For three weeks each year, in late May/early June, Sydney comes even more alive than it normally is with a spectacular light, music and ideas(?) art show – Vivid Sydney.
I have visited every year now since 2014. This review is based on my 2015 visit when, as in other years, Sydney’s most recognisable buildings and other structures became a canvas for the most amazing of light projections. Continue reading “Vivid Sydney”
Like any other city or place in the world the average tourist can only access a fraction of the buildings and other places of potential interest in Sydney. Hidden within commercial businesses or otherwise lying derelict and forgotten is a wealth of things of interest, at least for the more discerning or time rich visitor. Continue reading “Sydney Open (day)”
Firstly let me get one thing out of the way – there is only one hop-on, hop-off service in Sydney that I know about. It is marketed under three banners City Explorer (the original name for the service), City Sightseeing and now (2017), Big Bus Sydney. Don’t be confused into thinking that there might be competition here, there isn’t. Continue reading “Hop-on Hop-off Bus -Perhaps Better Not To Hop-on”
If only via the medium of television, my reader may already be familiar with the famous Bondi Beach lifesavers who patrol that beach in their red and yellow outfits, coming to the rescue of countless hapless swimmers and surfers each year.
Needless to say these members of the Bondi Surf Bathers’ Life Saving Club do a wonderful job and while it was the first surf lifesaving club in Australia and is the oldest active surf lifesaving club in the world it is now only one of many such clubs in Australia. Continue reading “Swim And Surf Safely On Sydney’s Beaches”
Unlike in many countries I have visited where passes, cards, etc giving access to multiple sites and museums are commonplace, well advertised and promoted, in Australia, while a few options exist, you really do have to eke them out. Continue reading “Museum Passes and Memberships”
As a café owner, it’s not often that you hear a knock on the door just before midnight, after you have closed for the night, and upon opening the door you find the Prime Minister of Australia standing there begging to be fed and complaining of the cold. Continue reading “Niagara Cafe: “Food for Prime Ministers””
Located in Byron Street and just up the hill from the Court House is Gundagai’s historic police station and gaol.
The first part of the gaol, a police station/lock-up was built shortly after the Court House and opened for business 1859. The main cell block, gaoler’s residence and the rather unique local slate wall with rendered capping you see today were added between 1859 and 1880. Like the Court House, the Gaol and Police Station were designed by colonial architects, Alexander Dawson and Walter Liberty Vernon. Continue reading “Gundagai Old Gaol and Police Station”
If, Dear Reader, you have followed my reviews in the order recommended this will be your ‘final stop’ in Gundagai – though you should not take that term to literally as I do, of course, mean your final stop before moving on to your next earthly destination. Continue reading “South Gundagai Cemetery”
Explorer, soldier and public servant, Charles Sturt (1795-1869) was born on 28 April 1795 in India, the son of an English judge in Bengal, then under control of the East India Company.
In December 1826, after a brief period in England, he set out for Australia – in charge of convicts on the Mariner (ship) – arriving in Sydney on 23 May 1827. Having arrived in Australia from the Home Country, at this time, a man of Sturt’s pedigree and credentials had a few options – politics, the army or explore inland in the new colony. After a short stint in the military Sturt chose the latter. Continue reading “Sturt Cairn – Murrumbidgee River Crossing”
Unless you have a particularly strong interest in old waterworks/ pumps you should not go out of your way to see the little that remains of the old Gundagai Waterworks as something to do in itself. Continue reading “Old Gundagai Waterworks – Pumping Station”
The Rambling Wombat 