Thursday 30 January 2014

Sydney from on high (7)

And around I swing, looking westward again. This image pretty much tacks on to the RHS of image #5. Along the bottom of the image, on the LHS, is the replica of Captain James Cook's "Endeavour" moored at the National Maritime Museum, just out of the picture. The water the "Endeavour" is moored in is Cockle Bay.

The water further up the image is Johnson's Bay, and also White Bay (where the small destroyer is moored). In between, is the Pyrmont peninsula, with its many fingers of wharves. Much of the area that is now heavily infested with rising-high apartment blocks, spent the second half of the 19th century as sandstone quarries nick-named "Paradise, Hell-hole, and Purgatory".

In 1799, John MacArthur - landed gentry or self-serving free-marketeer, take your choice - bought the entire peninsula for a gallon of rum. See that red-brick building with the open space which is Metcalf Park? All through that area are historic markers which are engrossing ... perhaps just to such as I. Just go and sit on a bench in the sun, and listen to the hum of the muffled city.

Taken from the observation deck of Sydney Tower in Pitt Street. There are two more posts in this series, culminating with Theme Day, which in February is "Entry".

3 comments:

Joe said...

Goodness me! John MacArthur was an astute little entrepreneur. A gallon of rum for an entire peninsula. Golly.

Julie said...

mmm ... the more I learn about him, Joe, the more I dislike his style.

diane b said...

I like "the hum of the muffled city" words. Carol's office has moved into one of those buildings on a wharf but I'm not sure which wharf. I think it is closer to the bridge than this one.