The largest......

Touted as "the largest IKEA store in the southern hemisphere...", due to open later this year.

Now there's something to contemplate!

Especially considering according to this list, Australia is the only country in the southern hemisphere with an IKEA. (Plans for New Zealand)

Sydney Park

Sydney Park, in the inner southern suburb of St Peters is a new-ish park. It is built on a former brick pit and waster disposal site. It's not yet 20 years old, and looking good.

I've shown various pictures of the park before , especialy the northern end with the brick chimneys, and the lookouts. In the southern end, there's this impressive wetland area.

Previous posts:

Here
Here
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Late autumn swim

Little Bay

Missing you already

With the rainy, cool weather in the past few days, I haven't been able to swim outdoors for a while. I miss it. An inside "gym swim" just isn't the same! He4re's hoping for some nice sunny and warm late autumn days to come - just like this one.

The future of Bexley pool is under a bit of a cloud. It urgently needs a large investment, as it is leaking 20 000 litres a day, and though open year round, needs some indoor facilities for lessons and leisure swimming over winter. So far Rockdale Council has not committed the necessary funding. As well, the current management has been replaced....all very murky indeed.

Read more here:
Prospects for Bexley pool remain a mystery
Bexley pool operator sacked
Bexley pool users back operator

A cuise ship leaves Sydney

Approaching dusk and P&O ship Pacific Pearl crusises out of Sydney Harbour, past the Opera House.

Can you see the tiny figures on top of the bridge, around about where the flags are? They're bridge climbers.

All roads lead to ANZAC (Parade)

ANZAC Day. ANZAC means Australian and New Zealand Army Corps. Australian & New Zealand Imperial Forces became known as ANZAC on the beach at Gallipoli in Turkey, where the disastrous landing took place on April 25, 1915. They fought a British war, and went on to continue in France and the Middle East.

This cluster of streets in Matraville, off Anzac Parade includes many named after villages and towns in the Somme and Flanders : Beauchamp Rd, Fromelles Way, Bapaume Pde, Beaumetz Way, Combles Pde, Peronne Way, Armentieres Way, Somme Way, Bullecourt Way, Messines Place, Flers Place, Hamel Road, Menin Rd, Pozieres Ave, Flanders Ave.

Sydney has 8 Gallipoli Streets, 1 Close and 1 Lane;  9 Anzac Avenues, 1 Lane, 1 Motorway, 4 Roads, 1 Square and 5 Streets and a bridge (featured on several occasions on this blog). Anzac Parade passes through 10 suburbs.

Below, left, a photo of my grandfather, Percy Smith, a soldier in World War 1. You can see his story here: Percy Smith, ANZAC. Below, right, my view of war and a tribute to my grandad (Gargoo), on a card I made.

Cloud break

Herewith proof that Sydney does take the occasional break from sunshine for a bit of cloud and rain! Taken yesterday about 10am. We would have been on top of that bridge in swiring misty rain if we had gone then rather than the day before.

Bridge Climb 2

Pictures from yesterday's bridge climb.

Bridge climb

Spent a good part of Good Friday attractively suited up in a Tele-tubbies outfit, doing the Sydney harbour Bridge Climb. It was FANTASTIC - a great experience!

More pics to come but we had trouble extracting them from the USB we purchased.

Disclaimer: You are not allowed to take anything up with you, lest you drop stuff on the roadway way, way below, or onto a passing water craft, or lose your own concentration. It's all perfectly safe, however, with great attention to learning what and how to do things, and you are clipped on to a safety wire the whole time.

Getaway

It's Easter, and time for many to pack up the car and get away for a few days on a nice long break. We have public holidays Friday (Good Friday), Monday (Easter Monday) and Tuesday (ANZAC Day)...so for many - me included - there's no work til next Wednesday!!!

I'm staying put, just like this ute - not rusted into place, but looking forward to some sun and swimming, reading and excursions.

If you're off for for a break, have a great time!

Apartments Wolli Creek

Two days ago I showed Tempe House at Wolli Creek, built in 1834-6. Behind it sits these modern apartments.

Sydney Daily Photo - 5th birthday

It's a beautiful day in Sydney - sunny, warm. I's rather be enjoying the autumn sun and swimming, but it's a work day for me!

Here's the debut photo for Sydney Daily Photo, posted on 19 April 2006.  Sydney had just celebrated the annual Gay & Lesbian Mardi Gras.

I'm progressively posting my favourites from the past 5 years on my Facebook page. You should be able to see them by clicking on this link.

Tempe House

This house, now magnificently restored, has quite a history – from glamorous high society home, to a school operated by early Sydney philanthropist Caroline Chisholm (she previously appeared on the Australian five dollar note), through nearly a century as a home run by Catholic Good Samaritan nuns for women judged to be in “moral danger”.


In the past few decades it has been in danger of total dereliction, the gardens and grounds overgrown and inaccessible.

Unfortunately, the only way the house has been able to be restored has been in conjunction with a major high-rise housing development. While I haven’t got an issue with the flats themselves, I do feel they mar the line of sight of Tempe House and divorce it from its context of expansive grounds. It has also meant the excision of a part of the rocky knoll to one side, called “Mount Olympus”. This part of the grounds has also been restored as a garden, for the private use of the apartment dwellers.
On the positive side, the vast lawns down to the Cooks River have been rehabilitated.

The house was built for a wealthy and successful Scottish émigré, Alexander Brodie Spark. He had travelled extensively in Europe, having undertaken the classical gentleman’s Grand Tour of classical sites, and named the estate “Tempe” after the Vale of Tempe in Greece, and the rocky hill he named “Mount Olympus”.

In 1834 he commissioned colonial architect John Verge to design an arcadian villa with resemblance to a Greek temple. Behind the house there was an orchard, greenhouse, shrubbery and gardener’s cottage. On the river he constructed a rococo bathing house.


For a full history and more photos see my Postcode 2205 blog entry on Tempe House.

Royal National Park

The Hacking River - upstream from Audley Weir. The Royal was the second declared National Park in the world. Anyone know the first???

Mitchell Wing, State Library

David Scott Mitchell (1836 - 1907) was a book collector. He offered his collection of Australiana to the people of New South Wales on the condition that a new building be erected to house the collection as a separate library.

Work on the Mitchell Wing started in 1906 and was completed in 1910. It houses the Mitchell Library reading rooms, work areas and galleries. It is part of the State Library of NSW.

Maroubra 5pm

The interesting thing about this photo is that it looks like a sunrise or sunset shot. Well, it's neither. It is looking east across the ocean at 5pm. Interesting play of light. The sunset was taking place behind me.

Back from the photo shoot

I spotted this group on the rocks at the far side of Little Bay. They seemed to be engaged in a photo shoot. There were only 4 people, and it didn't seem to be a commercial shoot (not enough equipment), and didn't really appear to be a wedding either.

The whole thing had me rather intrigued, and I was even more curious when they emerged onto the headland from where I had been watching. I said "Hello" and hoped to ask them what was happening, but they looked blankly at me and kept going. I don't know whether they spoke English. The whole scene was very bizarre!

I have seen a wedding party at Little Bay beach before (click here), so maybe they thought it was a good idea at the time. They certainly didn't seem to be thinking so by the time I encountered them! The groom (if he were) looked rather bedraggled, they both seemed fed up, and after attending to whatever it was at the hem of her dress, he plodded on ahead of her.

Princes Hwy at St Peters, night

Rainbow lorikeets

This morning I came across a pair of these beautiful birds, part of the parrot family (Trichoglossus haematodus) feasting on the nectar contained in the flowers of one of the bottlebrush (Callistemon) trees in my street.

Apparently they have a  tongue adapted especially for their diet of fruit, pollen and nectar. The end of the tongue is equipped with a "papillate appendage" adapted to collecting nectar from flowers. 

A "papillate appendage" turns out to be a small nipplelike tongue extension for dipping into the nectar. Now, one of those would be extremely useful for getting right into the bottom of a honey jar!

Sunday bike ride

How did you spend Sunday? Doing something healthy, or did you have to work, or do you live in a country where Sunday is a normal day? ( I went for a swim)


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Stepping Up

Recently I showed this block of public housing flats, Sirius, in The Rocks - from the other side. This is the block from the walkway of the Sydney harbour Bridge. This aspect shows the roof terraces which are an integral part of the design.

See the previous entry by clicking here.

Basking in the sun

Today is what I call a "perfect Sydney day" - still, warm (currently 20 degrees, heading for about 26),  sunny, and a weekend! This pair have found the perfect spot to bask. I am taming my garden wildrerness then going to stretch out with a long swim. Heaven.

Afternoon clouds over Pittwater

The city from Watsons Bay

Sweeping autumn leaves along Oxford St, Darlinghurst

Brick dunny

An old brick dunny in this Annandale lane is flanked by bougainvillea and lantana.

Observatory Hill

Looking over The Rocks (Millers Point) and Sydney Harbour from Observatory Hill

Tree flap

Some people have cat flaps in their doors. This Annandale backyard has a tree root fence flap.

Theme Day April 2011 - Edges: The Edge Of The World

In 1642 Dutch mariner Abel Tasman made voyages around the Tasman peninsula, which he named Van Diemen's land, after the Governor-General of the Dutch East Indies, In 1644 he mapped the northwestern edge of the land which became known as New Holland, and then Terra Australis.

A marble mosaic reproduction of Tasman's map is embedded in the main entrance foyer of the Mitchell Library wing of the State Library of NSW.  Tasmania must have seemed like the edge of the world to those from the Old World.

Click here to view thumbnails for all participants in the City Daily Photos Bloggers' Theme Day