Stories

First barons of our bay

Long before the 1900 rat plague or the 1918 naming of Walsh Bay, our headland was a new frontier of global commerce for colonial shipping agents who built the first jetties and bond stores here.

NO. 1 WHARF BUILDINGS DAWES TO MILLERS POINT - ELEVATIONS AND SECTIONS B copy

Builders now renovating Pier 2-3 and Wharf 4-5 are sometimes finding it useful to check the original structural drawings produced by architects and engineers at the

Lavender Bay artist Peter Kingston was furious about 1990s plans to redevelop the wharves at Walsh Bay—and especially to replace the single-storey Pier 6/7 with a brand-new, over-water apartment block

pier 1 and cargo loaders SHT report 1914

In 1900 the NSW government declared a rat plague in Sydney. To solve the crisis, it resumed most properties around our headland and created the Sydney Harbour Trust to modernise the entire port

A-still-from-contemporary-Welcome-to-Country-installation-Wellama.-Photo-courtesy-of-Alison-Page-and-Nik-Lachajczak.

On the big screen outside Barangaroo Park’s Cutaway events venue, an amazing film now reveals the daily activities and culture of the Eora people who lived on our shoreline long before

During the 1980s, before Pier One was converted into a boutique hotel, it was a popular shopping and leisure centre, inspired by successful ‘harbourside marketplaces’ in

All the Walsh Bay piers had been abandoned for shipping since the advent of container ships and were used mainly for short-term storage. Two exceptions in the early 1980s were that the MSB leased out Pier One

Walsh Bay could have boasted a Venice-style canal along Hickson Road, an internal street along Pier 8/9, jetties jutting from three piers, and a landscaped wharf promenade leading to an outdoor pool and pub

My sketches are drawn quickly—five minutes or less. I like to work quickly because it keeps me from getting bogged down in detail or overthinking things. They are drawn mostly en plein air, outdoors

Before new developments of Barangaroo, it was a major berth for container and cruise ships. JANE BENNETT, artist-in-residence for Patrick and Sydney Ports, painted the end

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

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.

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