Stories

Mapping the peninsula

William Henry Wells 1843 SLNSW IE3709175 CROP

Physical development of our headland is best understood by looking at key maps and birdseye views of this area, in chronological order. Three First Fleet artists produced the first European maps

harold cazneaux two boys on a raft syd hbr 1905 ANMM grab copy

Since photography became popular in the late 1800s, our picturesque waterfront has been a popular location for cameramen—and it appears in the background of many images taken from the lower north shore.

Some of Sydney’s finest artists sketched and painted the west headland of Sydney Cove—before and since the Walsh Bay wharves were built in the early 20th century.
Probably the earliest local artworks were

Walsh Bay’s history of performing arts began with Aborigines chanting and dancing around foreshore campfires, then evolved to rowdy singalongs by convicts, seamen and wharf workers

During 2017 and 2018, the Walsh Bay Precinct Association surveyed all the images and documents that are generally available to explain the history of this colourful stretch of Sydney’s waterfront.

Henry Deane Walsh (1853–1921) was a Dublin-educated civil engineer who arrived in Sydney in 1877 and designed major public works in Newcastle and Sydney, including the Walsh Bay wharves precinct and

flw idea for Syd Harbour Bridge cross-section Jan 54

During the 1950s, the last decade of his life, legendary American architect Frank Lloyd Wright (1867-1959) was cantankerous and dismissive of Sydney’s two greatest icons: the

Before Pier 6-7 was rebuilt as marina apartments, the earlier wharf was operated by Burns Philp, a major South Pacific merchant shipping company. Pier resident IAN DANCE recalls his grandfather

Our headland bay was never given a unique name on early maps of Sydney—but the label ‘Walsh Bay’ suddenly appeared on a 1918 aerial perspective illustration

Soon after Sydney was settled by Britain’s First Fleet in 1788, it became the busiest port in the South Pacific—not just for delivering British convicts but also to export whale oil

Irish engineer Henry Deane Walsh is widely claimed to have created all the Sydney Harbour Trust’s post-plague developments around Walsh Bay. But he had no architectural training and there is strong evidence

Completed in 1916 to replace another Palisade hotel built in 1880, the architecture of this building has been described as ‘Federation Free Style’. This expressionist design approach, blending ancient classical forms with

Walsh Bay’s main street, Hickson Road, is named after Irish civil engineer Robert Rowan Purdon Hickson (1842–1923), who led major 19th century public works programs to modernise Sydney for a new era of

At the end of the 20th century, most of Walsh Bay’s old wharves and warehouses were abandoned, padlocked and dilapidated—but also the subject of intense opposition

jfreeman bros john cuthberts wharf 1850s SLNSW

Three minutes walk from Walsh Bay is a busy building site for the future Barangaroo Metro train station: to be built largely underground and due to open in 2024.
Since the site geared up in early 2018,

Walsh Bay’s wharves and warehouses might have been demolished within a decade of their construction—if architect-engineer Ernest Stowe’s 1922 vision for the Sydney Harbour Bridge had been adopted.