I met up with Michael and Sue's friends for a delicious lunch at The Little Snail in Pyrmont. Afterwards, I took the opportunity to photograph the Cape Bowling Green Lighthouse and Pyrmont Bridge. Then a lovely stroll to Circular Quay past Barangaroo.
Cape Bowling Green Lighthouse
The Cape Bowling Green Lighthouse has an unusually adventurous history. Built in 1874 on a low sandy spit south of Townsville in Queensland, it was an iron-clad timber structure designed to warn ships away from a notoriously hazardous stretch of coast. Because the cape was constantly shifting and eroding, the lighthouse had to be moved more than once during its working life. It was automated in 1920 and remained in service until 1987, when it was replaced by a modern light. Rather than being demolished, the 22-metre lighthouse was carefully dismantled, transported more than 2,000 kilometres to Sydney and reassembled at the Australian National Maritime Museum in Darling Harbour, where it opened to the public in 1994.
Pyrmont Bridge
The Pyrmont Bridge is one of Sydney’s most important surviving pieces of industrial-era infrastructure. Opened in 1902, it spans Darling Harbour and was designed as a swing bridge, with its central section rotating to allow ships to pass through. Once carrying road traffic between the city and Pyrmont, it was closed to vehicles in the 1980s and later restored as a pedestrian and cycle bridge. Today it forms a major walking link across Darling Harbour and remains a striking reminder of the area’s maritime and industrial past, with its original machinery still capable of operating the swing span.
Walk to Circular Quay past Barangaroo
