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:
View of Sydney Harbour from Taronga Zoo
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:
Official entrance at top end of the zoo
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!
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:
Last day the trains were running…
I first went to see some of the exhibits at the Australia Museum.
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”:
Brugmansia
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…?
Mrs Macquarie’s Chair
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:
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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!
Ferry on Parramatta River
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:
Manly 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…
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:
Coat of arms of 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:
Main Quadrangle of University of Sydney
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.
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.
View on Sydney from north shore
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.
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…
Sydney Town Hall
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:
St Andrew’s Cathedral, Sydney
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:
Anzac Monument, Hyde Park, Sydney
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.
Barracks, Macquarie Street, Sydney
Another very nice building along Macquarie Street, is the Mint:
The Mint, Sydney
The Mint was established in the mid 19th 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 26th 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:
Two whales, playing around the boat
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!
After 2 flights, totalling about 24 hours of travel, finally: arriving at Sydney’s Kingsford Smith airport. It felt like months ago that I left London Heathrow…
The first weekend I spent at my friends’ house. Where I saw my first spider… Very helpfully (and encouragingly?) I was told that it wasn’t that big. But surely: any spider I had seen so far was certainly smaller than that one! Judge for yourself:
My first spider in Australia…
The rest of the weekend was much better, I haste to add. My jetlag hasn’t been too severe, so could enjoy most of the church services. It is so nice to travel to the “ends of the earth” and meet fellow Christians, some of whom I knew already from when they lived in or visited the UK, but I also met many new friends.
House, Car, Phone…
On Monday I picked up my rental car, got myself an Ozzie SIM card and settled in my apartment where I would live in for the next 8 weeks. About that car… why are the wipers on the left handle (with which any normal car controls lights and signals), and the signals on the right one!? The number of times that I – completely unnecessarily – started wiping my windscreen instead of what I intended to do: communicate my intention to change direction to fellow road users…!
And people who know me well, know that I absolutely don’t like using a satnav. I must admit that I used it for the first few days to get to and from work and church, however, that didn’t last long (and I blame that short period of weakness on my jetlag…). Already on the third day to work I just forgot to put my destination into Google Maps before leaving. Upon realising, I decided I would just see how far I would get: and with having to turn around only once as I missed a left-turn, I got to the office. The route to church I’ve only done once with satnav – ever after I ignored it or didn’t even turn it on. So I’m happily back to my normal way of driving: look up beforehand where to go, and rather turn around once or twice than having to blindly follow a satnav and not knowing where I am…
First Visit To Sydney City Centre
My first visit to Sydney City Centre was on a cold, grey, drizzly Saturday, just over a week after I’d arrived. Actually, the weather had been like that for most of my first week – at least it made me feel very much at home: just like autumn in the UK or the Netherlands. The visit was rather short, partly because of the weather, but also because I needed to get myself an Opal card. For Londoners – that’s something like an Oyster card. The only trouble is that for some reason Opal cards are not usually sold at train stations…
So, once I had found out where to acquire this piece of plastic from, I travelled (in a nice, modern and comfortable train!) to the city centre to see the tourist hotspots:
Sydney Opera House Sydney Harbour Bridge
Two important boxes ticked… although I may come back to take pictures in more Ozzie-like weather. I then walked round “The Rocks”: the place where the first British settlers – convicts and soldiers – step ashore in 1788, commemorated with a plaque near Circular Quay:
Plaque near Circular Quay, commemorating the arrival of the first British settlers in 1788
The initial buildings were made of very poor materials, and weren’t much more than huts. In heavy rain or wind they would collapse. The oldest building still standing is Cadman’s Cottage, built in 1816:
Cadman’s cottage, oldest surviving house in “The Rocks”, built in 1816
Sadly, many of the original buildings were demolished in the first half of the 20th century, and the main street, George Street, is now a large, very touristy, market. But after walking round somewhat further, there is still history to be found:
The Rocks, Sydney
Lachlan Macquarie, Sydney’s governor during 1810-1821, wanted to develop Sydney from a penal colony into a city, using the trading of wool and whaling and sealing to get wealth to the city. By the 1840s the convict transportation had stopped, and “The Rocks” became a fashionable area for merchants, of which the houses in the photo above are an example.
So far my impressions of the first week… there are a couple more things I wanted to share, but will do so another time.
