Pirrama Park, Pyrmont

Pirrama Park, Pyrmont (formerly known as Pyrmont Point Park) won the 2010 Walter Burley Griffin Award for Urban Design. Formerly the site of the water police, the old wharf pylons have been incorporated into the new design. 

Pirrama means 'rocking stone' in the Gadigal language.

The headland is surrounded by Johnstons and Jones Bays.

Below are photos I took in May 2007.

The park has now been thoroughly landscaped and is regularly used for food and wine festivals and other local events. One of the main ones is the Mudgee Food and Wine Festival held in May every year.

Unbelievably, I've had something else planned for this weekend for the past 6 years!

I hope to finally attend the festival next year & to see the new work done on this lovely inner city park.

The "whale bone" walkway.

The harbour promenade featured a sculpture created by Jennifer Turpin & Michaelie Crawford. 

Tied to Tide (below) is an "aquatic instrument" with eight arms of recycled hardwood beams and red ladders that play "the winds, tides and waves to independently rise, fall, pivot and rotate."

According to my Top 10 Sydney, Tied to Tide is no. 10 in our Top 10 Public Art list.

The other 9 are:

1. Edge of the Trees (Museum of Sydney)

2. Almost Once (AGNSW)

3. Federation Pavilion (Centennial Park)

4. Veil of Trees (Botanic Gardens)

5. Magnolia and Palm (Botanic Gardens)

6. Dual Nature (Woolloomooloo Bay)

7. Wuganmagulya (Botanic Gardens)

8. Memory is Creation Without End (South Domain)

9. Tankstream (Pitt St Mall)

When I first moved to Sydney I used to get very confused about which headland ended up in which bay and how to get from one to the other. 

Pirrama Park is the green patch at the top of this map.

Off to the left is Johnston's Bay, which is spanned by the glorious ANZAC Bridge.

The Sydney Fish Markets take up the big grey patch of land in Blackwattle Bay circled by the Western Distributor (route 40) which is the official name of the road using the ANZAC Bridge.

Directly opposite the Fish Markets is Blackwattle Senior Secondary College where my eldest stepson goes to school.

Jones Bay is the little bay off to the right of Pirrama Park - Jones Bay Wharf juts out in the middle of it.

Keep heading around to the right and you end up in Darling Harbour.

This next map might give you an idea of just how many bays and coves line Sydney Harbour.

Pyrmont is found in the bottom left hand corner of this map.

We live in Balmain just across from Johnston's Bay. Our front verandah has a great view of Cockatoo Island & Woolwich.

Goat Island is the green spot under the words Port Jackson (near Balmain East).

Clark Island is further to the east off Darling Point (a much smaller dot of green).

And Shark Island is off Point Piper in the middle of the entrance to Rose Bay.

The entrance headlands into Port Jackson are imaginatively called North Head and South Head. The big one in the middle where Mosman and Taronga Zoo are is called...you guessed it...Middle Head!

North Harbour takes you into Manly & Middle Harbour takes you under the Spit Bridge (route 10).

Sydney Harbour takes you under the Sydney Harbour Bridge (between Dawes Point & Kirribilli)!

Nike Savvos - Art Gallery of NSW

I love the Art Gallery of NSW.
Whenever I need a beauty & soul pick me up, it's the first place I think of.

Last week I went to see the new display now decorating the main foyer.

It's bright, colourful and very eye-catching.
I've included the blurb below from the Gallery webpage for your edification!

"Renowned for her physically immersive and optically dazzling installations, Sydney artist Nike Savvas energises the Gallery’s 'main street’ with a newly commissioned installation.

Inspired by the vibrant paintings of the post-Impressionists as well as the cheap exuberance of discount plastics and decorations, Rally is a vast billowing field of colour suspended above the Gallery’s entrance court. Consisting of more than 60,000 strips of coloured plastic and stretching more than 50 metres through the building, it is one of the largest individual works ever staged at the Art Gallery of NSW.

A rally is a parade or protest that occurs in public space. And 'to rally’ is also to come back forcefully from a position of retreat or disadvantage. Walking beneath this new work, viewers join a rally of Savvas’s invention, drawn in and swept along by the power of colour in motion.

Now on extended display."

Sadly, I was unable to find a webpage for Savvos, but I did find her artist page on Breenspace.

From there you can click on her other exhibition links for more intense colour explosions or simply 'google image' her name.

Shark Island

In 2010, we took advantage of the Island Hopping experience on Sydney harbour to explore several of the islands that are dotted around the bays & coves.
Normally, these islands are only open for special events or by appointment.

Shark Island was our lunch time stop.
It lies just off Rose Bay & Point Piper.
The Aboriginals called this small island Boambilly.

It was named Shark Island due to its shape.

It boasts beautiful views of the Harbour Bridge and Opera House.

Shark Island Light is a pile lighthouse off the northern tip of the island built in 1913.

Shark Island was used as a quarantine station & naval depot from 1880 until 1975.
It is now used exclusively as a recreation reserve.

Clark Island, Sydney Harbour

In 2010, we took advantage of the Island Hopping experience on Sydney Harbour to explore several of the islands that are dotted around the bays & coves.
Normally, these islands are only open for special events or by appointment.

Our last stop was Clark Island.
It lies just off Darling Point and is less than a hectare in size.

Clark Island is named after Lieutenant Ralph Clark.
He arrived in Sydney in 1788 as part of the First Fleeet.
He cultivated the island as a garden from 1789.

Clark Island is now a unique picnic & wedding photo shot destination.
Reservations to visit the island are essential.

Next week: Shark Island