A Colonial History Walk in Downtown Sydney

By the next morning, my leg was feeling somewhat better. It certainly didn't feel any worse. So I decided to wait a bit longer. I wanted to do another big walk, but figured it was best to stay near the city center in case my leg worsened during the day again. So I dug out the information the information booth man had given me and checked it out. There was a brochure about an historical walk of some of the colonial buildings near Circular Quay. I figured this would do. And I set out.

I started out at the Customs House building. During my first visit to Sydney, I wandered around the downtown area a little bit, but didn't really notice much of buildings and architecture. I still have no particular appreciation for architecture, but I have developed an appreciation for older buildings and the materials used in their construction. In particular, I noticed what my own hometown has so recklessly knocked down. Sydney has an incredible number of sandstone buildings downtown. Settled amongst large and modern glass and steel monstrosities are numerous squat sandstone buildings. I remember when Calgary had all kinds of sandstone buildings. And as progress won out, these were knocked down in favour of glass and steel high-rises built to house oil companies and banks and, these days, an increasing number of posh apartment condos. One of the few monuments left in Calgary is a former school (where I went to elementary school for the first three years), that is now the government building when members of the provincial government are in the city on business.

But in Sydney, many more of the sandstone history has been preserved, no doubt to the chagrin of big companies and developers who see only dollar signs when they look at those properties. And this tour showed many of those buildings down by the wharf, the first being the old Custom House.

Beside the Custom House was the site of the first British flag raising. There is a replica of that flag that stands on the spot. This was apparently decided by some kind of special survey by engineers using original descriptions of the event. The need for such a precise determination is a bit odd, but the flag is still viewed today with some derision for the “invaders” who came and took the land.

Across the street from Customs House is a small park, called MacQuarie Place, containing the first distance marker to principal places in the new colony as well as an anchor from a shipwreck. I'm not sure who these MacQuarie people were, but there are lots of places named after them. They seem to be as important to Sydney as Raffles was to Singapore.

A small alleyway leads to Bulletin Place, behind the park.  This was the area where newspapers were written and edited.

Along the street were lots more examples of the sandstone architecture.

Farther along the walking tour route, there were also old churches. This was not as much of a surprise, as churches always seem to survive the advances of civilization.

What was a bit more of a surprise was that one church lost a battle, to the building of the Harbour Bridge when it was in the way of construction. It was relocated to this location.

Another church was absorbed into a newer building, but not completely destroyed and replaced.

Continuing along the walking tour route, I found Cumberland Place, a spot that seems to be quite picturesque. At least these newlyweds selected it for their wedding photos. It was also among the earliest spots where the convicts who were the first “settlers” established the first businesses and residences. The whole area is called “The Rocks,” and is cut from the sandstone that underlies the whole area.

Above Cumberland Place is a YHA hostel. When they were breaking ground to build it, more of the early buildings and foundations were uncovered. The YHA was only allowed to proceed once the archaeological ruins were preserved. The YHA was built on stilts above the excavations.

On the other side of the bridge from there and up a hill was the first observatory in Sydney. It is still in use today, and the museum inside is free to view. There are a lot of interesting bits of history in the museum. A tour that goes up to the telescope and allows visitors to have a look up to the heavens costs 7 dollars. Unfortunately, the skies were cloudy and nothing was going to be seen of the universe this day, so I didn't bother with the tour.

Wandering around the grounds outside, I came upon Sydney's meridian. Meridians are the lines of longitude connecting the North and South Poles. There is a bold white line across the ground showing where the meridian goes.

And there is a sign telling about the meridian. When I first started reading the description, I thought it was going to be some special meridian, on of the whole number meridians, showing Sydney to have been placed directly on a meridian. Instead, we are told that Sydney is on the meridian 151 degrees, 12 minutes, and 12 minutes east longitude. That seemed odd to me. The number isn't all that impressive. I could go and paint a line in Calgary, determine its longitude and make a sign. Or maybe I will mark my own meridian. If the city of Sydney can do it, for such an odd longitude, everyone should do it.

By this time I was getting fairly tired of looking at old buildings and I began to take it a bit faster. I passed another interesting use of the old sandstone quarries (this was a road into the central downtown districts of Sydney)...

...a nice view down an older neighbourhood towards the Harbour Bridge...

...another uncovering of archaeological remains of older neighbourhoods of Sydney...

...an old cast iron pissoire...

...and an ol- Wait a minute. What? Oh, a pissoire. That's an old pavement restroom. Strange. And random. How that fit into a walking tour of colonial buildings, I wasn't quite sure, but it sure added a bit of random surprise into the end of the tour. From here I went back down to Circular Quay and waited for night to fall. There is currently an art project on in the downtown area. Artists were commissioned to use buildings as canvases for light shows. Some of them were interesting, particularly the 3-D presentations on the Sydney Opera House and the Custom House (which at times seemed to burn up or fall down). But in general, I was somewhat disappointed. There was no overall theme to the projects. They were just separate art projects using light on concrete and glass. Many were kind of boring. I suppose that they were unfairly compared to my time in Hong Kong which has amazing light shows playing on the buildings of that city. But these projects seemed a very pale imitation of Hong Kong's amazing show.

And I was very happy to find that my leg was feeling much better, although it still looked quite bad. At least that seemed as though it wasn't going to be continuing to be a problem or worry.