Page 60 - (DK Eyewitness) Travel Guide - Sydney

58  INTRODUCING SY DNEY

Garden Island to Farm Cove

Sydney’s vast harbour, also named Port Jackson after a
Secretary in the British Admiralty (who promptly changed
his name), is a drowned river valley which was transformed
over millions of years. Its intricate coastal geography of
headlands and secluded bays can sometimes confound
even life long residents. This waterway was the lifeblood
of the early colony, with the maritime industry a vital
source of wealth and supply. The legacies of alter nate The city skyline developed at random.
recessions and booms can be viewed along the shoreline: The careless destruction of architectural
a representative story in a nation where an estimated history in the 1960s–70s was halted,
and towers now stand amid
70 per cent of the population cling to the coastal cities, preserved Victorian buildings.
especially along the eastern seaboard.

Two harbour beacons, known
as “wedding cakes” because
of their three tiers, are solar
powered and equipped
with a fail-safe back-up.
There are around 350
buoys and beacons
now in operation.

KEY
1 Garden Island marks a 1940s
con struction project with 12 ha 0 metres 250
(30 acres) reclaimed from the harbour.
0 yards 250
2 The barracks for the naval garrison
date from 1888.
3 Woolloomooloo Finger Wharf has
been developed as a dynamic dining
and residential complex.

Sailing on the harbour is a pastime not
exclusively reserved for the rich and elite. Mrs Macquaries Chair is a carved rock seat
Of the several hundred thousand pleasure boats (see p108) by Mrs Macquaries Road. In the early
registered, some are available for hire while days of the colony this was the site of a fruit and
others take out groups of inexperienced sailors. vegetable garden, which was farmed until 1805.

058-059_EW_Sydney.indd 58 29/05/17 12:19 pm