Lavender Bay (1)

On the wall of my father's nursing home is a photograph - dated 1910 - of Lavender Bay showing boating sheds and gentlemen's baths. He asked if I knew where LB was: thirty minutes later, much to his delight, we were there.

Lavender Bay is named after George Lavender who was boatswain on the convict hulk, The Phoenix, which was moored here from 1825 to 1837 as a prison ship. This bay joins Milson's Point (the northern pylon of the Bridge) and Blue's Point. Lavender married one of Billy Blue's daughters - Susannah. Billy Blue was a Jamaican convict and ferryman after whom Blues Point was named. Clark Park teems with the eponymous flower.

Even the shoreline has changed since this photograph was taken some time prior to 1875, looking from the tip of Milson's Point into Lavender Bay with the Anglican Christ Church (established 1868) perched part-way up the rise.