Cockatoo Island Part 6

Art installation by Peter Hennessy: My Hubble (the universe turned in on itself (2010). The telescopic function is reversed and visitors are encouraged to play with, modify and create their own mini universes on the ground which are then projected into outer space.

Cockatoo Island Part 5

Old graffiti of hammer and sickle in the dogleg tunnel

Cockatoo Island Part 5

Inside the dogleg tunnel - beautiful Sydney sandstone.

Cockatoo Island Part 4

Great to see this piece of industrial or maritime worker graffiti preserved. Tribune was the weekly newspaper of the Communist Party of Australia. It ceased publication in 1991 when the Party was dissolved. Maritime activity finished on Cockatoo Island in 1992.

Cockatoo Island Part 3

On the other side of the container the view across the harbour to the Bridge and City.

Cockatoo Island Part 2

Every venue needs a merchandise shop - what better than a shipping container to pick up your Biennale fripp?

Tomorrow: What's on the other side?

Sydney Biennale - Cockatoo Island 1

Cockatoo Island, largest island in Sydney Harbour, former colonial prison, and one of Australia's largest shipyards in the 20th century. Lots of colonial heritage building (submitted for World Heritage Listing) and more recent maritime industrial buildings. And one of the venues of art installations in the Sydney Biennale. We're going to visit over the next couple of weeks.

Le quartorze juillet

The Sydney suburb of Matraville contains many streets named after significant locations where ANZACs fought during World War One. Anzac Parade is a major Sydney artery. It was named in 1917 to commemorate the occasion when the AIF (Australian Infantry Forces) camped at Kensington Racecourse and paraded down that road on their way to embark for overseas service. Others streets include Amiens, Ypres, Pozieres, Menin, Flanders, Amiens, Bullecourt, Bapaume, Hamel, Armentieres. The local public school is called Soldiers Settlement.

I especially like the blue plates, commemorating in French the significance of the name, and reminiscent of the street name plates of France.

From the Randwick City Council web site:
"In 1917 a gift of 72.5 acres of Crown land, described as 'the waste sand hills beyond Daceyville, was made available for returned soldiers from World War I. A Voluntary Workers Association formed and between 1918 and 1925 some 93 homes were built, south west of Anzac Parade and Beauchamp Road, as the Matraville Soldiers' Garden Village... The houses eventually passed to the State Housing Board. In 1977 despite local protests, all but one of the cottages was demolished and the site redeveloped. The surrounding streets recall battlefields and sites of World War I."