Sydney weekends | So, this weekend, we...

Posts Tagged ‘Sydney weekends’

Waverton to Greenwich

Posted: March 20, 2016 in Sydney Harbour
Tags: breakfast, cafe, Coffee, Sydney, sydney harbor, Sydney Harbour, Sydney weekends, Weekends in Sydney

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.

Coal Loader Cafe to Greenwich Rd

Coal Loader Cafe. Lovely.

Coal Loader Cafe

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

Old street signs art installation below the Coal Loader Cafe

Looking west towards Wondakiah Dr

Tunnel under the old Coal Loader site

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

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

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

Berry Island

Looking back towards the Coal Loader

At the point off Berry Island

Along the path between Berry Island and Greenwich

Hollaway Park

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

Vista St Greenwich

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

Longueville / Northwood

Posted: March 13, 2016 in Sydney Harbour
Tags: sydney harbor, Sydney Harbour, Sydney weekends, this weekend in Sydney, walk, walking inner Sydney, Weekends in Sydney, What to do in Sydney this weekend

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.

This week’s progress

Dubois St Longuville. Beautiful homes fronting the river

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

Arabella St Longuville. Views to the city 🙂

Northwood Road

Looking across the bay to Woolwich (Marist Sisters College)

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

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

Spectacular views to the city from Arabella St

Drummoyne – East of Gladesville Bridge

Posted: March 4, 2016 in Sydney Harbour
Tags: ferry, Sydney, Sydney Harbour, Sydney weekends, Things to do in Sydney, Weekends in Sydney, What to do in Sydney this weekend

The Swans v Giants pre-season footy match was on Friday night so we parked the car near Drummoyne Oval a little beforehand and headed east towards the city. Some beautiful water-front real estate, a few hidden parks. Nice 🙂

Rea Reserve, Drummoyne Ave

Some beautiful waterfront real estate with views east to the harbour bridge. Some places make it easier to sticky-beak than others!

From Drummoyne ferry wharf

Lovely little park at the end of Lyons Rd

Private beach and a dog park opposite Spectacle Island

Drummoyne Oval

Drummoyne Oval. Swans | Giants pre-season. Cheap entry 😉

Rhodes > Olympic Park > Rydalmere

Posted: March 1, 2016 in bicycle, Cafe, Inner West
Tags: breakfast, cafe, Coffee, ferry, olympics, Sydney weekends, Weekends in Sydney

We drove down to Rhodes and parked at the northern end of the path, near the railway bridge to Meadowbank.

We unloaded the bikes and headed off south along a beautiful path beside the river in front of all the new apartments at Rhodes.

As the shopping strip peters out, the path continues along the waterfront, through the Rhodes wetlands, past bird sanctuaries, recreation areas and, once we reached Wentworth Point (close to the Olympic Park), housing.

It was raining this day, so we stopped here and had a coffee before returning back a different way through the various Olympic area paths.

The following week, in bright sunshine, we parked the car and headed out from near the Olympic Archery Centre, heading west along the bike path. We rode past the Armory cafe, but had to cross the river at the bridge at Silverwater road as there’s no path through the oil refinery. The path continued on this other side of the river… we rode till it finished near Western Sydney University.

Here we turned around and rode back to the Armory Cafe for breakie. A nice morning 🙂

Bike paths

Rhodes waterfront

The Armory Cafe

Looking east from near Silverwater Road

Heading west towards The Armory Cafe

Wentworth Point (near Olympic Park) from Rhodes

Historic wrecks at Rhodes

Bird watching refuge at the wetlands area near Wentworth Point

Parramatta ~ Harris Park Heritage Walk

Posted: January 24, 2016 in Sydney Harbour
Tags: ferry, Sydney, sydney harbor, Sydney Harbour, Sydney weekends, Things to do in Sydney, walking inner Sydney, Weekends in Sydney, what to do in Sydney, What to do in Sydney this weekend

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.

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

The stern of the last HMAS Parramatta

NIce work along the path

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

About 200 km to go! 🙂

Week 51 ~ Y is for Youth

Posted: December 8, 2015 in Inner West
Tags: Sydney, Sydney weekends, Things to do in Sydney, walking inner Sydney, Weekends in Sydney

If you grew up in Sydney like we did, you’ll remember buying 5c paper tickets and catching myriad buses to school and the shops

Sydney’s Bus Museum fell into dis-repair some time ago and Wednesday night was the preview night of the new museum.

Now, let’s get one thing straight here… we are NOT bus officianados or even remotely interested in the actual history of transport in Sydney… I think we were the only ones who weren’t!
Rather, this is what the whole point of this doing something together project is about. To do something together that we wouldn’t normally do.

In the old bus, from Central Station to Leichhardt

I remember these posters!

Ryde local bus

Never too old to play!

Week 50 ~ X is for Xenophobia

Posted: December 7, 2015 in Walking
Tags: beach, Coffee, cronulla, Sydney, Sydney weekends, Weekends in Sydney, what to do in Sydney, What to do in Sydney this weekend

The ugly face of Australian racism.

cronulla_wideweb__470x313,0 The 2005 Cronulla riots were a series of clashes and outbreaks of mob violence in Australia on 11 December 2005 in the Sydney suburb of Cronulla.

Racial tensions were already prevalent between local caucasian and middle eastern Australians due to earlier altercations between groups.

A crowd gathered at Cronulla on the morning of Sunday, 11 December 2005 and, by midday, approximately 5,000 people had gathered near the beach to protest against recent violence towards locals. However, fuelled by alcohol, the crowd turned to violence when a young man of Arab appearance was spotted on the beach. He was surrounded by a crowd outside a local hotel and attacked, along with similar attacks later that day. Retaliatory attacks also took place that night and on subsequent nights, resulting in extensive property damage and several more assaults, including two separate, racially motivated stabbings and even some attacks against ambulance and police officers.

The attacks were widely condemned by local, state and federal members of parliament, police, local community leaders, and residents of Cronulla and adjacent areas. A large number of arrests were made over the subsequent months, from both the initial riot on 11 December and the retaliations over the subsequent nights.

10 years on and a rally was planned to remember the riots.
We thought it might be an opportune time to reflect on the violence and racism surrounding this event, so we went to Cronulla for a swim and a looksee.

Dick heads the lot of them.

Week 49 ~ W is for Wendy Whiteley’s Garden

Posted: December 6, 2015 in Sydney Harbour
Tags: garden, Sydney, sydney harbor, Sydney Harbour, Sydney weekends, Things to do in Sydney, this weekend in Sydney, what to do in Sydney

After the death of her husband (artist Brett Whitely) Wendy Whiteley started to clean up and landscape a large patch of derelict land adjacent to her home in Lavender Bay, owned by the NSW Rail Corporation. It was choked by weeds, overgrown and strewn with old train carriages, abandoned refrigerators, rotting mattresses and broken bottles, and some homeless people sometimes slept there.

The Rail Corporation had no interest in doing anything with it, and they raised no objections to her beautifying the area.

Over 15 years, it has become a coveted spot for those who have heard about or chanced upon it, with random benches in quiet spots, secluded paths, and a spectacular view to the Sydney Harbour Bridge.

It’s affectionately known by locals as “Wendy’s Secret Garden”, although the public have always had free access.

In October 2015, the New South Wales Government, which owns the land, agreed to give the North Sydney Council a 30-year renewable lease on it. [so says wikipedia]

So on a beautiful Sydney early summer Saturday evening we headed over to the garden with champagne and nibbles to see it for ourselves. We weren’t disappointed.

The first person we came across, working just below her house, was Wendy Whiteley herself.

Sydney Royalty

This was definitely one of the best things we have done this year.
We’ll be back with interstate and overseas visitors for sure 🙂
The gardens have hidden spots with tables and chairs, views, steps and stairs that just draw you to climbing and exploring.

Lovely statues are dotted around the place. Winner winner.

Beautiful Moreton Bay or Port Jackson Fig, with Whiteley’s house behind

Whiteley’s house

Week 48 ~ V is for Vintage

Posted: November 30, 2015 in Inner West, Markets
Tags: antique, breakfast, cafe, Sydney, Sydney weekends, Things to do in Sydney, vintage, what to do in Sydney, What to do in Sydney this weekend

header

There’s a fine line between vintage and crap – it would seem there are plenty of people who don’t know the difference.

There’s also a MASSIVE difference between vintage/second hand/old//crap/broken and what constitutes a bargain!

$hit! I’m never throwing anything out again EVER!

Deliciopus start to the day at https://www.facebook.com/SubStationCafe, an old electrical substation transformed into a cafe with a snug interior and a cute courtyard. We enjoyed a delicious start to the day at The Substation Cafe , an old electrical substation transformed into a cafe with a snug interior and a cute courtyard. Mediterranean influenced food, great coffee, friendly staff, good service.

We’ll be back 🙂

We went for a walk to the Mitchell Road Antique and Design Centre. It’s a warehouse packed with vintage and retro stuff – not really antiques. It appears to be divided into sections – I imagine that each section is sub-let to a different stall-holder.

This was followed by a short stroll to Lunatiques. Love the name 🙂
Ditto.

I was like a trip back to our grandparents’. We found ourselves at every turn saying either

Oh, look at that, I used to have these (ie remember those roller skates that laced up and the length was adjustable via a wingnut under the sole?)
or
Remember Gran used to have these? (cue the laminated kitchen table) or
Remember throwing that away/giving that to Vinnies?What a trip down memory lane!

Holy Crap! This little anvil, about the size of a rolled up sleeping bag – $1200! What would the one i have in the back yard be worth? No wonder the boys argue about who gets it when i die!!

Desk made from an aeroplane wing, anyone?

Week 46 ~ T is for a Train ride

Posted: November 15, 2015 in Transport
Tags: Sydney weekends, this weekend in Sydney, Weekends in Sydney, What to do in Sydney this weekend

Gotta love Sydney’s Opal cards – $2.50 travel all day on a Sunday.

We headed to Hawkesbury River – the train station near Brooklyn just where the road to Gosford crosses the Hawkesbury River.

We had breakfast at the Tuckshop cafe and then went for a walk around Brooklyn.

We had no idea there was so much history there…

Governor Philip was exploring the area within months of arriving in Sydney in 1788
The rail bridge was the final piece in the Trans Continental Railway. Originally built in 1889, it linked Adelaide, Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane and was a major engineering feat at the time.
There was an anti aircraft station set up there to protect the rail bridge from any Japanese activity in WWII

It’s also where RW Corkery, the company our daughter Lauren works for in Orange, has an office, so good to see where she works from time to time and put a face to the name.