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.
Robyn’s mother was a Kelly before marrying Keith Bender. We walked Ada St, Erskinville, early in the year.
Henley is a beautiful little pocket on the water just west of the Gladesville Bridge.
Some gorgeous old and new houses with views over the water east towards the city and west down the Parramatta River.
The historic Henley Baths used to be at the end of Kelly St… well, that’s what I’m guessing… buggered if I can find anything about them, but they are on Google Maps!
My Niece, Kate is married to Trent Cooper.
We didn’t actually set out to walk Cooper St, but when you trip over it on a beatiful sunny Sunday, of course you’re going to walk down it!
Stephen is one of my Brothers-in-Law.
Whoops, we got our wires crossed and so walked Stephen St twice in two days.
This Stephen St is in Paddington, and given that Stephen also has a dog who is fond of a walk, we invited him and my sister Annie to come for a walk and a drink at a dog friendly local, the Grand National.
Beautiful day for a walk around the lovely Paddington area.
We were quite chuffed to see we walked by George – his middle name 🙂
Lovely part of the world.
From down by the western overseas cruise terminal, Stephen St runs up towards the iconic London Hotel.
