Another City of Sydney walk History Walk – Customs House to Millers Point
We went, for the first time, to Observatory Hill Park and went through the observatory. Was great. And free! Site of Sydney’s first windmill with beautiful views of Sydney to the east and west. We discovered Ferry Lane and The Paddock, had a drink at the Lord Nelson, found a still in use cast iron urinal and discovered the laneway below Lower Fort St.
So much to see, and such beautiful parks and public spaces, so close to Australia’s busiest city.
The highlight for us this walk (from a walk from City of Sydney Council) was tripping over the gorgeous McElhone Reserve near Elizabeth Bay House. A new place to bring visitors from overseas for a picnic.
We did a walk that City of Sydney council put together, one that takes you down old hidden laneways.
While nothing like Melbourne’s fabulous laneways, there’s still plenty of interest in Sydney.
Bulletin Place, where the Basement venue is, Reiby Place (as in Mary), Palings (music) Place, Angel Place, the Tank Stream.
Lots to see and learn.
Neither of us had ever wandered around Naremburn before.
What a pretty suburb, and plenty of history to explore as well. I wonder if current residents know that it used to be known as both Dog Town and Pension Town!
We learnt that Henry Lawson lived here for a while as well as some other bits and pieces.
http://edocs.willoughby.nsw.gov.au/DocumentViewer.ashx?dsi=4787009
| Looking across the gully to Walter Burley Griffin’s Incinerator |  |
| How many times have I driven across this 1886 bridge at the bottom of Willoughby Road without knowing the history behind it? |  |
This weekend we walked the Tom Uren Walking Trail at Balmain.
I knew of Tom Uren’s green bans, activism, interest in heritage and the environment and the like but I wasn’t aware he was a sportsman (professional boxer, swimmer, rugby league player for Manly) or a soldier or prisoner-of-war.
He grew up in Balmain and so Leichhardt Council has designed a nice stroll around the area.
We’ve wandered down Norton St many times as it was a popular go-to place for us when the kids were little and we were looking for a well-priced Italian restaurant.
But we’d never walked the area with a view to looking at anything else but menus!
We found this walk, produced by the Inner West Council and others, here.
What did we learn? Among other things, over the course of about an hour, we learnt that…
| The Pioneers Memorial Park was a cemetery that had over 10,500 graves, and that when it was transferred from being a cemetery to a park, some of the headstones were used to level the park and build walls. |  |
| Leichhardt Town Hall opened in 1888. When the tower was added in 1897 it was the highest point in the colony between Martin Place and the Blue Mountains. |  |
| The statue in the middle of the Italian Forum is of Dante Alighieri, regarded as the father of the Italian language.
The Forum itself has fallen on hard times… lots of places for lease. |
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| Bar Italia has been there since 1959, and St Gerasimo’s Greek Orthodox Church is about a one-scoop walk away. |  |
Lots of other interesting stuff too. A good walk, really well done – youtube videos, audio etc. Sadly, the southern end of the street is hardly the bustling area it was 20 years ago.
I know we are familiar with our local area, but there will always be historic surprises and areas we haven’t been to before.
Such was the case for this first week of learning a bit about Sydney’s history.
We know the Artarmon and St Leonards area, on Sydney’s lower north shore, really well… or did we?
We covered a walk found here. What did we learn? Among other things, over the course of about 2 hours we learnt that…
| St Mary Mackillop was one of more than 14000 people buried at Gore Hill cemetery. |  |
| Tunks Park at Northbridge/Cammeray was named after William Tunks (if the Geographic Names Board still allowed the use of apostrophes in names of places I would have at least known his surname.) |  |
| Artarmon was the biggest brick making area in NSW in 1890s – 1900s. It’s where the shopping centre near Bunnings is… it later became the Willoughby Council depot.
360,000 bricks manufactured each month. |
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| Gough Whitlam went to school at Mowbray House before going to Knox Grammar School. The original Mowbray House building is still there, opposite the water tanks near the Great Northern Hotel, where the dive site for the new Metro is. |  |
| Artarmon Railway Station used to be 1/2 km north of where it now is. |  |
Lots of other interesting stuff too. A good walk.
