Hawkesbury River Postman

For this excursion we joined a group of sightseers for a cruise of around three or four hours along the Hawkesbury River, with the ferry skipper giving us a commentary.

Hawkesbury River

On weekdays, 'The Riverboat Postman' provided milk, mail and other supplies to homes along the Hawkesbury River, 50Km north of Sydney.  The ferry service we went on finished in April 2012, but a new operator was expected to take over.

Dangar Island

The train took about one hour from Central Station, with the town (Brooklyn) only a few minutes walk from Hawkesbury River railway station.

      Location Map

The Ponds Walk

We started the 6.6Km walk at Memorial Park, Marsden Rd. Carlingford. The track passes through Dundas Valley and Telopea, following The Ponds and Subiaco Creeks downhill to Rydalmere.

Galaringi Reserve, Carlingford

 

This is one of the ponds (above and left) that gives the creek its name.

This is an urban walk, about 15Km from Sydney CBD.
Beyond Galaringa Reserve and Cox Park at Carlingford, the bushland associated with the creeks is quite narrow, so we were walking along a winding green corridor for much of the walk.
It should not be confused with any walk in the suburb of 'The Ponds' near Kellyville. 

To reach the start of the walk we caught a M54 bus from Parramatta station, along Pennant Hills Rd. to Carlingford (near Marsden Rd.)
The track ends not far from Victoria Rd. at Rydalmere. We returned by bus from there, while the Subiaco Creek flowed a little further to enter the Parramatta River.


Downloadable brochure of the walk available from: Parramatta City Council
Location map

Sculpture by the Sea, Bondi 2010 - (2)

Bondi Beach

This is my second post with photos of sculptures from last year's  'Sculpture by the Sea' exhibition.        
The sculptures were displayed along the walk between Bondi Beach and Tamarama Beach, as well as around Mark's Park.

Angus Adameitis - 'Beside the Point'

Matthew Harding - 'Centripetal'

Stephen Marr - 'Crossroads'

Tim Macfarlane Reid - 'Initialis'

  This year's Sculpture by the Sea Bondi exhibition is scheduled to begin on 3rd November 2011.

James Rogers - 'Big Bather'

The photos below were taken of sculptures at Tamarama.

Dennis Kalous - 'Bondi Venus'

Daniel Wallwork - 'Earth fish'

Materials used in this sculpture include 'recycled plastic bumpers'

Patrick Oppliger - 'Wayfarer'

Garry Deirmendjian - 'Flake'

On Sale!

 

I recently visiting the 'On Sale - Shops and Shopping' exhibition at the State Library of NSW (8th August to 30 October 2011). This exhibition covers shopping in Sydney from the first purpose built shops of the 1800s to the present day. One the old icons of Sydney shopping is the former  'Grace Bros.' building (below) which was completed in 1923.

Broadway Shopping Centre

Grace Bros. first opened in Bay Street in 1904 and closed their Broadway store in 1982. 

The Broadway Shopping Centre reopened in 1998 after an extensive redevelopment, and another floor was added to one of the Bay St. buildings in 2007. The buildings now house a shopping complex, cinema and student accommodation.

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I have always admired the clock towers and globes, of the former Grace Bros. Broadway building, surrounded by griffins at their base. I think the globes were probably water tanks.

It is located close to Victoria Park and the University of Sydney. Location map