Brilliant Sydney

Sydney was great. I love it.

And the city has finally caught up with Brisbane and Melbourne in offering a travel card that enables you to move seamlessly from ferry to bus to train, as need be, instead of constantly having to find shops that sell bus tickets, queue at busy ferry terminals behind dithering tourists, and guesstimate how many trips you're likely to make over a few days' stay. Put money on an Opal card and if you don't use it all, there'll be some ready for next time.

I am compelled to photograph the Opera House. Every visit. It doesn't matter how many pictures I have already, I have to take more. I try to find different angles.

The Opera House pops up everywhere, rather like the Harbour Bridge, amidst other endlessly photogenic subjects around Circular Quay.

Our reason for visiting Sydney last weekend was not that of hoards of others, who were taking advantage of a holiday weekend (Australia's queen's birthday) to experience Vivid Sydney, an 18-day-long festival of light and music. Light installations and large-scale projections transform urban spaces and key buildings in the city centre, while local and international music acts perform at the Opera House and other venues.

We were there for a dear friend's art show opening in St Leonard's on Saturday afternoon. The following evening we listened to 1000 voices singing choral classics from Carmina Burana to the Hallelujah Chorus in the Concert Hall at Sydney Opera House. They were ChorusOz – part of Sydney Philarmonia Choirs – an unauditioned group that comes together annually to rehearse and perform major choral work over a weekend. It was stirring stuff, but getting to and from The House – in fact moving anywhere around Circular Quay, lower George Street or The Rocks once it was dark and a human tide was flowing from one light show to the next – was not a pleasant experience. 

We arrived Friday evening. As a special treat, we were staying in Establishment, tucked down an unassuming alleyway between Pitt and George – Bridge Lane, off Tank Stream Way. You could easily miss the entrance, a large metal and timber door, an original element of the Holdesworth Macpherson and Company hardware emporium. The brick exterior belies a chic designer interior and luxurious rooms. Establishment is part of a complex of bars and restaurants that includes the Establishment Bar, a 42-metre-long marble bar amidst splendid iron columns, with a 'Garden' at one end, where you can eat or drink at any time of day and recharge the batteries. We grabbed a quick bite in Tank Stream Bar before going to look at the lights for the first time. 

Garden

Establishment Bar

On Saturday morning we caught an empty bus to Crown Street in Surry Hills, for breakfast. We like Surry Hills. It's all about detail and colour. It was damned cold, which didn't deter Sydneysiders from sitting outside. We huddled inside like wussy Queenslanders: my friend had left his sweater in our room.

We caught a bus to Paddington, about 10 minutes away. It was market day.

Next day was Botanic Gardens day.

Below is a tree full of Little Black Cormorants on their nests. If you look carefully, you'll see little heads reaching for food. The tree was safe on an island in a large pond.

A crackle of Sulphur-crested Cockatoos

The grey-headed flying foxes are long gone from the trees around the cafe in the middle of the Gardens. After a great to-do – their roosting was blamed for the loss of more than 50 trees, some of them irreplaceable – the bats were displaced in 2012. Some of them relocated to a forest on the coast near Macksville, creating a new headache for the authorities. The forest had been approved for clearance as part of a Pacific Highway upgrade, but bats are a protected species. There's a kind of poetic justice in that turn of events for Sydney's bats. Depends if you like bats, I suppose: I do.

In the dead of Sunday night a monster entered the Harbour. It dwarfed the largest ferry, made the Bridge appear small, obscured the best view of The House from around the Quay, and may have spewed out more than 2000 passengers into an already crowded city. I'm sure many people fancy the idea of a cruise, but being trapped with that many people is my idea of hell.

We walked away; from Manly to North Head Sanctuary, part of Sydney Harbour National Park. It was a perfect Sydney day, weather-wise; and there were stunningly different views of the Harbour, a hanging swamp, spectacular cliffs and pleasing Banksia scrub, complete with flowering shrubs and a variety of birds including the New Holland Honeyeater, swallows, a solitary Rainbow Lorikeet and – heard but not seen – Wattlebirds.

 

New Holland Honeyeater, courtesy of my friend

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Monday night was another special treat – delicious Chinese food at Mr Wong, part of the Establishment complex. We have yet to find a comparable Chinese restaurant in Brisbane: if you know of one, please leave details in Comments below. We were not advised properly about quantities, however, and as we took off on the 06.35 flight Tuesday morning flight back home, we stashed that evening's leftovers supper interstate. 

One of the world's most iconic buildings took centre stage once more in my friend's last picture of a favourite city.

This post was last edited on 22 June 2015

Dear Premier

Dear Premier Palaszczuk                                                           17 May 2015

I was extremely concerned to read in Dr Lynham’s media release of 14 May that the Government is seeking interest from around the world in exploring for oil and gas in southwest Queensland, specifically the Cooper and Eromanga Basins.

I would like to ask first of all if you have visited Queensland’s Channel Country? If you haven’t, I encourage you to do so. It is a unique landscape. There is something fascinating and enchanting about ephemeral waterways and the ecosystems they sustain. In an arid and otherwise stark environment, the presence of water draws birds into the area, often in their hundreds of thousands; encourages the rapid flowering of a variety of low-growing plants; and allows tree-lined water courses to stand like beacons across vast, apparently lifeless plains.

Throughout its history of settlement, Australia has changed beyond restoration much of its natural landscape. Rather than learning from past mistakes, in the 21st century the nation rushes headlong into further resource development. I have been attending the Land Court case against Adani Mining and their plan for the country’s largest coal mine. Some of the findings before the Court are of enormous significance to decision-makers within state and Commonwealth governments.

Additional knowledge revealed by expert witnesses’ research has again highlighted the huge risks to groundwater from mining. In the case of the Carmichael Mine, this includes a unique spring complex that enables the existence of rare flora and fauna. The endangered Black-Throated Finch is being deliberately placed under even greater stress. What is known now about these features was not appreciated when the EIS and SEIS were submitted or when the Co-ordinator General set out his conditions of approval. Adani’s Biodiversity Offsetting Strategy appears woefully inadequate in the light of what we now know about the BTF population on the mine site, to mention just one concern.

Many Queenslanders have grave fears for the state’s extraordinary landscapes and biodiversity. Water issues in the far west are even greater than in the Galilee Basin because of risks posed to the Lake Eyre Catchment by water extraction, the diversion of water courses and pollution.

It is essential for climate change mitigation that all remaining fossil fuels stay in the ground. Weather extremes are already having an impact and much worse is to come. Australia has so far been extremely tardy in both its reaction to this crisis and in taking responsibility for its carbon emissions. In the Land Court we heard the defence that Adani were not compelled to model scope 3 emissions in their cost/benefit analysis, which beggars belief.

I implore you not to proceed with your plans for Queensland’s southwest. This is a fragile environment that needs your utmost protection. The clamour for jobs should not be quelled by further mining development but the expansion of community renewable energy projects and support for agriculture. The ability of Australia’s farmers to produce food in a challenging future is not a subject we hear much about yet, even though it is of far greater import than any mineral extraction in the present.

I was relieved and filled with hope when Labor was elected in January. Environmentally, the Newman government is an easy act to follow, but last week’s announcement shocked me. I do hope you will see fit to reconsider a plan that can only bring degradation and harm to the Channel Country. I have visited this region several times and speak in the heartfelt hope that you will engage with me on this important issue.

With kind regards


Post scripts 
• This letter was also sent to the Deputy Premier, Jackie Trad, Resources Minister Anthony Lynham, and Environment Minister Steven Miles.
• Today, after this post was written, I received a reply from Steven Miles. I will wait to see if I hear anything from the others before reporting further.