Some of my favourite pics of 2009

Not necessarily the best, but some of my favourites from this year.
From top left:

Jan 31 - Bronte Baths
Sep 11 - Sunset, Sydney Park
Jan 07 - Dogs on Rosedale Beach
Feb 18 - Wedding reception, Wylie's Baths, Coogee
Oct 14 - Boatshed, Bedlam Bay
Mar 18 - Suilinn and Aggie
Feb 12 - Baths, Coogee Beach
Sep 25 - Sunrise, Arncliffe
Nov 07 - Sculpture By The Sea - Gilded Cage
Jan 16 - Rosedale Beach (this is my computer wallpaper)
Feb 03 - The Kiss
Dec 24 - Underwater world
July 27 - Repair shop man
June 28 - Cormorant and Opera House
Oct 24 - Woolwich Dock

Rock pool, Little Bay

On the northern end of Little Bay beach, there's a gorgeous shallow rock pool to have a loll around in.

In for a swim

Fish

Those damned fish - they don't stay still for photographs!

Purple rock

More underwater pics using my new Canon D10.

The ring of rocks pool - underwater

This is from half under the water in the pool seen yesterday. I'm experimenting with the D10 waterproof camera to see what different effects I can get. Which do you prefer? In the shot below you can see the water bubbles as a fresh wave spills over the rocks into the pool.

Ring of rocks pool

The "ring of rocks" pool at Little Bay was constructed as a place for nurses at the 'Coast Hospital' to bathe safely.

The information below is from the NSW Ocean Baths website.
In the next couple of days we'll have a poke around under the water in the pool.

Early 1900s
Onsite recreation was important for the hospital's nurses, as the nearest public transport was the steam tram to the suburb of Botany, four miles away. Nurses paddled, swam and sunbaked at the beach at Little Bay, where a bathing shed was erected. The hospital had around 65 nurses and a total staff of around 80.

As sharks had been seen in Little Bay, Matron Jean McMaster forbade the nurses to swim in the Bay. Even so, nurses continued to swim there and often swam at night. There were no shark fatalities.

Matron McMaster requested better facilities for the nurses including a nurses' home, a nurses' sitting room and even hot water for the nurses' bathroom, along with recreational facilities such as a fully equipped tennis court and a rock-enclosed pool in Little Bay. It was years before the rock pool was completed.

1905
By the time Alice Watson became Matron at the Coast Hospital, the rock pool in Little Bay had been constructed as a 'safe' swimming pool for nurses.

1917
Photos show nurses and convalescent patients in army uniforms on Little Bay Beach in front of the rock pool.

1920s
Photos show nurses on Little Bay Beach in swimming costumes and picnicking in front of the rock pool. Children played on the beach in the care of nurses.

1950s
Nurses at the hospital still paddled and swam at the Little Bay Beach and in the rock pool. Prospective nurses were advised of the swimming from the hospital beach and other onsite recreational amenities provided free to the nursing staff, including competition-standard tennis courts, a 9-hole golf course, a library and film programs.

1970s
Effluent from the Malabar sewage outfall to the north made the Little Bay beach and rock pool too polluted for swimming. Prince Henry Hospital nurses held dances, raffles and barbecues to raise money for an off-beach swimming pool built at no cost to the Hospital.

1990s
Construction of a deep-ocean outfall at Malabar ended pollution of the Little Bay Beach and rock pool. Local residents could walk to the pool across the Coast Hospital's golf course.

With the new development in the area it is much more accessible, and Little Bay may no longer be Sydney's best kept secret!

Here it is at high tide:

I'd like to be...

... under the sea
in an octopus's garden
in the shade

(and I'm pretty bloody happy with the results from the Canon D10 !!)

Seaweed

Here starts a new era!!! Yep, I've got a brand new toy - a Canon PowerShot D10 camera. Waterproof to 10 metres. Here's my first atttempt at some underwater photography, at Sydney's Little Bay.

For the next few days we might explore this delightful beach, in and out of the water. It's been great beach weather in Sydney.

From the rooftop of the Australian Museum

The view from the roof terrace of the Australian Museum towards the city.

John and Charmaine

Charmaine and Frank

Charmaine

Robert

Christmas Party

Here's a pic of me and my dear friend, Frank, at our work Christmas Party. Frank is retiring this year after decades of work as a teacher and union officer.
And I'm wearing my brand new party dress to celebrate!

The coast walk from Clovelly to Bondi

Around Waverley Cemetery. The path used to go along the edge of the cemetery. It was crowded and becoming eroded, so this new cantilevered decked walk has been built.

I've shown this stretch and the cemertery before, prior to the new walkway being built: click here.

Redleaf Pool

(iPhone photo)
Like Nielsen Park from a few days ago, Redleaf is one of the Sydney Harbour beaches. Sydney is famous for its surf beaches, but these hidden harbourside gems lend a "mediterranean" touch to the city. Many are tucked away in residential areas, not nearly as well known or popular, and so good for "in the know" locals who prefer swimming in calmer waters to the thrill of diving through waves (I like both!!)

Click the link to see my previous post on Redleaf .

Inner city living

Terrace of a backpacker hostel in Reservoir Street, Surry Hills.

Happy Christmas banners

Sydney City Council wishes you a very happy Christmas along Southern Cross Drive.

Nielsen Park

A great place to picnic and swim at Vaucluse in Sydney's Eastern Suburbs. Which is exactly what I did with friends today.

Hunters Hill

A lovely heritage corner in Sydney suburb Hunters Hill.

Little Bay - looking north

The golf courses are right on the clifftop, but there is still public acess all the way along. You can walk all the way along the Sydney coast from the harbour to Botany Bay. It's one of the special things about this city.

In the top photo, this is the part of the coast which Christo and Jean-Claude wrapped.

Little Bay - golf and chapel

There are four golf courses along the coastal clifftops here - Randwick, The Coast course, St Michael's and New South Wales. You can walk all the way along the coast as well.

Here golfers tee off in front of the chapel.

Little Bay - The Chapel By The Sea

The interdenominational Australian Nurses' War Memorial chapel, which was part of the Prince Henry hospital site, is a popular place for weddings, like the one shown yesterday.

It burned down in October 1981 and was restored.

Little Bay - the wedding

Yesterday I showed you the beach. It must be a pretty romantic spot, for this wedding party chose to cross the rocks for some photos! The swimmers seem pretty unfazed by it all.

Tomorrow: see the wedding venue.

Little Bay beach

A sunny day, perfect for the beach.

Little Bay is a sheltered eastern suburbs beach. It was at the foot of the old Prince Henry's ("Coast" hospital) which was first built in the late 19th century. It has now been redeveloped as an expensive housing development.

The Little Bay area was first used as a makeshift camp during Sydney's smallpox outbreak in 1881-82, to isolate sufferers. At first, a "tent city" was established, but further smallpox outbreaks and a typhoid epidemic convinced the government to build a permanent hospital here to treat infectious diseases. Little Bay was an ideal location because it was isolated from settlements but still close enough to Sydney. The Coast Hospital was particularly valuable during the bubonic plague in Sydney of 1900 and then again when soldiers returning from Europe brought the influenza virus back in 1919. The Coast Hospital became Prince Henry Hospital in 1934and in 2001 was closed.

The rocks to the north of the bay were "wrapped" by Christo and Jean-Claude in 1969.

See previous post about Little Bay here and about Wrapped Coast.

Bass and Flinders Point, South Cronulla

Memorial stone reads: "Memorial to Matthew Flinders George Bass and the 'Boy Martin' who sailed past this headland in 'Tom Thumb' II on March 30th 1796 and discovered and named Port Hacking."

water bomb!!

I saw this young tourist and his mates (I assume they were tourists cos they were speaking German) on the Bondi-Tamarama walk during the recent Sculpture By The Sea exhibition. I wonder who or what they were planning to water-bomb????

The olive grower

At the growers' market, old Eveleigh rail yards, Chippendale.

The flower seller

At the Growers' market seen yesterday

Waiting (Theme Day)

These dogs are waiting for their owners as they shop at the farmers' markets at the old Eveleigh St railway yards in Chippendale.

Click here to view thumbnails for all participants in the monthly Theme Day

the dandi lion (Sculpture By The Sea 2009)

These kids were having a great time playing amongst this sculpture by William Eastlake of the Australian Capital Territory. It's made of bamboo, sisal rope and organic cotton.

Eastlake says: "While exploring the influence of material and its inherent structural qualities in the creation of space, we manipulate the experience and interpretation of the viewer."

The work rotates and the kids loved pushing it, climbing under it and running through.

where is the freedom? (Sculpture By The Sea 2009)

This work is by an Iranian artist, Mona Aghababaee. She saus : "Inspired by Ancient persian culture, the symbols are used in a new context and are connected with the social, political and cultural conditions in Iran."

There is quite a story behind this sculpture. It won the $5000 prize for young sculptors, but in an ironic twist on the theme of the work - freedom - the Australian embassy in Tehran denied her a visa to come to Australia to collect her prize and see it displayed.

She had "lots of problems" exhibiting her art in Iran, she said, and entered Sculpture by the Sea after finding information about it on the internet. She had to borrow money to pay for the transportation of her work to Australia.

The cypress tree once symbolised freedom in Iran, but today ''its symbolism is simply denied'', Ms Aghababaee said. ''We live in a country that hasn't any freedom.''

Read the full story here.

little boy lost (Sculpture By The Sea 2009)

Paul Trefry's lifelike sculpture is made from silicon, fibreglass and human hair. He says it is "made from the heart, without pressure from other parties."

At first the local council, Waverley, decided the piece had to don a pair of swimmers, but artist Trefry took them off.

He said he "had felt so uncomfortable with a Waverley Council ruling that his sculpture had to be clothed that he rose at 7.30am and made the short trip from his Bondi home to return the piece to its intended naked form.

''Basically, I've had enough of censorship, about how the Government are basically stopping everyone from doing anything,'' he said.

''If Sculpture by the Sea want me to remove it, I will. If they are going to do something so petty, I would rather not be in the exhibition.''

But Sculpture by the Sea founder David Handley said the piece would remain. ''We think it is pretty funny and guessed they'd probably reappear on eBay,'' he said of the missing swimmers. ''Then we found out the artist took them off himself, and thought, 'Why not?' Now, if people wish, they can see him in all his glory.''

Full story : Sydney Morning Herald.

a crab in the works (Sculpture By The Sea 2009)

Gordon Mitchell says : "Transforming an everyday object into that of monumental scale. Evoking memories of losing a valuable watch at the beach or the discovery of a treasure!"

dying for a drink (Sculpture By The Sea 2009)

This work by Phill Hall is made of wire mesh, recycled water bottles, glass, plywood riot shields.

Hall says "Traveling sculpture designed to raise awareness of the critical global water shortage and to stimulate positive actions and solutions."