I joined Brian Everingham and others from the National Parks Association of NSW for a visit to two heritage sites in Sydney Harbour – Cockatoo Island and Newington Armory. In the party was Brian, Valerie, Sue, Vivienne, Suzanne and myself.
I had never visited Cockatoo Island before and it certainly is a most interesting place. It is easy to reach via ferry and visitors are free to wander around most of the Island. It has many levels of heritage. It was first a meeting place for first Australians. Then with arrival of Europeans, the Island has a deep convict heritage – anda lot of convict era buildings remain. Then it later became a major shipyard – and it has a lot of industrial heritage.
When we disembarked from the ferry, we first toured the lower level of the Island.
The tall chimney and the brick building near it were the power station on the island.
There are two long tunnels you can walk through. This one has been newly opened.
The Island features a lot of cranes.
This large building was used to make the turbine engines for ships.
This is inside the turbine shop –
Did I mention there are a lot of cranes on the Island?
We then climbed up some steep steps to the higher level. Here there is convict compound.
This object carved out of sandstone is drip filter for water –
There are also a number of houses that once were used as residences for staff on the Island.
And there are certainly some fine views from this level.
We then visited one of the houses that is now a gallery form any historic photos.
This walkway takes you past some old convict era grain silos that were later exposed by excavation.
And then we visited some recently unearthed convict isolation cells.
The last part of our visit was through the second tunnel –
And at the end is some very historic graffiti –
We then board another ferry that took us further ups the harbour. Here is the old Thomas Walker Estate –
And this historic John Whitton Railway Bridge –
The second ferry took us to Olympic Park Wharf, then we walked along the foreshore (with a bit of detour at first to get around a new housing development) to Newington Armory.
The historic cranes here were used to unload munitions to be stored on the grounds.
An Australasian Grebe in the wetlands –
There were quiet a few Red-rumped Parrots
A lot of the buildings have blast walls to protect them –
And we spotted a Great Egret –
Along the foreshore, we spotted a pair of Tawny Frogmouths –
Back at the wharf, we caught a ferry back to the city. Here is view of the Cockatoo Island Power Station from the ferry.
And a view of the city –
Thanks to Brian for a very interesting excursion.