On our recent trip to Sydney, we spent a couple of hours in Woolloomooloo. It’s a suburb that has gone from poor to posh in recent years after the redevelopment of Finger Wharf. Only had the iPhone with me but took some shots for old times sake.

This was my husband’s old stomping ground when he was in the Navy. The suburb houses Garden Island, the RAN’s  Eastern fleet base. Originally, it was an island separated from the mainland and the place where the food was grown for the ship’s company, hence the name “Garden” Island.

Garden Island is the leaving/arriving point for the ships and many a tear has been shed while standing on the wharf. Gotta tell you watching a ship leave they disappear really quickly, waiting for them to come over the horizon and into the dock takes FOREVER.

My most vivid memory of Garden Island is standing there with a six month old Hippie Child in my arms, it had been four months since her father had sailed, and I was nervous that she wouldn’t recognise him, wouldn’t want to go to him and would cry when he tried to take her. When we were reunited he didn’t attempt to take her immediately, she looked at me, looked at him and threw herself into his arms. As if she wouldn’t remember her daddy! She’s always been a kid that knows the right thing to do!

Harry’s Cafe de Wheels is a tradition in Woolloomooloo. It opened originally in 1938, was closed while Harry went off to war and reopened in 1945. It’s been the late night stop off point for sailors, cabbies, partygoers ever since. The original menu of pie and peas has obviously expanded over the years – looks like you can get Chilli Dogs and Chicken Curry Pies now! Many a famous person has stopped off here for a midnight snack, Elton John and Frank Sinatra to name but two.

The Finger Wharf, according to Wikipedia the largest timber-piled building in the world. It was built in 1915, a working wharf handling mainly the export of wool, it was also the venue for troop deployments in the World Wars. Apparently it was where our troops departed for Gallipolli and where the Changi Prisoners of War returned.

It fell into disrepair and there were plans to pull it down in the early 90’s,  but locals blockaded the site and unions issued Green Bans to stop the demolition work. Eventually it was turned into a set of highly expensive apartments and a hotel. Russell Crowe calls it home when he is in town.

 

The interior still has a strong industrial feel, with original steelwork highlighted throughout, I think the pieces below were used to haul the wool bales and convey them throughout the wharf.

 

 

 

A bit of dreaming by the husband as we wandered the wharf and saw the highly expensive boats moored next to it.

 

The Bells Hotel – if these walls could talk – well it’s probably best they can’t! A regular haunt of sailors since it opened in 1922 it appears to have refused to follow the gentrification of other pubs in the area – you can still get a good old sausage sizzle here!