Barangaroo Headland Park

It's been a while coming, and I'm sure it was expensive, but gosh, it's well worth it. They've done a VERY good job creating this new park. It's on the reclaimed original headland at the northern end of Sydney's former 'Hungry Mile' dockland area.

I missed the official opening the other day, when chief driving force, former Prime Minister Paul Keating told us all what a fine job he'd done. He has indeed, and I'll hand you over to him, courtesy of the Sydney Morning Herald, to tell you all about it. See: http://www.smh.com.au/nsw/paul-keatings-vision-for-the-headland-park-at-barangaroo-20150821-gj4hg9.html  

I wandered around the area this morning to check it out for myself. Here are some pictures.

Extreme postcodes: 2560

Campbelltown is at the extreme southern edge of Greater Sydney, and at the end of the line for a lot of suburban train services. I made the trip out there this morning to see what's changed since I was last there a few years ago.

It's not such a bad little spot either. Some of its neighbours have a bit of a bad reputation, but I think you could have a very wholesome and pleasant life here. Certainly it's a comfortable place to visit.

I came across a Mawson Park, and looked for any memorial to or information on the Antarctic explorer, but it turns out the park is named after famous Mawson's less famous doctor brother.
 
The main Campbelltown Mall shopping centre has certainly had quite a makeover recently. I enjoyed my morning coffee there, made by a very friendly and capable chap in the food court.

Parramatta: going up in the world

For 30 years I've been hearing about Parramatta being the real centre of Sydney, as in the geographical centre or demographic centre of gravity (though actually that's Concord). It's certainly been accepted for a while as the most appropriate place to think of as the capital of western Sydney.

Well in recent years it's started to look more and more inevitable that one day it will be quite legitimately looked on as central Sydney proper. The existing Sydney CBD is towards the far east of the metropolitan area, and is small and congested, and very hard to get to for huge numbers of those who have to go there daily. Several cities around the world grew too big for their historical centres, and adopted new ones more appropriate to their modern needs.

OK, Parramatta's skyscrapers aren't that big yet, but they're working on it. There's even a plan to build the tallest building in Australia. I think it's supposed to be about one centimetre taller than the one in Melbourne, but there's some argument with the aviation authorities. OK, the roads are congested, and the additional heavy rail links keep getting promised and cancelled in a very Australian 'State vs Federal' party political way.

There are several light rail routes being proposed, radiating out from the place. You never know, they might even happen. If so it'll be one at a time, and they're being thought of as competitive projects rather than a unified network that has to be in place early on in the growth process. Why is Sydney so incapable of doing planning? One way or another Parramatta probably will become Sydney's main centre. We might as well accept that and do it properly.

Such were my thoughts as I strolled around the place yesterday morning, enjoying the old and the new, and enjoying too the fabulous blue sky winter day.

Why Dee Why?

I guess the usual answer is "Why not?"   Dee Why has a very nice beach, several good little cafes, an ocean pool, big waves sometimes for the surfers. A nice vibe to it altogether.

Why was the beach deserted the other morning? There have been lots of stories about monster sharks off New South Wales beaches lately. But I think it was really more to do with the cool winter weather.

So why was I there yesterday morning? Because even with the cool winter weather, the sun was shining, the sky was blue, the coffee was good. What better place to spend an hour or so reading the Sydney Morning Herald than Dee Why Beach?

But why is it called Dee Why? That's the really big question. Apparently nobody has a very good answer. In 1815 the surveyor Tony Meehan made an entry in his log about 'Dy beach', for reasons that have been unclear ever since. As ever, I defer to Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dee_Why  

Earth has not anything to show more fair ......

Probably exaggerating a bit there. But William Wordsworth used the line to open his 'Upon Westminster Bridge' poem, and he was only referring to his view of London and the River Thames, after all. (It's probably the only poem I learned all the lines of during five years of high school English Literature lessons.) See https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wz4v9x3PIZc 

So there I was admiring the view of Sydney's harbour and CBD, from North Head today. And it was good.

The Man from Stuart Town

Driving from Dubbo to Orange the other week, we called in on Stuart Town. I noticed the pub there is called the Iron Bark Inn.

This rang a bell. We'd been taking an interest in Banjo Paterson and his poetry during this trip. In Walgett we'd discussed the stranger who'd outwitted the yokels by successfully pelting a stone across the 'Darling River'. (Google Maps says it's the Barwon and the Namoi that meet at Walgett, but never mind!) They'd made a wager about it, knowing that "there wasn't a stone within 50 mile, For the saltbush plain and the open down, Produce no quarries in Walgett Town".  His trick was to bring his own stone. He knew about that: "..... he had wandered down, On a previous visit to Walgett Town". (Been There Before: http://www.wallisandmatilda.com.au/been-there-before.shtml

Anyway, back to Ironbark. The Man From Ironbark is the one about the Sydney barber who plays a practical joke on the yokel who turns up at his shop, There's a theme developing here. Paterson must have had a bit of a thing about outback yokels. They must have given him a hard time in his travels. In the poem, the barber pretends to cut the throat of the poor visitor, who runs screaming out of the barber's shop. This explains why "flowing beards are all the go way up in the Ironbark". Do check out the musical adaptation from Wallis and Matilda: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=POgKYH3JTC8



Well it turns out that Stuart Town used to be called Ironbark, and this is indeed where the Man From Ironbark came from.

Abandoned!

A train line near Dubbo. You can still get to Dubbo by train. Still get further west, to Broken Hill, as far as I can tell. But most of the smaller branch lines in New South Wales closed down long ago. Here's one of them.