This weekend we followed a tour from https://www.cityofsydney.nsw.gov.au called Skirting Sydney.
It focused on The Rocks and around Martin Place. This tour pinpoints key sites where girls and women lived and worked, where they were educated and entertained, and where pioneering activist women held meetings, published journals and sometimes in the process expanded the possibilities for all women’s lives.
Good stuff.
So the hunt to track down all the family street names from 2018 continues in the background.
We were delighted to trip over Kernot St, just near the big Mallee Fowl on the Silo Art Trail
Another City of Sydney walking tour through a history of Commercial & Retail Sydney
Down Martin Place where the Commonwealth Bank and original MLC building are, through the Grace Hotel which was requisitioned by General MacArthur in WWII, past the AWA Tower – “Sydney’s Eiffel Tower”, the beautiful Dymocks Building, State Theatre, Arthouse Hotel, Tattersall’s Building and more.
A beautiful autumnal day for a historical wander around Glebe.
We visited the house where Robert (born Robin) Askin grew up, saw the park where a wireless was installed for poor families to hear the current news, had breakfast in one of the old original pubs, learnt of the strong medical ties to the area and were staggered to learn that Glebe Public School once had 2,300 students!
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.
We were down in Melbourne for the weekend. We stayed in the CBD and so did a couple of city walks.
Like Sydney, Melbourne city council publishes different walks. We did the Street Art walk and the Laneways walk. Really well done.
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.
