Posts Tagged ‘sydney harbor’

A holiday Monday, we finished off walking around Balmain East. What an eclectic mix of old and new, architecturally designed glass and steel and flaking weatherboard, big and tiny, light and dark, loved and tendered and falling into disrepair.

As this area was historically “working man’s territory”, I don’t think there’s a better example of asset rich, cash poor anywhere else in Sydney; residents sitting on millions of dollars of real estate, without the means to renovate and take advantage of views and location.

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A cool winter’s morning walk around Greenwich Point this weekend.

Not shown on any maps are the walkways and paths and steps that make this a loop walk rather than a series of dead-end streets.

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Looking across the The Deckhouse and Woolwich Dock.

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Lovely little park above Greenwich Baths

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From The Coal Loader at Waverton on the left, Louisa Rd and Birchgrove in the middle to Coakatoo Island on the right

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Greenwich Sailing Club, just east of Greenwich Baths

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City across to Anzac Bridge

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Iron Cove Bridge and Birkenhead Point in the background

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From the walkway at the end of Gother Ave

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From the walkway at the end of Gother Ave

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A reminder that Sydney is still, in some places, a working port. Oil/Petrol tanks at Greenwich.


A beautiful Sydney late autumn Sunday; t-shirts and shorts, 25C and winter is a week away.

There’s some stunning homes in this part of Sydney.

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The city from Hunters Hill wharf

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Substantial engineering to maximise the expensive real estate!

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Hunters Hill wharf

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Cafe near Woolwich Pier Hotel

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Love this gate!

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Here come The Habibs house

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A great walk past the fish markets.

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Federal Park, Rozelle Bay

 

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Rozelle Park

 

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Sydney Fish Markets

 

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Sydney Fish Markets

 

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Under the Anzac Bridge

 

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Anzac Bridge

 

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Anzac Bridge

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After a couple of weeks off with Robyn overseas, we picked up again this weekend to walk from the end of Darling St west to Birchgrove.

Views across just 500m of harbour to the new Barangaroo site from the southern side of Darling St, beautiful waterfront parkland and renovated historic factory buildings and industrial waterfront.

All in all, a great walk.

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The city is just a stone’s throw away across the entrance to Darling Harbour

 

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Barangaroo from East Balmain

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Cool. Art on the side of a house at Duke St

 

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The old Colgate Factory, now factory apartments.

 

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Ferry workshops near the Colgate factory

 

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Didn’t know that Mort Bay was named after a person and not anything to do with Death as such. Nor did we know that WWII vessels were manufactured in Balmain.

 

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Australia’s oldest dry dock here at Mort Bay

 

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Mort Bay

 

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Ballast Point Park, Birchgrove. Worth a visit.

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Ballast Point Park, Birchgrove.

A beautiful walk from the end of narrow Louisa Rd, west around some gorgeous waterfront past the Dawn Fraser Baths and the site of the old Balmain Power Station, over the Iron Cove bridge, along the front of Birkenhead Factory Outlet Centre to Drummoyne.

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From Louisa Rd Birchgrove to Drummoyne

From Louisa Rd Birchgrove to Drummoyne

Birchgrove Point, end of Louisa Rd. The Coal Loader cafe and Waverton are across the harbour where the orange is

Birchgrove Point, end of Louisa Rd. The Coal Loader cafe and Waverton are across the harbour where the orange is

Birchgrove Ferry wharf

Birchgrove Ferry wharf, Yurulbin Park.

 

Looking through a carpark over to Cockatoo Island

Looking through a carpark over to Cockatoo Island

 

Hidden garage door. Nice!

Hidden garage door. Nice!

 

Looking across towards Cockatoo Island from Birchgrove

Looking across towards Cockatoo Island from Birchgrove

 

Narrow blocks, still worth a fortune.

Narrow blocks, still worth a fortune.

 

Beautiful little park at Balmain Sailing club that leads around west towards Dawn Fraser Baths

Beautiful little park at Balmain Sailing club that leads around west towards Dawn Fraser Baths

 

Balmain Sailing Club

Balmain Sailing Club

 

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Elkington Park, Dawn Fraser Baths at left

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Looking towards Dawn Fraser Pool. Beautiful fig leaning into the water.

Looking towards Dawn Fraser Pool. Beautiful fig leaning into the water.

World famous Dawn Fraser Baths at Birchgrove (Balmain)

World famous Dawn Fraser Baths at Birchgrove (Balmain)

Elkington Park, Cockatoo Island behind

Elkington Park, Cockatoo Island behind

 

Elkington Park, Cockatoo Island behind

Elkington Park, Cockatoo Island behind

 

Marina at Rozelle, in front of the site of the old Balmain Power Station

Marina at Rozelle, in front of the site of the old Balmain Power Station

Pump House, relic from the old Balmain Power Station.

Pump House, relic from the old Balmain Power Station.

Iron Cove Bridge, walking west towards Birkenhead Factory Outlet Centre

Iron Cove Bridge, walking west towards Birkenhead Factory Outlet Centre

View towards Schnapper Island and North Sydney from Drummoyne

View towards Schnapper Island and North Sydney from Drummoyne

Peppercorn Park, Drummoyne.

Peppercorn Park, Drummoyne.

Beautiful development at Drummoyne... "Breeze" in St Georges Cres. Could move in tomorrow!

Beautiful development at Drummoyne… “Breeze” in St Georges Cres. Could move in tomorrow!

 

 

We started with breakfast at The Coal Loader Cafe. in Balls Head Rd at Waverton, where we were a few weeks ago. Beautiful spot – have to remember this as a venue for a 60th or similar.

From there we headed west, making our way around Balls Head Bay and Oyster Cove, around Berry Island Reserve and on towards Greenwich above the fuel tanks at Gore Cove, some of which have been removed, but some are still in use today, pumping fuel from here to Clyde near Parramatta.

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Coal Loader Cafe to Greenwich Rd

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Coal Loader Cafe. Lovely.

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Coal Loader Cafe

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Old wharf fallen into disrepair at Waverton below the Coal Loader Cafe

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Old street signs art installation below the Coal Loader Cafe

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Looking west towards Wondakiah Dr

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Tunnel under the old Coal Loader site

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Oyster Cove at the end of Wondakiah Dr at Waverton. Dense housing around, but lots of parkland maintained. Nice!

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Remnant of the old gasworks at Oyster Cove at the end of Wondakiah Dr at Waverton. Dense housing around, but lots of parkland maintained

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Berry Island – the point where land was filled to connect it to the mainland and make it no longer an island as such,

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Berry Island

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Berry Island

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Looking back towards the Coal Loader

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At the point off Berry Island

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Along the path between Berry Island and Greenwich

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Along the path between Berry Island and Greenwich

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Hollaway Park

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Hollaway Park, at the end of Vista St. Beautiful little park with a view

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Vista St Greenwich

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THE spot to watch the fireworks in Sydney! Greenwich Rd, above Gore Cove.

Parts of Longueville are beautiful!

We had a great walk around the streets as close to the waterfront as we possibly could – sadly, the absolute waterfront is owned by the private residences leading down to that water. Beautiful houses on big blocks of land, some nice local parks and walkways too.

Given the the tide was well out, we did try to walk around some of the foreshore, however the mangrove mud was VERY soft!

Northwood appears to be a locality inside Longueville – I only mention it in the title as this is the ferry wharf you would go to to explore this neck of the woods.

Looking forward to exploring a bit more of this area in the weeks ahead.

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This week’s progress

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Dubois St Longuville. Beautiful homes fronting the river

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The sand was a little soft! And got a LOT softer!

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Arabella St Longuville. Views to the city 🙂

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Arabella St Longuville. Views to the city 🙂

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Northwood Road

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Looking across the bay to Woolwich (Marist Sisters College)

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Lovely park near Kelly’s Esplanade, near Northwood Ferry wharf

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Spectacular views to the city from Arabella St (and very cool front and garage doors!)

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Spectacular views to the city from Arabella St

On a beautiful, last day of summer day in Sydney, we parked the car at Waverton Station and walked south, down the hill past a small cafe towards the water.

There’s a road that makes its way around Balls Head, but the bush track below the road takes you past a remnant of (recent) old Sydney, the Coal Loader. It’s a beautiful,easy path with beautiful views of the city. Quite the spot for the New Year’s Eve fireworks.

Some beautiful waterfront along Waverton Peninsular Reserve and Waverton Oval to Sawmillers Reserve (which sadly doesn’t go right through to Blues Point.

Wander along the path near Wendy’s Secret Garden to Luna Park and the Harbour Bridge.

A fabulous walk of about 6 or 7 kilometres. Catch the train back to Waverton Station from Milsons Point Station – just 2 stops.

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Beautiful Harbour views along the path at Balls Head Reserve

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Berry’s Bay

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Beautiful Harbour views along the path at Balls Head Reserve

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Beautiful Harbour views along the path at Balls Head Reserve

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Remnants of the old BP storage facility. Lots of round tank holes hewn into the rock.

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Sawmillers Reserve

 

Back from our holiday to India and so ready to resume normal weekend service!

Our plan this year? We enjoyed walking the beaches and coast so much in 2014 that we decided to do the same this year, except we will hug the inland waterways. Late Sunday afternoon we headed out to Parramatta Ferry Wharf to begin walking East along the southern shore.

We parked the car at Parramatta wharf and walked towards Rosehill racecourse along the Harris Park Heritage Walk, a really nice path along the (pretty murky this far up stream) Parramatta River with terrific signposting advising various historical sites that used to be there

It’s well done; love wandering along bits of Sydney we’ve never seen before.

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Had to start the year somewhere, so we chose Parramatta Wharf

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The stern of the last HMAS Parramatta

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NIce work along the path

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Robyn has taught at two schools with Ellengowan in their name. This is the original site of Tara Anglican School at North Parramatta.

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About 200 km to go! 🙂