which our establishment is fixed, runs a small stream of fresh water, which serves to divide the adjacent country to a little distance, in the direction of north and south.'
Captain Watkin Tench, of the Marines, January, 1788."

The stream socially divided the settlement from the word go. The government bits were on the eastern side and the convicts lived on the western side.



Biggulate

Marker #2. In the pavement next to the ANZAC Memorial AKA the Cenotaph, outside the GPO, Martin Place. You can see the marker in the right foreground of the photo. It looks like two ticks (checks).

From Sydney Arcade, walk downhill towards the Harbour and turn left into Martin Place. Walk past the Christmas tree. The marker is behind the ANZAC memorial.




There's an explanatory plaque next to the marker. It says:

"Tankstream - Into the cove ...
Lynne Roberts-Goodwin

The Tankstream Artwork, in five separate locations from Pitt Street Mall to Alfred Street, marks the existence of the historic Tank Stream bubbling below the city streets. The subterranean movement of a fine stream of fresh spring water is conveyed through the rippling blue light and accompanying text.

Captain Watkin Tench, Captain of the Marines of the First Settlers at Port Jackson, wrote in his diary about the selection of Sydney Cove as the site for the first settlement. He recorded the presence of water at this site, his vision of grandeur of the settlement, the geographical description of the Sydney valley and the rise and flow of the stream.

Tankstream celebrates the memory of the original stream which started in the marshes where the Pitt Street Mall is now situated, its importance in the founding of the city, finally flowing into the harbour at Circular Quay.

Installed: June 1999"

Dunno about the rippling blue bit. The textured bits of the markers looked rippled but they're too grubby from foot traffic to be blue. They're nice anyways.




Hunter Street at the corner of Pitt Street Sydney.

On the Tank Stream underground tours the guides can tell they're near Hunter Street because the manhole covers rattle with the traffic.



Biggulate

Marker #3. Curtin Place, off Pitt Street next to Australia Square.

The tanks are under Australia Square. When the Tank Stream ran dry or low in drought Governor Philip ordered "tanks" cut into the sandstone bed of the stream to trap more water in the next good flow.

The tanks cut into the sandstone base of the Tank Stream are under Australia Square, which is up those stairs.




Down the stairs (bottom centre) beside the wall plaque is restricted access to the Stream. The plaque says:


"THE TANK STREAM

On January 26th, 1788, Governor Arthur Phillip landed on the shores of Sydney Cove. The selection of the site for the colony was influenced by the availability of a supply of fresh water from what became known as the Tank Stream.

In 1790 the "tanks" from which the stream took its name were excavated in solid rock on both sides of the stream, close to the location of this plaque. The stream enetered the Cove at what is now Circular Quay and provided the colony with water until the early 1820's.

The growth and development of the city during the middle of the 19th century led to the stream being progressively covered and now it carries stormwater.

(Under the map:) Original course of the Tank Stream and the boundary of its catchment superimposed on the area today.

This plaque acknowldges the gift to the people of Sydney of public access to the Tank Stream by the Water Board, Lend Lease Corporation and the New South Wales Bicentennial Secretariat.

Unveiled by the
MINISTER FOR LOCAL GOVERNMENT, MINISTER FOR WATER RESOURCES & ASSISTANT MINISTER FOR TRANSPORT,
The Hon. Janice Crosio, M.P., on February 17th, 1988."

From Martin Place, walk down Pitt Street, past Hunter Street and into Curtin Place right before Australia Square. You're looking for an ordinary service access thingy next to the steps up to Australia Square's fountain.

While you're in Curtin Place, look at the shape of it. By this time on the walk you can see you're in the shallow narrow gully that carries the Tank Stream.




Tank Stream Bar in Tank Stream Way, off Pitt Street just past Australia Square. A watering hole over a stream. Very appropriate.



Biggulate

Marker #4. Bridge Street at the corner of Tank Stream Way. Tank Stream Way is an L-shaped lane from Pitt Street to Bridge Street.

That's the marker just under Blue Shirt's feet and the end of Tank Stream Way behind him.

Bridge Street may be the site of the original bridge over the Tank Stream. I'm pretty sure of that but I'm too buggered to check.



Marker #5. The Children's Fountain, Herald Square, Alfred Street, which is the street that runs along in front of Circular Quay, to the right of this photo.



The Children's Fountain plaque, in the pavement next to the fountain in Herald Square, Alfred Street. Which is the street along the front of Circular Quay. It says:

"The Children's Fountain

Dedicated to all the children who have played around the Tank Stream.

Presented by John Fairfax & Sons Limited, 1981".




A few of the animals on the Children's Fountain. Platypus, spider, frill-necked lizard and echidna.


Biggulate

Circular Quay is Sydney Cove, the place where the First Fleet came ashore when they found fresh water in Port Jackson. They set up camp there and from that camp Sydney grew.

Where that orange and white boat is heading is around where the Tank Stream comes out, in its current incarnation as a stormwater drain.


FactFiles has some good pictures of the Stream's history.


Hope this post makes sense. Too tired to tell. Been a long day. It was good to get a walk in though and particularly to do the Tank Stream. I'm looking forward to doing it underground. That'll be a while. The tours are only twice yearly and there's a waiting list.

By the way, I’ll be swapping to Tuesday and Thursday blogging for a bit instead of Monday, Wednesday, Friday. Lotsa offline crap to be done at the moment.