Phillip Lane

Phillip Lane runs parallel between Phillip Street and Macquarie Street, and exits into them both. This is the exit into Phillip Street. In the background is the forecourt of the Museum of Sydney, which was the site of the original Government House (1789-1846). The exit into Phillip Street goes under the Colonial Secretary's Building.

Calling a spade a digging implement

This is an art installation - or a sculpture - in the forecourt of the Museum of Sydney in Bridge Street in the city, which is on the site of the original government house in the 1790s. Created by Peter Collins in 2010, it is called 'Tides Turn'. Made of eucalypt sticks and steel mesh, the artist declares it to be 'a wave that escaped the ocean, dressed up in sticks and went to shore looking for blood'. One of the exhibits in the Musuem at the moment is on the history of surfing in Australia.


To my mind, the resemblance to an indigenous gunyah, or humpy, is overwhelming. These were the shelters that the original inhabitants of this land used for shelter at the time of European settlement. Also, the way the sticks have been woven together resemble the creation of the panels for brushwood fencing, one of the ways that people nowadays use to section off their particular parcel of land. I find this sculpture discombobulating. There is an undercurrent that is concerning. a wolf in sheep's clothing.