Friday 2nd December 2022
Central to Rozelle, Pyrmont and Black Wattle Bay
The group met at Central at 9.30am
Participants - Ron, Chris, Peter, Helen, Richard, Yvonne, Colin and Natalie.
Weather-perfect for walking with overcast skies in the morning and sunny in the afternoon.
Along the way-
*First stop for a coffee at Central station before boarding the tram to Rozelle Bay tram stop.
*Once we were at road level our senses were impacted with the sights and sounds of construction work.
*We crossed the road from the tram stop to Bicentennial Park and took in the view across to Anzac Bridge.
*Backtracked a little and viewed the exhaust stacks with greenery being planted on the outside. An interesting design. We then followed the road towards the Glebe Island Container terminal. It was very noisy with trucks almost non-stop going back and forth along this road.
*A great viewing point at the end of the road to- the overseas cruise ship terminal at White Bay, the Sydney Harbour Bridge, the suburb of Pyrmont, the old Glebe Island Bridge, the silos and the Anzac Bridge.
*A memorial plaque stated it was the first place of landing for US troops in 1942.
*Backtracked a little to the ramp leading up to the New Zealand Memorial. Then back under and up some stairs to the Australian memorial statue. They are both wonderful sculptures.
*We walked across Anzac Bridge feeling and hearing the traffic zoom by.
*At the end of the bridge we stopped to read the plaques about the naming of the bridge and some statistics about the construction.
*From there we walked to the fish markets and decided not to have lunch there as it was too early and it was so crowded. Not an enticing place to have a meal.
*The walk continued around the end bay, passing the new Fish Market construction, before entering the Glebe Foreshore Walk which was very pleasant, green, relatively quiet and uncrowded.
*We passed
-some men who were fixing up some dragon boats, getting ready for a new season of racing.
-the Glebe Rowing Club which was established in 1879.
-the heritage listed incinerator, designed by Walter Burley Griffin, was opened in 1933 and
decommissioned in the 1940s.
*Near the ferry stop was an 1896 house called Bellevue Villa that is used for functions now. This is in Blackwatttle Bay Park.
*We caught the ferry back to Barangaroo. The ferry was called Me-Mel and was perhaps the smallest ferry of the fleet. It was such a great experience going under Anzac Bridge and through the opened section of the old Glebe Island Bridge.
*Once at Barangaroo we couldn’t find a place to eat so decided to get back on a ferry to Circular Quay. The ferry went via Balmain East, Blues Point and Luna Park.
*Back at Circular Quay and on familiar territory we found some tables and chairs in the Gateway food court where we had lunch.
Back on trains by about 1.45pm after 7km walking.