Twice in the same week!
A little group from our local arts and craft society decided to see the 'Salon des Refuses 2006' - an exhibition of landscape and portraits that did not make it into the annual Archibald Prize and Wynne Prize at the Art Gallery of NSW.
The exhibition was held at the National Trust S.H. Ervin Gallery on Observatory Hill.
We caught a train to Circular Quay and first stop was the Customs House building
where the foyer floor has been replaced with a glass walk on floor covering a scale model of Sydney,
Then up Argyle Street, under the Argyle Cut - in colonial days before the cut was made, the sandstone ridge was a major barrier to traffic crossing between Circular Quay and Millers Point.
In 1843, convict work gangs hacked at the sandstone with hand tools for 2 and 1/2 years before the project was abandoned due to lack of progress.
Work restarted in 1857, when drills, explosives, and paid labor completed the job.
At the top of Argyle Street, in Argyle Place, is the Garrison Church - first official military church in NSW which serviced the military garrison at Dawes Point, imagine the redcoats marching from the barracks to attend morning prayer. Officially called the Holy Trinity Church it continues to be known as the Garrison Church.
there is also this lovely sandstone bubbler - On the The Bubbler site, it states that the 'bubbler' was invented in 1888, the name patented by a waterworks company named Kohler in Wisconsin USA. According to their web site: the word bubbler is still used today in parts of the world; mainly, Wisconsin and Australia.
So why Australia? and is it all Australia or only New South Wales? I know that is the only word I've ever heard used to describe them in Sydney.
Up the steps to Observatory Hill, two beer bottles were resting their heads after a heavy night.
The Park on Observatory Hill is an absolute oasis lying right on the Bradfield Highway approach to the Harbour Bridge with the Sydney CBD on one side and the wharves of Walsh Bay on the other.
All around Sydney, in each park, are huge magnificent Moreton Bay fig trees.
The National Trust Centre was having a face lift when we were there, built 1815 as a military hospital, it later became the famous Fort Street School, first school to provide teacher training in the colony. It now faces and seems to be just metres from the Bradfield Highway approach to the Harbour Bridge. When finished it will be painted in the shades of grey as the finished corner. They were lucky enough to receive sponsorship for the restoration from Porters Paints, hence the big sign.
This round section is part of the gallery - again my favourite photo attempts to combine the old with the new:
We had glorious weather, look at that clear Sydney sky, for everyone going into spring up north, I'll bet our autumn beats your spring!! (big grin)
This next I wanted to put in my urban decay collection but they are renovating the National Trust building next door, I hope this will eventually get some attention, it is over the door to the cafe where we had a great lunch.
After seeing the art exhibition (which was a bit ho hum) and lunch, we wandered across to the nearby Observatory
The Observatory was built on the site of Sydney's first windmill built in 1795 by Jack Leighton, the area became known as Jack the Miller's Point and today is just Millers Point.
The observatory was built in 1858, and was best known by Sydneysiders for it's timekeeping. Every day at 1 pm the ball on top of the tower dropped to signal the correct time.
Looking west through a window of the observatory building
The Agar Steps lead down to Kent Street, but we just retraced our route back to Argyle Street - really liked the splash of the red door at the bottom of these steps
and lucky that we did go back this way or we would have missed the Town Crier
who then proceeded to embarrass our youngest of the group (who had come with grandma)
by announcing in a very loud crier voice that she had been made honorary bell ringer
In the meantime, grandma had been accosted by a convict who showed us how he'd escaped the troopers by pretending to be a kangaroo (remember The Rocks area is rich with our convict history)
Back at the Quay and onto the train home.
How are you enjoying my trips?
I hope my overseas and interstate visitors are liking them, I'm trying for photos that are a bit away from the usual iconic Sydney shots (although it's hard to avoid that damn bridge!!)
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