Sydney Sandstone - Seawalls

Approximately half of the natural foreshore of our harbour has been replaced by seawalls of one type or another. This seawall is directly in front of "The Star" casino in Pyrmont. Since 1788, Pyrmont has gone from bush, to cow "pasture", to rock quarries, to a blighted industrial landscape accompanied by a plethora of wharves and shipping facilities. This wharf has at least three layers: sandstone on the bottom, then concrete blocks, all topped with a couple of rounds of bricks. The fact that it is vertical causes its own problems with wash, and bio-diversity. To the best that I can determine, the lower level of sandstone was constructed after 1876, after the Sydney Council Health Committee toured the streets, and condemned a range of sub-standard housing which was continually being inundated by tidal flushes.

This is the seawall in Pyrmont Bay, which is part of Darling Harbour, which, in turn, is part of Port Jackson. Port Jackson includes North Harbour, Sydney Harbour, Middle Harbour, the Lane Cove River, and the Parramatta River. It has a perimeter which is 317 kms in length.

Where do you go after you've been a hole in the ground?

Pyrmont could almost be symbolic of Australia at large! How so, I hear you gasp?

The first land grant was made in 1795. The next 100 years was spent carving swathes of yellow sandstone from all over the peninsula, to ship into the city to construct major public buildings. The century after that, the land and the waters were despoiled as its industrial waterfront was overwhelmed with wharves, shipbuilding yards, sugar factories and woolstores.

Now into its third century since European settlement, Pyrmont has sloughed off its industrial heritage, and struggled into a cloak of urban respectability.

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.