Glimpse into the railway past
A not very encouraging Friday weather forecast of 33° heat with an afternoon storm wasn’t enough to deter the 17 walkers who gathered at Central Station for this interesting – if atypical – Hill View walk. We even had three visitors to swell our numbers!
Gathering together before the walk
Having met at the Metro Concourse at Central, we were literally standing on a piece of ‘Metro Art’ – a huge terrazzo floor installation with the inscription “All alongside of Each Other” – the first of many to be seen on our ‘Railway Themed’ art and history walk.
Historic artefacts at CentralStation 
Artefacts at Waterloo Station
After looking at the other installations and historic items at Central – mostly ‘invisible’ to the purposeful commuters walking by – it was out with our Opal cards (and not for the last time!) and off on the Metro to Waterloo. At Waterloo the art installations theme changed to “Footsteps on Gadigal Nura (Land)” and after looking at those we emerged on to present day reality of the urban streets of Waterloo – doing our bit to frustrate the heavy traffic as we straggled our way across the many street crossings on our way to the former railway workshops at Eveleigh.
Railway artefacts at Eveleigh 
In depth explanation 
Pay Day at Eveleigh
Workers Wall at Eveleigh 
Mobius Strip sculpture, Martin Place Metro
Eveleigh: what a contrast! On one side of the road (Locomotive Street – who would have guessed?) it’s all shiny new high-rise office blocks – while on the other is the brilliantly re-purposed Eveleigh Locomotive Workshops with a century’s accumulated exterior grime. At this point it was declared morning tea – but not morning tea as we walkers usually know it – no, it was a choice of morning tea in an outside landscaped green space – or coffee taken inside in an actual roastery operating within the former workshops – it was a hard choice for some!
Regrouping, we strolled through the former workshops with so much to see from a now gone era of steam locomotives and on to Redfern station to take the main line train to Martin Place station. Martin Place Metro station is the biggest of the underground stations –occupying the whole city block between Martin Place, Elizabeth St, Castlereagh St and Hunter St – and it has the biggest collection of art works and installations (not all new – some have been re-located from now-demolished city buildings). So much to see – and yet the average passer-by seems oblivious to it all!
Bank of NSW Historica lBanking Hall 
Bank of NSW Crest
Back of Tellers Box 
Travellers Cheque Block
Back outside we walked down Martin Place to George St – somewhat intrigued by the hundreds of people in long queues outside the ABC Bullion building (maybe the current record price for gold had something to do with it?) and into the Bank of NSW (now Westpac) head office, where the bank has retained the original banking chamber – historic, certainly, but with rather more opulence than the Eveleigh workshops.
Then it was out the door and across the street into Wynyard Park for lunch by which time the day’s heat was becoming very apparent and one of our number thought her home bus waiting right next to our lunch stop was just too hard to resist! Lunch over we headed off through lanes and walkways to Barangaroo and a harbourside walk to Circular Quay – with a short detour via Barangaroo Metro station for a look at our last Metro art installations of the day – “In Time We Shall” this time themed on the native Australian trees that grew in the area at the time of white settlement. Oh, and for another couple of walkers on this hot and humid day, transport home from here by Metro or ferry proved irresistible!
Given the hot weather and the storms now building up, the consensus was to finish the walk at Circular Quay and leave the walk extension to the Botanical Gardens and on to Martin Place for another time (and cooler weather!), so it was coffee (mostly iced!!!) at City Extra in air-conditioned comfort before walkers made their way home. It had been a most interesting and varied day.
Welcome coffee ... 
and cool drinks after the walk at City Extra
Walkers: Mary & John G (Leaders) with Anne R, Barbara, Christine G, Deidre, Dennis, Elaine, Guenter, Michael F, Robyn Ma, Ros, Tim & Vreni, along with visitors Judy, Veronica & Kerri-Ann.
First Aid: Barbara & Tim.
Tail end: Deidre
Words: JohnG
Photos: RosG and Deidre