Category Archives: Sydney

Two Evenings in Sydney

This will be the last post about Sydney (at least, for now): the next posts will be about Port Douglas, the Great Barrier Reef and the Daintree Rain Forest, and then the Great Ocean Road…

But first things first – in my last weeks that I was staying in Sydney, I went into town for two evenings. I wanted to do that much earlier, but either the weather (they’ve had a lot of rain when I was there) or work didn’t allow me to do so. In the end I decided to ignore both the weather and work, and go anyway. One evening I went to see the Opera House and Harbour Bridge illuminations and combined that with visiting the “Night Noodle Markets” in Hyde Park (and shopping for a road map of the Great Ocean Road). The other evening was because of my goodbye dinner from work.

Evening 1

I took the ferry in, so arrived at Circular Quay. To get to Hyde Park from there, I walked through the Botanic Gardens. Here are a few flowers that I didn’t see last time I was there:

The top left is an Aloe – not sure which sort. And amaryllises (top right) grow in people’s front (and presumably also back) gardens. I saw several houses with a row of amaryllises in their front gardens on my way to work, but never had a camera with me, so here is the evidence that they grow outside in Australia.

There is also a nice rose garden in the Botanic Gardens, however, I didn’t manage to see that last time I went. So here are some examples of the many varieties of roses they have there.

As I said, it was “Night Noodle Markets” in Hyde Park: an Asian street food festival. According to the website, Sydneysiders could “embark on a vibrant flavour journey through Asia”. As far as I could see, this was true. Less true, however, was the mention of “balmy nights” on that same website:

Look how everyone is huddling together under umbrellas as it was raining a little. Drizzle, I’d say, but I’ve learned that Sydneysiders don’t distinguish so much between the different types of rain – drizzle, downpour, mist, shower, … For them: it rains, or it does not.

I got myself a nice Japanese teppanyaki – a dish cooked on an iron griddle or plate:

After that lovely dinner, I walked back to Circular Quay to see the Harbour Bridge and Opera House in the dark. I went via George Street (to get my map of the Great Ocean Road), so caught city hall during sun set:

The photo on the top right shows palm trees on Circular Quay that were illuminated by some “foot lights” – doesn’t it look like fire works?

As I don’t have a tripod, and there was no suitable surface to put my camera on, I had to shoot all photos handheld. A flash isn’t going to help here, so the photos are shot with relatively long shutter times: 0.5 sec for the Harbour Bridge – not too bad, but 2.5 sec for the Opera House photo. This means that I had to keep the camera perfectly still for that amount of time. And when examining in particular the Opera House photo closely, it will become clear that I don’t have such a steady hand… as well that I’m not a surgeon… My apologies for this; a lightweight and small tripod has been put on my wish list.

Evening 2

The other evening in Sydney was with my colleagues – we had a nice dinner at a Chinese restaurant in the Rocks to celebrate/lament my leaving. Together with one of my colleagues, I took the ferry to Circular Quay:

It still is my favourite way of travelling, by ferry.

Once in the city, we walked past some of the old houses in the Rocks:

to the place where we would all meet: the rooftop bar of the Palisade Hotel…

There was a pub on this site since 1880, but the current building dates from 1915. At the time it opened it doors to the many wharf workers and locals from the Millers Point area, it was the highest building in Sydney. This is by no means the case anymore, but from its rooftop bar it still has very nice views of Sydney, including the harbour:

The photo top left shows the view over Paramatta river to the west, top right is the view of the Observatory with the modern buildings of Sydney’s Central Business District (CBD) behind it, and the bottom photo is of course a view of Sydney Harbour Bridge… wonder how many photos I’ve so far taken of this iconic structure, and how many have made it into this blog…

Finally – a nice sunset over Paramatta river and Anzac bridge (yes, there are other bridges in Sydney…) from the restaurant:

And that really concludes my weeks in Sydney!

Sydney – Taronga Zoo

My last Saturday in Sydney before I was to move out of the apartment I lived in for 8 weeks… how better to spend that day than visiting the iconic zoo in Sydney. Again – a friend and her little son (zoos are definitely better with children) joined me on this rather warm and in particular very humid Saturday – as the photos will show: it was so humid that it was almost a bit misty.

Travel to Taronga Zoo

As Sydney’s zoo is along the harbour, a very nice way to get to the zoo is by ferry from Circular Quay, where the jacaranda’s started to bloom.

The zoo is on a slope, so when arriving by ferry, I was suggested to take the “sky safari” to the top (visible on the middle photo), and start my visit to the zoo from there – that way I would be walking down the hill, rather than up. As my friend came by car, and the car park is near the entrance at the top, this also meant that we could start our “adventure” together.

As far as zoos go, Taronga Zoo is a nice zoo, with the usual suspects, including some Australian animals. But then, I think I may well have seen some kangaroos in zoos in other countries as well, so that isn’t the main reason to fly all the way to the ends of the earth to visit this particular zoo… Here is a selection of the animals anyway:

Taronga is an aboriginal word, meaning beautiful views, and that is what makes this zoo stand out from many other zoos:

Recognise that view…? I think this also shows nicely how humid it was: the view was definitely somewhat hazy.

It was a shame that there were extensive refurbishments going on, which meant that the giraffes were temporarily living in the old elephant enclosure, rather than looking out over the harbour, which they apparently have done ever since 1926…

Taronga zoo was opened in 1916:

As I started my journey from the bottom – wharf – end of the zoo, I ended with the official entrance at the top end:

The original “elephant temple” is also still there, however, given all the refurbishments that are ongoing, I didn’t manage to get a good photo of it. Hence the link to other people’s work… What I thought was very interesting to see there, is how they indeed built a temple-like building, very ornate… However, with just enough space for 2 elephants to basically stand there, heads out of the window, so the visitors would have a good view of them. At the time the zoo was opened, not much was known yet about the welfare of the animals kept in the zoo. Rest assured – there are no elephants in that building anymore – they are now kept in much better accommodation (although not as ornately decorated…).

And that was my last Saturday in Sydney. I have a couple more things from two evenings when I went into Sydney – one rather rainy, one to say goodbye to my colleagues in Sydney… Will combine that into 1 post, I think.

And then over to very different parts of Australia!

Blue Mountains

There was some rain forecast for the Saturday that we, 3 London ladies, planned to go to the Blue Mountains… not great if you’re going to a place where you primarily go for the views. But when we left Sydney, it didn’t look too bad, so we had high hopes that we would be able to see the famous 3 sisters… But alas, this was the view we had:

It so often happens, apparently, that the gift shop sells completely white cards with “Three Sisters in the mist” written on it… so one could say that at least we could see a little bit… Anyway – we just joked about it, took our pictures in front of what I was told to be quite a spectacular sight, and then saw the following happening:

The mist seemed to be clearing…! So we decided to go to the shops nearby first for a browse – perhaps the mist would be cleared by the time we got back…:

The mist had cleared indeed ☺ And here are the famous Three Sisters – a great sight indeed:

Quite impressive, these rugged rocks. Not only the Three Sisters, but all around the valley. As if a very big bulldozer has made a path through the rocks, leaving very straight edges/sides (see photo above Three Sisters). And every so often just a little folly like the Three Sisters. Actually – rather than a bulldozer, how about this for an explanation:

In the six hundredth year of Noah’s life, in the second month, the seventeenth day of the month, the same day were all the fountains of the great deep broken up, and the windows of heaven were opened.
Gen 7:11 (KJV)

I know that the prevailing “scientific” opinion is that this landscape is 100’s of thousands or so years old (may have a couple of zero’s too many or too few), however, this account, of “all the fountains of the great deep” being “broken up” – doesn’t that give a perfect explanation why the rocks look as if they are broken off with these straight, almost vertical, edges…

After taking our pictures, we went to Leura for lunch: a nice little place with a row of Cherry Blossom trees in the middle of the “High Street” (not sure that’s the name of the street, but it is basically the main street in Leura – there isn’t much else).

Other than this, we just had a lovely catch up, so I have not a lot more to share. I would like to go back to the Blue Mountains, though: perhaps in the last few days of my holidays… and explore a couple more places.

Next week – last Saturday in Sydney… already! Finally, Sydney Zoo (was in the planning for the Saturday we went to Featherdale instead). A very iconic place in Sydney… with lovely views of… you’ve guessed it: the harbour with Sydney Harbour Bridge and Sydney Opera house…

Featherdale

Finally – Australian animals… On a Saturday that initially looked as if it was going to be very windy and rainy, I went to Featherdale with some friends. A very nice place where a lot of Australian animals can be seen. It was probably a good thing that the weather was rather cloudy, as all animals were out, including some that may otherwise only be out and about during the night, but sometimes make exceptions for overcast days.

To begin with – the cuddly koala’s, doing what koala’s do best:

… eating eucalyptus
… sleeping

Eucalyptus has a very low nutritional value, and are even poisonous to most animals. Koala’s have a very low metabolic rate, allowing the food to stay extremely long in the digestive system, which enhances the amount of energy that can be extracted. At the same time, the low metabolic rate means that less energy is “spent” on digestion, which, taken together with the amount they sleep (about 18-22 hours per day!), means they don’t need that much energy, and they can survive on the very poor diet of eucalyptus.

With the koala’s lived a pair of tawny frogmouths:

Not to be confused with tawny owls, which have similar colours, wide eyes and are also nocturnal, however, the frogmouths have a more forward-facing beak to catch insects, whereas the owls have downward-facing beaks with which they tear their prey apart.

Over to another famous Australian animal – the kangaroo:

So, here you go – my first kangaroos… On the right, the joey was drinking from his mum before hopping back into the pouch… shame I wasn’t quick enough to capture that moment.

Let’s take a look at some water birds:

Little black cormorant
Sea gulls
Little penguins
Black-necked Stork
White Heron
Magpie Goose
Pelican

The little black cormorant is not very friendly – at least, when I tried to take this photo, I had to lean over the fence as Mister (or Missis… don’t know, really…) decided to get as close to the fence as possible. But he (or she) didn’t act very friendly when I stuck my hands with camera over the fence… Camera shy perhaps… But even then – no need to make such a fuss!

I’m not entirely sure if the sea gulls were actually part of the animals kept by Featherdale, however, they were there, and I took a picture regardless… Reminded me of fish and chips at Manly… although, I must say – they were just minding their own business here.

Apparently, little penguins can be seen at Manly in the wild, but we didn’t see any on our visit there… And what about these black-necked storks: see how their “knees” are bent the wrong way…!

Look, Dad – they have “witte tijgers” here ☺ For the non-Dutch (and the Dutch who don’t get this family joke): this literally translates to “white tigers”. The issue is that the Dutch word for heron, reiger, is somewhat difficult for (Dutch) toddlers to pronounce, the more so if they haven’t quite mastered the “r” yet… that became a “t”, and so the “reiger” became a “tijger” – a rather different animal altogether…

Like the cormorant, the magpie goose didn’t quite like the attention he/she got from me either… On the other hand: look how aristocratic and important that pelican is walking around!

Here are two other famous Australians:

… the echidna (top photos) and the wombat (bottom photo). The echidna is like a hedgehog: it has spikes, and when it feels threatened, it will roll into a spiky ball. It eats little insects. The wombat is one of those animals that are typically not awake during the day time. However, overcast and cloudy days make them come out, which was good for us. They dig big extensive burrow systems – a little like moles and rabbits. For that reason, they are not farmers’ best friends… Interesting fact: they have backward facing pouch, so that when they dig, they won’t get the dirt into their pouch and onto their young. So many clever things in nature!

Let’s go to some birds now:

Gang-gang cockatoo
Turquoise parrot
Cattle egret
Cassowary
Finch

Like the plants that we keep in our window boxes inside the house, there are also birds that we typically know as pets in cages inside our homes, but that fly freely round in Australia: cockatoos, parrots, finches… The cassowary perhaps not so much – but that’s probably because it is an animal as big as an ostrich… Apparently, it is not advisable to get very close to one if found in the wild: it has very strong legs with which it can kick very hard!

Finally – how about the following “friends”:

Green tree frog
Tiger (?) snake
Bearded dragon

Really getting to the kind of animals I’d rather not meet too closely without a solid piece of glass between them and me… Not sure if they are really that harmful, but even so…

That was a very nice afternoon, filled with seeing all these Australian beauties. Next time – Blue Mountains…

Sydney – Botanic Gardens

No post last week(s), as I’ve been rather busy with work and planning the next holidays… So let’s continue where we left off: bank holiday weekend. On Saturday I visited the Australia Museum and the botanic gardens, including Mrs Macquarie’s Chair. And on Monday I went to Manly… A lot to cover in this post!

Australia Museum

This was the last day the train was running from “my” station before it was closed for updates to the railway system, and all trains were replaced by busses… would take several months, so here is a historic photo:

I first went to see some of the exhibits at the Australia Museum.

They had many Australian animals – all stuffed, though, so wait for pictures of the live versions. What I mainly came to see, was the exhibit on the aboriginal people of Australia:

Aboriginal Australia
They even traded with Indonesia…
Tiwi sculpture, showing cycle of teaching
Tutini (grave posts)

Impressive… the number of different tribal/language groups in Australia before the Europeans came and took over a lot of the land, and basically killed a lot of them.

Different from how I thought all canoes are made (well, except the modern ones, obviously), these are made from the bark of trees that has been bent and assembled to form a boat. Why did I always think they took the stem of a tree (or at least a part of it), hollowed it out, and there was the boat…? They even used these boats to get across the sea to trade with Indonesia!

Wisdom – handed down from Old Man (on top), to his son, to Old Man’s grandson (bottom)… But wisdom also grows through the stages of life: from boy to man to Old Man. A nice symbolic way to show the cycle of teaching.

And finally – the tutini. At the burial ceremony of certain tribes these grave posts were put around the grave. The design represents the live of the deceased, and the number of tutini signifies their status.

At the roof top restaurant I enjoyed a nice lunch (proper Aussie burger… with beetroot…), whilst enjoying some grand views of Sydney:

Mrs Macquarie’s Chair

After lunch I went in search of Mrs Macquarie’s Chair – yes, she is the wife of the famous Major General Lachlan Macquarie, governor of Sydney 1810-1821. On the way there, I came past what is known in our family as a “trumpet plant”:

See the flowers? Don’t they look like trumpets? Granddad used to love them… he had many plants in the garden, but they were nowhere near as large as this tree!

And of course… Sydney Harbour Bridge and Sydney Opera House are never far away… A peek through on my way to Mrs Macquarie’s Chair:

Sydney’s Harbour Bridge and Opera House… never far away…

And finally then – Mrs Macquarie’s Chair: doesn’t it look extremely comfortable…?

Governor Macquarie got his workmen to carve this seat out of the rocks for his wife Elizabeth. The road leading to this rock-seat is still called Mrs Macquarie Road, and was created purely for her entertainment. She is said to love sitting here and admire the view over the harbour. Of course, no harbour bridge was there yet, nor buildings like the opera house…

Botanic gardens

From Mrs. Macquarie’s Chair I walked back through the botanic gardens. As Sydney has nice weather basically year round, it is not difficult to imagine that the botanic gardens are beautiful! Here is an impression of the many plants, trees and flowers on display:

Guess what number 2 is called? A “bottle brush” (or “tuitenrager” for the Dutch readers) – and doesn’t it look like one indeed!? Lovely azaleas (number 7), and look – there are white clivias too (number 8)…

Number 9 is a Ficus Macrophylla, native to Lord Howe Island, a small island off the east coast of Australia. It is a very interesting tree in that it doesn’t just have one trunk, but many – easily 10 or more, each arisen from an areal root. In 1882, it was recorded that one of the oldest trees on the island covered an area as large as 1 hectare!

Then number 11 – a Wollemi pine. Apparently as rare as a dinosaur… Until 1994 only fossils of the plant were known, but then a bush walker found a stand of them in Wollemi National Park. There are now still only 3 stands of these plants known in the wild.

Earlier I mentioned a grass tree… number 13 is a much larger example. The grass basically grows out of the top of a small stem. And finally – number 14 is a bush of bamboo. There was a fair bit of wind that day, and all that bamboo close to each other makes a lovely sound when it moves in the wind.

I really liked the cactus garden – many interesting varieties of cactuses (cacti…?):

Over to some animals then:

Masked Lapwing
Australian Wood Duck
Garden Skink
Laughing Kookaburra

A Laughing Kookaburra (family of the Kingfishers) does indeed make a funny laughing sound.

Sound of a Laughing Kookaburra

They are quite common in Sydney: I heard them often around where I lived.

And what about some history… Again, governor Macquarie is behind all of this. He built a wall to separate the government domain from the town (left). And on the right the a bridge over the Macquarie Culvert: a drain to channel the water from the Botanic Waters Creek under the road.

And what about these views of Sydney… Central Business District (left) and – you must have guessed already what’s on the right hand site… yep, Sydney Harbour Bridge and Sydney Opera House… again…

And finally – the ferry back home… A nice way to end a nice day!

Bank Holiday Monday – Manly

On Monday a friend and I went to Manly.

Manly is reached by ferry from Circular Quay. At Circular Quay there are often street performers entertaining people. This time there were two (presumably) Aboriginal Australians playing the didgeridoo – a wind instrument developed by indigenous Australians:

Didgeridoo players at Circular Quay in Sydney

It makes a very low, humming sound – I don’t find it particularly pleasant.

The boat ride to Manly, of course brings us via the Harbour Bridge and the Opera House, before arriving at Manly:

We spent a nice and relaxing afternoon at Manly – fish and chips (although that was less relaxing, as the tourists kept feeding the sea gulls, which then rather aggressively snatched food out of our hands…) and ice cream… wading (pootjebaden for the Dutch readers) in the water along the beach:

Thankfully, I don’t think these jellyfish were poisonous (also, this particular one was dead), but it is one of the hazards in Australia apparently… The photo on the right shows the rock pool at Manly. Apparently built in 1929 when bathing in salty sea water became fashionable – a rock pool provides for that without the issues of currents that could pull you out to the ocean and potentially harmful animals.

So far the botanic gardens, Mrs Macquarie’s Chair and Manly… Next week: Featherdale – finally some Australian animals in real life, albeit in captivity…

Ku-ring-gai Chase

Third Saturday… a colleague and her husband took me to one of the national parks around Sydney: Ku-ring-gai Chase National Park.

We had a great day: lots of different wildflowers, great vistas, and last but not least, some examples of ancient rock engravings by the Guringai people.

Illawong Point

Our first stop was at Illawong Point where we had a spectacular view over the Coal and Candle Creek. This creek is a branch of the Cowan Creek, which again is a branch of the Hawkesbury River, which starts at Broken Bay, which we will see at our next stop.

As an aside: the word “creek” reminds me of the Dutch word “kreek”… used for streams that are a LOT smaller than the rather impressive waterway in the photo above.

Some Australian birds – not specific for the national park: I’ve seen them elsewhere in Sydney, but I just managed to take a picture of them here:

Australian Magpie
Australian Brush-Turkey

And true to Australian form – a magpie is lovingly called “maggie”…

West Head Lookout

Next stop: West Head Lookout. Great vistas of Broken Bay, which basically is the estuary of the Hawkesbury River. Supposedly the bay got its name from Captain Cook, who recorded “broken land” north of what is now Sydney Harbour. There is some controversy about where exactly he saw this land, but it could well be at what is now called Broken Bay. The island in the middle of the bay is named Lion Island since its form looks somewhat like a sphinx, or a lying lion – head on the right, tail on the left:

Lion Island, in the middle of the estuary of the Hawksbury River

Looking out towards the ocean provides a view of Barrenjoey Head with its lighthouse. This is Sydney’s northernmost point. On the right hand site of the photo a little bit of beach is just visible: Palm Beach.

Barrenjoey Head, with South Pacific Ocean in the background

And again – some wildlife. This time two (very different) plants:

Flower spikes of grass trees
Paper bark

These particular examples of the grass tree are only very small (in a later post I’ll show taller specimens), but the flower spikes are rather impressive nonetheless. The paper bark tree, or melaleuca quinquenervia to give it its formal name, is of the myrtle family. Its bark was used by the Aboriginals for all sorts of things, from wrapping food to providing shelter.

A walk through the bush

On a little walk through the national park we came across many great plants native to Australia. On first sight the bush seems rather brown, and not very interesting. But when taking a proper look there is a lot to discover. The following is only a selection of many photos that I took, but hopefully it gives an impression of the rich flora of the bush around Sydney…

Grey spider flower
Tea tree
Seemingly growing out of just sand…
“Scribbles” on eucalypt tree
Banksia flower
Grevillea speciosa (?)

Doesn’t it look as if the plants just grow out of sand…? And these scribbles on the tree: apparently these are used in certain children’s books as “secret messages”. It is only relatively recently (mid-30s of the last century) that it was found that the larvae of a very small moth created the scribbles.

And then this:

Indeed – a footprint of a kangaroo…☺ My closest encounter with this Australian native so far!

Ancient rock engravings

Ku-ring-gai Chase national park has some great examples of ancient rock engravings by the Aboriginal people that used to live around Sydney:

Entrance to the part of the park with rock engravings

The engravings are much larger than I somehow had expected… the photos below show only a part of them:

Not very much is known about the engravings. They are found at many places around Sydney, from the ocean to the Blue Mountains. As the English who arrived in Australia in the 18^th century weren’t exactly interested in understanding the culture of the people who lived in the country already, and as many of the Aboriginal people died, not in the least from diseases that were almost certainly brought to them by the new settlers, the meaning of these engravings is not known. The engravings often show fish, humans (top figure), animals (bottom figure shows hopping wallabies), or mythical figures. Based on similar findings from other indigenous groups, it is thought that these sites were important for all sorts of ceremonies, such as to increase a food source, hence the depiction of animals.

What seems better known, is the way the engravings were made. Presumably an outline was made first, and then a series of holes were made along this outline with a pointy material, probably stone. This would be possible, as the rock around Sydney consists of a relatively soft sandstone. As a last step, the holes would be connected by groves resulting in the engravings still seen today. It is thought that the Aboriginal people would probably have retraced the engravings every so often to keep it visible. This practice is certainly done now by the National Park and local Aboriginal communities.

Waratah

On our way to lunch, we had an excited cry from the back seat to stop the car, as waratahs were sighted…

The waratah is the floral emblem of New South Wales, the state of which Sydney is the capital. And a nice flower it is:

Beaches

Finally – on our way back home, they took me past some of the northern beaches. Where we saw firstly a few more beautiful birds:

Wattlebird
Galahs

And then – beaches:

Note in the photo above how there is also water “behind” the beach: this is a so-called “lagoon”. These lagoons near the coast are not very deep, have salt water and are often separated by a shallow bank of sand or something like that. This barrier can be easily broken, and a lagoon therefore can empty into the ocean and be re-filled at high tide.

Just about visible in the photo above, is the rock pool at Freshwater Beach: at the top-middle of the photo. There are many rock pools in Sydney, offering swimming in ocean water without the risk on being taken away into the ocean by currents… or sharks…

And that was the end of a very interesting day!

Weekly Shop

Several people have asked me about whether there are any differences in shops (supermarkets etc) between Australia and “home” – whatever “home” means in this case: Netherlands, or UK. I’ve just done my weekly shop this morning, and this time I didn’t forget my phone (I forgot it last week, so couldn’t take any photos then), so here is an impression.

Supermarket

There are several supermarkets in Australia. Most well known probably are Coles and Woolworths… the latter being the supermarket I tend to go to. It is colloquially known as “Woolies”. That reminds me of a funny habit the Australian have… adding something like “y” or “o” at the end of a word… or so my Australian colleague tells me. The shop where (bottles of) wine, beer and spirits can be purchased, is known as a “bottle-o”; a “servo” is a service station or garage; a “barbie” is not a kind of doll, but a barbecue. And back to the supermarket: “lollies” are more than the sticky sugar lumps on a stick – basically all sweets are called by that name. Oh, and the colder variety: “ice blocks”… they are basically our ice lollies.

I must say that the supermarkets are generally rather international. There is even a section with Dutch food in the Woolies close to where I live:

Ok, it is not all Dutch, it is kind of a combination of all sorts of European foods – Dutch, but also German and English. However, I don’t think I would be able to find any of these in a supermarket in the UK…

And then the fruit and vegetable section – this is how it looks like in the supermarket:

It is huge! And the variety…! But I tend to go to a different shop for my fruit and veggies… Also – there is a bakery…!

Fruit, Vegetables and Bread

How about this variety of fruit and vegetables… I don’t cook here, but if I did, there would be plenty to choose from:

What an explosion of colourful health! Loving it… And how about this for a little bakery?

Their bread is lovely. And very nice treats as well… cakes, including some sort of “krentenbrood” (would really like to try that one day – looks very yummy).

Right – that’s it for now: if I stop now, that’s two posts on one day… So: an impression of where I do my food shopping in Sydney. And you know what – if I really have to choose one single thing to take back to the UK with me, that would be that great fruit & veg shop!

University of Sydney

On Friday in my third week a colleague and I went to a talk at the University of Sydney. This was where I had my first experience of anything to do with the original inhabitants of Australia – Aboriginals and Torres Straight Islanders. On the way back, my colleague drove me to a few nice spots in Sydney with views of… uhm… well, let’s say: Sydney…

University of Sydney

A talk, related to work, brought me to the University of Sydney:

Founded in 1850, it is the first university of Australia. One of the people who were material to its foundation – William Wentworth – studied at Cambridge University… is that where the idea for the buildings came from? The sandstone buildings look very familiar to me:

And indeed – it is also known as “Oxbridge”… ☺

Sadly, the jacaranda tree that used to be in the Main Quadrangle has died. But full in bloom were the azaleas and clivias, no, not in Mum’s “vensterbank”, but in the borders, outside:

Lovely display of azaleas and clivias at the University of Sydney

Then it was time to go in for the talk. I won’t bore you with the contents of the talk (which I enjoyed very much, don’t get me wrong), but there was something that caught my attention.

Acknowledgement of Country

Before the invited professor began his presentation, he was introduced and welcomed. Nothing new here – I had witnessed that many a time. But part of the general welcome was along the following lines:

Before we begin the proceedings, I would like to acknowledge and pay respect to the traditional owners of the land on which we meet; the Gadigal people of the Eora Nation. It is upon their ancestral lands that the University of Sydney is built.
As we share our own knowledge, teaching, learning and research practices within this university may we also pay respect to the knowledge embedded forever within the Aboriginal Custodianship of Country.
Acknowledgement of Country by University of Sydney

Perhaps naive of me, but I had never heard of such a thing before… This was nothing to do with the invited professor – he was from a different country altogether. Initially I thought that a group of “Gadigal people of the Eora Nation” had been invited as well, or something like that. But a bit of googling told me that this is “an opportunity to acknowledge, and pay respect, to the Traditional Owners and ongoing custodians of the land – the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people“.

Before the Europeans arrived in Australia to settle there, it was inhabited by the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. They were organised in many different tribes, or clans, each living in a particular area. Whilst the boundaries were not officially set, visitors from other tribes had to ask permission and needed to be “welcomed to the land” by the tribe living in the “country” he/she visited. This ceremony included an elder of the visited tribe asking the spirits of their ancestors and spirits of the land to watch over them and keep the visitors safe… An example is on the Wikipedia page about “Welcome to Country”.

Relatively recently this custom has been widely taken over in Australia, mainly in an attempt to improve relationships between the Aboriginals and Torres Strait Islanders on the one hand, and the “new” Australians on the other. This has resulted in many formal events – including the ceremonial opening of the parliament of Australia – beginning with a “welcome to the country” by an elder of the local tribe that used to live at the place the meeting is held. If no local “elder” is available, as was the case at the meeting that I attended, an “acknowledgement of country” is done. There are different views of this now country wide performed custom – as an outsider to Australia I don’t feel equipped to discuss this matter properly, so take a look for yourself: there is a lot of information on the internet. The only thing I will add as a Christian, is that I’m sad to see that what is / used to be part of a Christian nation has no issues with “asking the spirits of ancestors and of the land to keep people safe”…

Viewing Sydney From The North Shore

After the talk, my colleague drove me to a couple of places on the north shore in Sydney. To begin with, Milsons Point, which gave a great view on the Sydney Harbour Bridge and the Opera House (warning: there are many more photos to follow of both landmarks in further posts to come…).

View on Sydney Harbour Bridge and Sydney Opera House from Milsons Point

We then drove a little further along the north shore towards the west, where we had another great viewpoint of Sydney, yes, again the Harbour Bridge and Opera House, as well as central Sydney on the right hand site of the photo.

So far Friday. I have been considering if I would add Saturday to this post as well, as I went out with the same colleague and her husband. However, it is probably better to keep it to “a day at a time” – otherwise the posts may become rather long.

Sydney – Week Two

After the rainy and cold first week – I needed my umbrella and an extra blanket on bed: Australian houses are not insulated – the sun came out during the second week. On Saturday it was even warm: about 30° Celsius. A good day for further sightseeing in Sydney and going out onto the Pacific Ocean to see the whales…

More Historic Sydney

The first spot I visited this time was Sydney Town Hall. Apparently, the steps in front of the building are a famous meeting place… but when I was there, either everyone must have found each other already and got on with their day, or I managed to scare (nearly) all people away: the steps were almost empty…

It was opened in 1869. Apparently, the original architect, as well as several of his successors, died during the time that the Town Hall was built. Some people say that this is the reason why it turned out to be such a nice building: every next architect wanted to do an even better job than the previous.

As I didn’t have much time to loiter – after all, I wanted to go and see the whales in the afternoon – therefore, I behaved like a proper tourist: took my picture, didn’t look any further, and quickly moved on to the next building:

This is Sydney’s oldest cathedral. Its design was inspired by York Minster in England. According to my guide book, there are “memorials to Sydney pioneers, a 1539 Bible and beads made from olive seeds, collected in the Holy Land” inside… Sadly, the cathedral wasn’t open to visitors, as I would have been interested to take a look.

Next stop was Hyde Park. Indeed – many names in Australia in general, and in Sydney in particular are the same as in the UK. As is Hyde Park: named after its London equivalent by Governor Macquarie. Initially, the park served as exercise field for the garrison troops, but there is only a rather small park left of this. At the far south side of the park is the Anzac Memorial, which commemorates Australians who have died for their country:

At the far north side of the park, I found myself face to face with the following gentleman:

Major General Lachlan Macquarie, governor of Sydney 1810-1821

Well… face to face… he was towering over everyone. It was only the first statue that I saw of him – several others would follow… He clearly was a man who is remembered for having made a significant impact on modern-day Sydney.

From Hyde Park I continued my way along Macquarie Street. The street was originally a ceremonial thoroughfare from the harbour to Hyde Park. It has some of the oldest and finest buildings of Sydney. Firstly, the Barracks. Built during the time of governor Macquarie (yes, him again…) to house the convicts. Before that time, so between 1788 when the first fleet landed, and 1819 when the Barracks were finished, the convicts had to find their own lodgings – without much material, and whilst still having to work for their food, so these years must have been rather grim.

Another very nice building along Macquarie Street, is the Mint:

The Mint was established in the mid 19^th century to turn the newly found gold in Australia into currency. It was the first branch of the Royal Mint to be opened outside of London.

The last part of the historical tour of Sydney for this day is just a flag. Planted at the “location at which the first ceremony of saluting the flag by captain Arthur Phillip R.N. and his company took place to mark the foundation of Australia on 26^th January, 1788″, according to the plaque at the bottom of the flag mast:

Flag, marking the spot where the first settlers landed on Sydney’s shore

So far my historical tour of Sydney – next time I’ll write more about a very different part of Australian history: the people who lived there before the Europeans arrived…

Botanic Garden

The plan was to then walk through the Botanic Garden to Sydney Opera House, and then back to Circular Quay. But as time was moving on and I needed to be at Circular Quay on time to catch the whale watching boat (not to mention the fact that I really was looking forward to some lunch and a bottle of water – had I mentioned yet that it was warm that day?), I only managed to get as far as the outskirts of the Botanic Garden. That was already promising, so will certainly need to go back:

Recognise some plants? Yes, back home, Mum has them in the window sill: clivias, cyclamens… Here they grow outside.

Whale Watching

Finally then, whale watching… On the way out to the ocean I got this promised picture of Sydney Opera House and Sydney Harbour Bridge in nice weather.

Sydney Opera House & Sydney Harbour Bridge

Once out on the ocean, the whale watching was fabulous! We saw quite a few whales – sometimes even 2 at a time:

Every time the whales went back to swim under water for a bit, it was a game of “spot the whale” (the light green-ish spot in the top left photo), then the whale would get to the surface, open its blowhole and exhale air (top right). The whales would often be so close, that we could hear this explosive exhaling very clearly! Diving under again, the back (middle photos) and finally the tail (bottom left) would come out of the water:

A fantastic experience! Very majestic animals… creation is impressive!

And God created great whales, and every living creature that moveth, which the waters brought forth abundantly, after their kind, and every winged fowl after his kind: and God saw that it was good.
Gen 1:21 (KJV)

Next time (or perhaps the one after next…) I’ll also have much more on the fantastic flora and fauna of Australia!

Sydney – Some Random Other Things

Continuing from my previous post, here are some random other things that I thought I’d share…

Starting With “Food”

Well… food… ok: more like treats, snacks, sweets, chocolate. Meals have been rather normal: porridge with banana for breakfast, main meal at work (they do good food for not much money at the canteen!) and some light and easy-to-prepare food for dinner (read: salad-out-of-a-bag). This worked best for me, as I have several meetings in the (early) evenings with colleagues back in the UK, and even in the US. One thing about porridge: what are called “porridge oats” in the UK, are called “quick oats” here. “Rolled oats” – which I thought was the correct ingredient – will take hours to cook and prepare. Any ideas what to do with the remaining 750 grams of them…?

Back to the chocolate… The first thing my colleagues got me, was a “caramello koala”.

Basically: chocolate with caramel in the centre in the shape of a koala… And very nice it is. People in UK will probably recognise the branding: yep, Cadbury (Cadbury Australia to be precise). And as far as I can taste, it’s the same chocolate. Apparently this is the so-called “giant” size, mainly used for fund raising, which is exactly why they were in the office.

And then the Tim Tam… Again, at work (no fund raising involved this time – just very nice colleagues):

Tim Tam’s – double coat version (and no – I didn’t eat all of them…)

And they are very nice indeed. Apparently, a very Ozzie thing to do, is a so-called “Tim Tam Slam“: basically, bite off two diagonally opposite corners of a Tim Tam, and suck a warm beverage through it. As soon as it becomes saturated with the liquid, “slam” it into your mouth. The trick is to wait just the right amount of time before “slamming” – it should be all nice and warm and sloppy, but shouldn’t fall apart into your drink. After some convincing, I got one of my colleagues to show it to me – shame I didn’t have a camera to hand to let you all enjoy the experience with me…

Pedestrian Crossing

Another thing that caught my attention, are the differences in Australian traffic signs from those in the Netherlands and UK – in particular the following one:

What is going in here? Where is the rest of the body? Is this pedestrian crossing not meant for a complete human being?

Flora And Fauna

Last but not least… Australia’s flora and fauna: very different from “home”. Well known are the spiders and snakes, but apart from the spider that I showed in my previous post, I have no further tales to tell about these animals. The following birds are as common in Australia as sparrows and blackbirds in the Netherlands and the UK:

One of the (many!) quirks of the English language: Miner and Myna are pronounced the same… makes sense, right? Or rather: could be expected. Imagine my confusion when a colleague, during lunch outside, pointed out: “Look – a Noisy Miner, and there is an Indian Myna as well!” I thought she was talking about miners – the people going into mines to distract some useful material – either being noisy or from India…

Right, back to the birds themselves. The Indian (or Common) Myna is an immigrant to Australian soil. By invitation… In the 1880s there was a locust plague in the cane fields in Queensland. The birds were introduced to combat the locusts… apparently that didn’t work out, and instead, the birds are now regarded as a pest themselves by many in Australia: aggressively fighting for nesting sites, thereby evicting native birds from their nests and eating from fruit from fruit trees so the harvest is spoiled…

The Noisy Miner, on the other hand, is native to Australia. Its name is rather applicable: it is very noisy indeed! And aggressive – in Sydney I saw two Noisy Miners attack a Yellow-Crested Cockatoo:

Two Noisy Miners attacking a Yellow-Crested Cockatoo

I mean, that Cockatoo was rather dramatic as well: flying to a lamp post to perch, it was putting up a massive show, nearly falling off (well, not really – just doing “as if”), making a lot of noise, much wing-flapping… But then the Noisy Miners turned up, and really viciously attacked the poor “clown”.

Then – take a look at the next bird:

That looks rather exotic, right? When I got to the office the next working day, I was quickly told that this bird is commonly known as a “Bin Chicken”… guess that says it all. It is a bird native to Australia, but apparently, there were no Ibises in Sydney until Taronga Zoo started breeding them and let them roam free in the zoo… The birds seem to like Sydney, so there are now a lot of them about. And indeed, they love to turn over bins in search of food. But also, they rather aggressively hang around cafes and there are even stories that they run up to little children and snatch their food out of their hands.

Finally then – trees:

I mean, I have seen trees back home where the bark has been eaten off by animals, but generally the bark above the reach of these animals would still be on the tree. Here it seems to be the other way around: no bark up high, just a little left around the “feet”. Apparently, these trees shed their bark regularly to keep healthy: with the bark, it also sheds parasites, fungi etc that may live on the bark.

As I’m writing this much later, I could probably add several other things to this category, but have decided to keep it somewhat in chronological order. Therefore:

THE END

GIRL OFTEN KNITS…

… but does other things as well…

Category Archives: Sydney

Two Evenings in Sydney

Evening 1

Evening 2

Sydney – Taronga Zoo

Travel to Taronga Zoo

Blue Mountains

Featherdale

Sydney – Botanic Gardens

Australia Museum

Mrs Macquarie’s Chair

Botanic gardens

Bank Holiday Monday – Manly

Ku-ring-gai Chase

Illawong Point

West Head Lookout

A walk through the bush

Ancient rock engravings

Waratah

Beaches

Weekly Shop

Supermarket

Fruit, Vegetables and Bread

University of Sydney

University of Sydney

Acknowledgement of Country

Viewing Sydney From The North Shore

Sydney – Week Two

More Historic Sydney

Botanic Garden

Whale Watching

Sydney – Some Random Other Things

Starting With “Food”

Pedestrian Crossing

Flora And Fauna