The Phoenix of Frying Pan Flat

A frying-pan has a handle, and a large flat cooking surface. Sydney's "Frying Pan Flat" had roughly that shape: with the handle being the alley; and, the cooking surface being the flat. It disappeared not long after the adverse Health Department assessment at the end of 1875. The "alley" ran down the slope, close to the current intersection of Erskine Street, and Sussex Street. The "flat" fanned out - roughly NW - encompassing reclaimed mud-flats. What you are looking at here, is the "flat". To make this image, I stood on the intersection of Erskine Strret and Shelley Street, looking North into Shelley. On the left, the building with the white diagonals is Macquarie Bank. On the right, starting up close, is the Hotel Ibis, the orange American Express building, and finally, the corporate head-quarters, in Australia, of the accounting services firm, KPMG. Across the far end of Shelley Street, rises the behemoth that is the "Barangaroo development. This is, essentially, a high-rollers casino, with all the other aspects of the development accreted, to increase its attractiveness to a state government. Even as late as 1890, according to the Higinbotham & Robinson 1890 Atlas of Sydney Suburbs, the far end of Shelley Street was washed by the mud-flats of Darling Harbour.

To read more about the Sussex Street North area of Sydney, see "Death in Frying Pan Alley".

Barangaroo - more invasion than gentrification

I am not totally sure where Barangaroo starts, and where Millers Point takes over, and just where The Hungry Mile fits into the whole picture. There is a lot crammed into a small kerchief of land.

Barangaroo has three precincts: Barangaroo South which is the Daddy Bear; Barangaroo Central, which is the Mummy Bear; and, Headland Park, which is the cuddly Baby Bear. The Three Bears analogy has significant traction in my pea brain. You see, Barangaroo South is composed of the three high rises, and the concomitant medium-rise structures. The engine house of the development. The money-making machine dangled in front of governments 'til they could not think straight. Barangaroo South is a primarily a casino operated by Australia's richet man. A casino whose clientele will primarily be high-rollers from Asia. Headland Park (Barangaroo Point) is the sweetie held out to the Ausralian people to get them to feel all warm and cuddly about the entire schemozzle.

I have, from its announcement, been on-board with the name "Barangaroo". Barangaroo was an indigenous woman of the Cameragal people. She cohabited with Bennelong, an indigenous man of the Cadigal/Wangal people. They lived with their children on a rocky outcrop of land known today as Bennelong Point, the site of the Sydney Opera House. It is entirely fitting that the promontory to the east of the harbour bridge is Bennelong Point, and the promontory to the west of the harbour bridge is Barangaroo Point. Both have been heavily reconstructed by the descendents of the invading colonialists.

Millers Point - Stalking Sydney Tower

Sydney Tower was open to the public in August 1981. It affords wonderful views of the city, and cameras are welcome, unlike the Bridge-Climb where cameras are banned but they will sell you photos! The hassle with Sydney Tower, is its omnipresence. Every time, I turn around, there it is. Many times I have to step across until I can manage to hide it behind something else.

However, this post is not about Sydney Tower, but about Millers Point, and its current predicament. Millers Point hugs the shoreline immediately to the west of the southern pylon of the Sydney Harbour Bridge. It is a very old quarter of Sydney, many of its houses dating from the turn of the century (ie, 1900), when a massive proportion of housing was bull-dozed on the pretension that they housed the plague. Or even THE PLAGUE! Now, some of the buildings in Millers point date from the first half of the nineteenth century, which for this country is very old, and historic, even. But many are simply old, ramshackle, and in want of attention, either from a tradesman, or from a bulldozer. The issue is, many of the structures are owned by the state government, as part of their social housing stock. They have tenants; some of whom have lived there for decades, in subsidised housing. Now, the government wants to liquidate its stock, and the tenants are up-in-arms. I can see both sides of this arguement, but being a pragmatist, sense what is going to eventuate. There is more to this story, so will chat it through for the next couple of posts. I am doing double-time child-care this week and last, so my time is limited, not to mention my energy of an evening.

The Hungry Mile - the green flash

After spotting the motor-bike against the sheer quarry wall, I was steadying myself, when, whoosh ... he was upon me. I lurched backwards, clattering my cane, and spinning my trolley against the chain-mail protective fence. By the time I righted myself, he was gone ...

"The Hungry Mile" is a section of the Millers' Point wharves where day-labourers in The Great Depression would queue, in the hope of being chosen to work unloading ships for the next n hours. Those not chosen, went hungry.

The flip side

Here is the Sydney Harbour Bridge from a different, and refreshing, prespective. Instead of the more usual SE direction, this has been taken from a SWerly direction (looking toward the NE).

This is my contribution to the Sunday Bridges community.

This is my contribution to the Walk in the Street community.