Yesterday's photo featured the Harbour Bridge and a ferry, in response to the theme "when people think of my city..." It prompted quite some discussion about the place of the Opera House. (I recommend you scroll down and have a look at that post)
My theory runs like this: the OH is more important in overseas thinking, because Sydney "came of age" internationally with the Opera House. Prior to the 1973 when it opened, Sydney was hardly on international radar. It helps that it was designed by a European, an architect with a major international reputation.
However, the bridge has long been lodged in the Australian psyche - since it was built in the 1930s. It featured in many works of art at the time it was being built, and was integral in Sydney's inexorable development towards the city it is today. When I was a child in Melbourne in the 1960s, Sydney WAS "The Coathanger".
And this: we've always been a bit ambivalent towards the OH. The building of it was mired in political controversy, and it took a LONG time for Sydney-siders to fully embrace it and stop whingeing about it being a "waste of money". Though you'd be hard pressed now to find someone who doesn't like it, or take pride in it. But everyone acknowledges it is far more spectacular on the outside than inside. And many many Sydney-siders would never have gone in.
In short, the OH, as far as many (?) some(?) Australians are concerned is a flawed wonder. The bridge is beyond reproach!
Now look at the picture. The buildings on the right, on the promenade toward the OH are also controversial. Built in the 1990s, and dubbed "The Toaster", they hide the OH from view from this vantage point of Circular Quay. These are a testament to developers - they are multi million dollar apartments. Instead of opening up the OH to view, we hid it from the very place most visitors arrive at the harbour! Sure, the colonnade below The Toaster is reasonably pleasant - expensive restaurants and cafes and art shops, mostly geared at tourists - but not celebrating the landmark most linked with Sydney by many!
(And I haven't even got wound up about the shabby tin rooftops of the wharves...they deserve so much more. I'll spare you that rant for now).
I'm truly astonished they got planing for the building, that skyline is one of the most recognisable worldwide landmarks. There are very few buildings you can draw with just two or three lines and recognise them, the OH is one.
ReplyDeleteI'm with Ham.
ReplyDeleteGreat photo, very clear and stretching on and on. Lovely.
Sally you're too early! You may be 10 hours ahead of us but you're posting at midnight!!!
ReplyDeleteI won't complain, I love those ferries !
I agree with your comments about Sydneysiders views. I once asked Central coast dwellers what was iconic of Sydney for them. The OH was never mentioned, few had ever been in or took any interest.
ReplyDeleteJust wait another fifty years...
I do agree with you about the "Toaster"...
ReplyDeleteI'm one of those who associated Sydney with the Opera House :-D
ReplyDeleteBut having read your commentary I now can see why you would choose the Harbour and the ferries. Beautiful sight.
I'm also astonished that they would choose to hide the Opera House. After spending all that money on it, why on earth would they then choose to hide it? The reasoningof government officials will always confound me!
Re: Montego Bay & Bobbly Bloom : lol! I've never even heard of that song, but yup. It sure is a great one! :)
Sally, I couldn't agree with you more !!
ReplyDeleteWhen the toaster was "Unilever House", it was the place I visited to take shots of the O H in 1965 etc.
I walsed up to the roof and fired away. It was a dream, that some day it would be demolished.
Developers probably fund the politicians and no-one rocks the boat, except the victims, the populace.
End of story.
A very interesting and informative post.
interesting read. ah.. you grew up in Melbourne? :-)
ReplyDeleteI took the Ferry to Manly once.
I remember at the corner of where you took the photo, there's my favourite gelati stall!!! is gelatissimo still there? :-)
I like this view of the bridge, haorbour, boats, Opra Hopuse and "Toaster". After virtually traveling to Sydney Harbour, I have to admit, I do like that bridge, harbour, and boats more than the Opera HAouse.
ReplyDeleteOh, by the way, thanks for the Mary Tyler Moore theme tune. I hope you don't mind, I am using your link to my archived post...just in case peeople venture that far back in time to early December.
ReplyDeleteThis link is for you Sally - "I Found a Hat". See Mary in downtown Minneapolis.
http://northmetro.blogspot.com/2007/12/i-found-hat.html
A wonderful view on the harbour and I can even see the opera house.
ReplyDeleteVery interesting info, Sally. I would have thought foreigners would have said kangaroos or koalas. ;-) I would have thought the OH, myself.
ReplyDeleteI really like how you get into the details Sally! Now I'm feeling much more informed about Sydney!
ReplyDeleteGorgeous pics. Gawd, your blog has got me missing Sydney all over again. I don't care if I'm looking at the bridge or the OH, it's all good.
ReplyDeleteAs a foreigner who visited in 2003, I was totally unaware of how BIG the opera house and the bridge are. 90% of photos do nooo justice to the SIZE of the damn things. How many different stages are there inside the OH? And how tall is the bridge?
People who haven't visited Sydney have no clue. You expect the Eiffel tower to be tall, you expect the Golden Gate Bridge to be broad but you don't expect the scale of Sydney's landmarks.
Blah, blah, blah...I still say it's the Opera House ;-)
ReplyDelete(just to get your goat!)
Those photos are spectacular!
(and I loved your twister comment on my blog)
For my wife who loves Sydney from afar in the UK it is the reflections of the sun on the water. Described by Clive James as "crushed diamond water under a sky the texture of powdered sapphires". For me it is the complete view of the harbour from Circular Quay. I must get back soon.
ReplyDeleteThis is very much SYDNEY! the bridge along with the Opera House!
ReplyDeleteGood choice!
....yep. OK, and when i do, I'd love to catch up for a coffee if poss?
ReplyDeleteI think in the Opera House, and besides in Bikinis =)
ReplyDeleteI think the view is super, even if the Opera House is kinda hidden.
ReplyDeleteWere you up in the station when you took this shot?
ReplyDeleteWell, you know, like most visitors to Sydney, the OH is the first thing we want to see. I find the controversial history fascinating. Doesn't the government have plans to complete it properly?
But you know, having come over several times, my love for Sydney rests in the people, the food and the ocean. The iconic buildings and structures are a plus.
With my friends having moved to New York, Nathalie in Avignon, not having heard from Pod, I only have you left to visit. You better stay where you are :)
I'm appalled at that building half-blocking the view of the Opera House.
ReplyDeleteI'd not realise Sydneysiders didn't feel the same about the OH as foreigners. Probably the reaction on comments is because the brief was 'When people think of our City, they think of...so probably that's why the OH got mentioned so much in comments. To me, the bridge and the OH - (together) are iconic, but of course, from the point of view of someone who lives in Sydney I understand your viewpoint.
with or without, Sydney is an amazing city, beautiful, great people, fabulous food, super climate. Got it all really.
It is well nigh impossible to have an open space or vast city square as a setting in this land of open space.(not forgetting the parklands) Yet its pretty good. The OH is grand, is very appreciated yet the foundations, or the base of it is somehow ungainly. At least its above water line!
ReplyDeleteFascinating commentary, Sally! Forgive me, but I didn't get around much on Theme Day, and I want to remedy that now with a visit.
ReplyDeleteFor some reason I can't see your photos Sally but I understand what you have written. Sydney Harbour and its skyline are just amazing, as is Sydney and its surrounds from the air. I used to fly a lot around Sydney and the view from aloft is beautiful too. There is no doubt that it is a quite unique city with all that waterfront to play with.
ReplyDeleteIconic buildings are always the provence of the city politicians and the architects and planners who want a grand gesture to leave to posterity. The London Dome [described by Prince Charles as a carbuncle] is similar.
ReplyDeleteTo the ordinary citizens [who have to pay for it through their taxes] functional things like bridges are always much more important.
Nice emblematic shot from your city.
ReplyDeleteTo compare the OH with the London Dome is absurd. The OH has repaid itself to the good people of Sydney many times over whatever it cost, it literally put the city on the map as a world city. And by the way the architect only had a reputation because of the OH. He did little else of note.
ReplyDeleteps Prince Charles' 'carbuncle' comment wasn't about the Dome, it was about a proposed extension to the National Gallery that was never built.
ReplyDeleteWell, I've always thought that the OH looked best from the water as you were coming into the Quay on the ferry (or in my case, the river Cat).
ReplyDeleteThe toaster involved quite a bit of controversy as well, but that didn't stop people lining up at 6AM to buy an apartment off the plan.
Myself, I still think more fondly of the bridge. It was a feat of engineering at the time, being the longest single span bridge in the world. The bridge also had it's share of controversy when it was built, but it was such a long time ago most people have forgotten.
I walked across the bridge on the 75th Anniversary, and in typical NSW State Govt fashion, they did everything in their power to make it as unpleasant as possible (including 150db music blasting your ears out). Still, it was quite an experience, and we all went down to the rocks for French pastries and coffee after the walk.
The view looks great! And your information is certainly enlightening!
ReplyDeleteI have fond memories of this view as we travelled to and from Manly to Circular Quay every day of our stay. My sis-in-law (who we were visiting) couldn't see why we were so excited to see the Opera House - she described it as a lump of concrete - but she has never been inside. I disagree with the view that it is uninteresting inside. We went on the tour and have amazing photos of the angles in the roof and the concrete supports. PLUS if you know your history the INSIDE was designed by different people to the man who designed the OUTSIDE and as he left the project they had to start from scratch. Our guide said that the plan was to eventually turn it into the OH the original architecht envisaged. We're equally in love with the bridge and the rest of the harbour but the Opera House is special.
ReplyDelete