1 boat, 2 boats, 3 boats. Circular Quay

Overseas Passenger Terminal, Circular Quay

Cruise ships are getting larger and larger. They are regular visitors to Sydney, often only staying a day - long enough for people to have a wander around the circular Quay area, maybe walk across the Harbour Bridge and to the Opera House, and say they have "done Sydney".

And another one pivots on a sixpence!

...and narrowly misses the Opera House...yet again!

She sails up, she sails down....

Evening on Sydney Harbour - 2016 or 1816?

The view from the top - Woolwich

The view from the lookout at the top of the overhang shown yesterday.
Not bad, eh!!

Woolwich Dock

When it opened in 1901, Woolwich Dock was the largest in Australia.

It was in deep water, and close to Cockatoo Isalnd, the major shipbuilding and repair centre in Sydney Harbour.

Labourers spent four years carving the dock into solid sandstone. Horses pulled carts loaded with earth and stone, and grazed nearby (in an area still called 'Horse Paddock' today).

The dock operated until 1958, repairing and maintaining a range of vessels from tall ships to steamships and large naval vessels.



Tomorrow: A closer look at that sandstone overhang up at the end.

The romance of the high seas

Gangway at the Overseas Passenger terminal at Circular Quay. The only boats that depart from here these days are luxury cruise ships. Most often they are the ones which cannot fit under the bridge (like The World Condominium ship).

Circular Quay is in the heart of historical Sydney. These waters will have seen convict ships, clippers and windjammers, steamers, the departure of troops to wars like the first and second world wars, and afterwards the arrival of refugees from those great conflicts. In the 1960s, before the advent of mass air travel, boatloads of young people left for adventures in Europe, first stop usually England (Southampton Docks, probably).

Below: A collage of ships at West Circular Quay from photos in the National Library of Australia collection (to those who have asked me what I use to do collages, the answer is the free software, Picasa)


Top l to r: Circular Quay West by Harold Cazneaux (bridge nearly complete), 1931; View from Harbour Bridge by Frank Hurley, date not stated; cruise ship The Oriana, by Wolfgang Sievers, 1961; during construction of the bridge by CE Wellings, 1930.
Middle, l to r: Orcades leaving by Jeff Carter, about 1955; departure of troops, possibly for Boer War, about 1900; departure of troops for Sudan, 1885.
Bottom l to r: Night view by Wolfgang Sievers, 1964; entertainers during Sydney Olympics 2000 by Wendy McDougall; lithograph by Samuel Thomas Gill, 1865; by Frank Hurley, date not stated.

(Sorry about turning on the word verification, but a spate of annoying, repetitive spam hit me lately, so I'll leave it on for a while)