For those who follow our travels, you will remember that we were last in Australia in 2020 when COVID struck and we had to cut short our travels and return home as Australia was shutting down.
Therefore, a return visit was always intended which would allow us to finish our aborted trip – we didn’t get to Tasmania and Melbourne – and to add some additional venues such as travelling on The Ghan visiting Alice Springs and Darwin.
We flew to Sydney via Singapore and this time stayed in Darling Harbour rather than ‘The Rocks’ area of Sydney. Darling Harbour is not far from the Rocks and is an equally good place to stay as it is in walking distance to the main attractions such as the Sydney Opera House. It is also where some of the Sydney Harbour cruises leave from. There are many restaurants around the harbour and is a popular area for locals as well as tourists. On the other side of the harbour from our accommodation was the Australian National Maritime Museum which is worth a visit if you have an afternoon to spare.
The March weather that greeted us in Australia was fantastic and for our first visit we went to Ballast Point Park which is situated in the Balmain area of Sydney. As this is a residential area, it is not on many tourists schedules so is quiet but gives some great views towards Sydney Harbour. The reason we went to the Park was the history of this area.
The park area has an industrial history and has been used from the late 18th century. It had been used as a hunting and fishing ground by the European Settlers and was also used as a source of ballast for ships returning unladen to Europe, which gave it its name.
In 1800, the point was part of a grant of land to Dr William Balmain by the then Governor John Hunter. The area of the Point changed hands many times after that until in 1852, merchant Thomas Perkins purchased the five acre site and built the only house thought to be on the site, called Menevia. The land and house was then passed on many times and by 1928 the house had fallen into disrepair and the site was bought by Texaco who demolished the house to make way for a fuel depot. This continued until the 1990s, after which the site became derelict. In 2002 the site was taken into public ownership by the NSW Government as there was apparently significant public support for public ownership rather than the site being developed for housing. The site then became the recreation space it is today.
In addition to the planting, there are some architecture installations that hark back to the industrial usage of the Park which added a different dimension to the Park.
The Park was designed by Sydney firms, McGregor Coxall Landscape Architecture and Urban Design Studio and was opened in July 2009. The project included the demolition and decontamination of the derelict industrial site with the construction of steel stairways, recycled building rubble walls, artworks and an Australian native garden.
As our first day ended it was nice to be back in Sydney, particularly with the beautiful weather. Bring on our second day.
Copyright: Words and photos John Cruse 2025