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Sydney I · 2017

2017 Sydney I 4

A weathered bronze statue stands on a lawn with the city skyline behind.
Cars and pedestrians cross a wide intersection by landscaped steps. The Sydney Tower spire pokes above greenery and city towers. A weathered bronze commander stands atop an ornate pedestal beside a trident-bearing sea god. A bronze explorer monument stands in a leafy park before a wall of glass skyscrapers. A landscaped lookout framed by a stone colonnade drifts toward calm water and a distant shoreline. A garden sign names a leafy Pisonia growing bright green and cream in the mulch bed. Broad speckled leaves of a garden shrub glow beneath patches of sun and shade. A giant strangler fig sends a curtain of hanging roots down to the leaf-covered garden floor. Massive twisted aerial roots stream down a weathered trunk in dappled garden light. A garden sign names the towering Moreton Bay Fig rooted behind it. A dense green shrub covered in vivid pink powderpuff flowers. A single crimson powderpuff bloom against compound green leaves. A garden label reading Calliandra haematocephala, red powderpuff. A large multi-branched tree shading a garden walkway. A patch of low leafy groundcover on garden mulch. A tiny plant nameplate among wiry green stems in mulch. Golden bamboo canes rising above large dark leaves. A tangle of branches and leaves framed against the sky. A directional garden signpost points the way to the State Library of NSW beyond lush tropical foliage. Bright sun picks out the glossy leaves of a dense green shrub. A botanical garden label identifies the New Caledonian plant Fagraea schlechteri. A big bird's-nest fern fans long arching fronds across a shady garden bed. Finely divided, feathery green leaves hang from slender stems. A cluster of spiky, pale flower heads grows beside a gray asphalt edge. An oval pink flower head sits atop a tall stalk amid broad leafy foliage. A wide, furrowed tree trunk splits into thick branches against the canopy. A massive tree trunk bears its botanical label beside a bed of cycads. A fan of bare grey trunks rises into feathery foliage near a wooden bench. Soaring conifers tower over a manicured lawn under a cloudless sky. Evergreen and deciduous trees spread over open lawns beneath a clear sky. A Royal Botanic Garden sign warns visitors to stay off a fungus-infected bed. A lush clump of wavy green fern fronds fills a shaded garden bed. Smooth palm trunks and sprawling cycads line a shady garden bed. Rows of fan palms arch over a gravel path where two people stroll. Ringed palm trunks rise into a dense canopy of green fans. Sunlit palms layer green fronds over dry brown thatch. Palm fronds reach up into a bright blue sky. One tall palm rises high above the grass trees and shrubs. A weathered buttress-rooted tree stands among labeled palms. A giant spreading canopy fills the sky above foreground palms. A palm drapes dry fronds below an arching leafy canopy. A leafless tree fans its pale limbs across the garden. A sandy path winds between palm trees beneath dappled sunlight. Palm crowns and dangling fruit sprays stand out against a cloudless blue sky. A shaded path passes tall palm trunks under a dense green canopy. A huge tree fern spreads feathery fronds in a backlit crown against the sky. A calm pond sits beneath a white trellis fence framed by ferns and pink flowers. A large cycad spreads arching blue-green fronds from a mulch-covered bed. A white ibis with a yellow wing tag strolls across sunlit stone paving. A tagged white ibis bends low to forage among scattered dry leaves. A grass tree sprays a fountain of thin green leaves over dry leaf litter. Interpretive signs for the grass tree Xanthorrhoea media stand among dry brown leaves. A grass tree pushes two long dark flower spikes far above its leafy crown. A tall dracaena with a rounded crown of spiky leaves stands before a stone wall. A big blue-green agave rosette dominates a raised bed of succulents. A gravel path curves between beds of columnar cacti and succulents. Skyscrapers tower over lush aloe and agave plants in a botanic garden. A branching cactus with flat green pads grows among yucca and aloe. Cacti and a rosette-topped aloe rise over a bright succulent bed. A gnarled columnar cactus dominates a bed beside a pale stone facade. A branching tree aloe lifts leafy rosettes high above flowering succulents. Rows of columnar cacti stand before a tall rust-red steel wall. A dense clump of rosette-topped succulents fills a raised garden bed. Red-orange aloe flower spikes rise over a dense bed of succulents. A wide tree with drooping yellow-green branches shades a grassy park. Dense branches and leaves frame patches of bright blue sky overhead. A botanical nameplate marks the massive, cracked trunk of a Kigelia africana tree. Fine needle-like casuarina foliage fan opens against a clear blue sky. A nameplate on a heavily ridged dark trunk labels this tree as a Swamp Oak. The Opera House sails and Harbour Bridge arch rise above a sparkling harbour, framed by green trees. A pale, smooth-barked gum tree twists skyward, its foliage set against an empty blue sky. The pale, mottled peeling bark of a Eucalyptus tereticornis, or Forest Red Gum, with its label. A tall palm surges above a shaded lawn at the wooded edge of a landscaped park. Garden welcome boards name the Royal Botanic Garden Sydney beside a planted map and a child's photo. Sprawling branches with hanging aerial roots form a green canopy above a sandy path. Long aerial roots hang from thick twisted branches across green foliage. The white sails of the Sydney Opera House stand before the Harbour Bridge. Two palm trunks frame the towers of the central business district. The Opera House and Harbour Bridge appear across the water through overhanging branches. A wooded shoreline dotted with houses sits across glittering water. People climb steps and gather on rocks beneath a large spreading tree. Sailboats drift before a tree-covered headland with houses at the waterline. People on rocks gaze across the harbour at the Opera House and Harbour Bridge. A garden palm shows a skirt of hanging dried fronds over green grass. Dappled sunlight slants through thick green leaves overhead. A mottled kauri pine trunk carries a botanical identification label. Red flowers frame a green lawn with a pine and city towers behind. Red blooms and a Norfolk pine overlook the harbour icons and skyline. Bright yellow bamboo culms stand in clusters with green leaves. Two palms lift spiky fronds and fibrous skirts against a blue sky. A dense thicket of golden-yellow bamboo canes crowned with rich green foliage. Overhead view of a fan palm's radiating fronds above a hairy brown trunk. A botanical label identifies a Trachycarpus fortunei palm wrapped in rough fiber. A carved stone pillar and a towering pine stand over a lawn and sparkling harbor. A sunlit wooden bench sits before a garden wall of feathery palms and tropical plants. People stroll a harbourside lawn lined with palms beneath a city skyline across the water. A winding path leads between tall palms and tropical beds toward a distant lawn. Slender palms lean toward a harbor lawn where a bench faces water and a distant city. A still pond mirrors tall palms and a small garden statue. A white ibis with a curved beak wanders through a flowerbed. Dense purple-leaved plants fill a raised garden bed. Sunlit orange leaves front a bed of deep purple plants. A low canopy of green leaves shades a bed of brown mulch. Large strap leaves stand alongside a flower-covered bush. A small pale-leaved palm sits alone in a mulch bed. A sweeping willow-like tree stands beside a darker specimen. A yellow-blossomed jasmine shrub fills the frame beside a botanical label sign. A lawn path curves past a tall palm and an old clocktower hall beneath the Harbour Bridge arch. A black-and-white magpie stands on a dappled path beside broad-leafed plants. A bronze Captain Cook statue on a marble pedestal rises before high-rise towers. The Sydney Harbour Bridge arches over the water with the skyline behind it. The white sailed roofs of the Sydney Opera House rise from the harbour point. Tall towers rise behind the ferry wharves at Circular Quay. Moored yachts line a dock beside a terraced waterfront apartment complex. Ferries glide across blue harbour water past a modern skyline and a cable-stayed bridge. A green tree-lined shore sits across calm blue water beneath a cloud-filled sky.
Journal Notes

General

The fourth day was spent on foot in the city and in the gardens beside it. The walk began in the streets of the central business district, where the towers stand close together and the shade between them is a relief, and continued past bronze statues on their pedestals: a colonial governor with a trident bearing figure beside him, an explorer in a park, and a navigator on a marble base looking out towards the water.

Then the gardens begin, and the character of the day changes completely. The Royal Botanic Garden occupies the shore of Farm Cove on the eastern edge of the centre, thirty hectares of lawns, trees, beds and paths that run from the Opera House to the headland at Mrs Macquaries Point. It is free, it opens early, and on a summer morning it is full of runners, office workers and visitors, all of them moving between the shade of the trees and the brightness of the water.

The garden is also a collection, and the labels beside the plants are worth reading. There is a Moreton Bay fig with a curtain of aerial roots and a trunk like a wall, a strangler fig whose roots hang down to the path, thickets of bamboo, palms of a dozen species, a shrub carrying crimson powderpuff flowers and a signboard naming it, and a signpost pointing the way to the State Library of New South Wales beyond the foliage. The birds are used to people, and a magpie standing on a path will hold its ground until it is stepped around.

The day ended at the water at the end of the garden. From the stone colonnade at Mrs Macquaries Point the harbour opens out with the naval base on one side, the Opera House and the bridge on the other, and the ferries crossing between them. It is the best free view in the city, and on the day it was shared with a wedding party, two picnics and a group of schoolchildren, all of them taking turns at the railing.

History

The garden is the oldest scientific institution in the country. It was established in 1816 on the shore of Farm Cove, where the first attempt at farming in the colony had been made and abandoned a generation earlier, and it has been in continuous use as a garden and a research collection ever since. The site was chosen because it had water, shelter and good soil, and the collection grew from the medicinal and food plants of the early colony to the systematic botanical collection of the present.

The garden is also the beginning of the city’s system of parks. From the Domain and the garden, a chain of green space runs along the harbour and through the eastern suburbs, and the land it occupies was reserved from the earliest years of the settlement rather than being sold and built on. That decision is the reason the harbour has a continuous public edge on its southern shore, and it is the single most valuable inheritance that the colonial administration left the city.

The statues along the way are a history lesson in bronze and stone. They include governors, explorers, politicians and poets, and one of them, the carved sandstone bench at the end of the headland, was made by convict labour. Mrs Macquarie’s Chair is a rock cut into the shape of a seat on the peninsula in the harbour, hand carved by convicts in 1810 for Elizabeth Macquarie, the wife of the governor of the day, and it has been a viewpoint ever since: the place where the colonial gentry came to watch the ships come in and the place where visitors now come to see the two symbols of the city in one frame.

The library and the buildings beside the garden belong to the same story. The State Library of New South Wales holds the journals, the maps and the paintings of the exploration and settlement of the continent, and its reading rooms are open to the public. Nearby, the sandstone buildings of the colonial period and the later institutions stand along the water, and the castle-like structure with the clocktower that appears between the trees near the Conservatorium is one of the oldest surviving buildings of the government of the colony, built in the 1820s as the stables of Government House.

The colonial administration that made the garden also made the rules that kept it. Land along the harbour was reserved for public purposes in the 1800s, the Domain was set aside for the recreation of the residents, and the garden was given a scientific brief that it still follows: to collect, name and study the plants of the region and the plants that can be grown in it. The tree that was planted in the garden in the nineteenth century and is now a specimen on a lawn is the visible result of that brief, and the herbarium and the seed bank behind the scenes are the invisible one.

Geology

The peninsula that carries Mrs Macquaries Point is made of the same sandstone as the cliffs of the harbour, and the walk out to it is a walk along the shoreline of the drowned valley. The rock is bedded in horizontal layers, the low cliffs above the water show the bedding and the joints, and the ledges at the water’s edge are the platforms that appear at low tide on every part of this coast. The point itself ends in a small cliff, and the land behind it rises gently to the ridge where the city stands.

The building stone of the city came out of the same formation. The sandstone was quarried at sites around the harbour from the earliest years of the colony, and it is the material of the older public buildings, the churches, the terrace houses and the walls of the gardens. The quarries have long since been built over, but the rock is visible in every excavation that the city makes and in every cliff that it has not yet covered, which is why the older parts of Sydney look as though they were cut from the ground they stand on.

From the point the layout of the harbour is visible in a way that it is not from the streets. The drowned valley runs from the heads to the west, the islands sit in the middle of it, the deep channels swing close to the southern shore at the point and then away again, and the shallow bays where the water is green and warm are the ones at the ends of the tributary valleys. The ferries follow the deep water, which is why their routes look indirect on a map and make sense from the deck.

One geological detail is visible in the garden itself. The soil of the peninsula is thin, sandy and poor, and the plants that grow in it are the ones that tolerate those conditions: the figs and the palms that have been planted, and the eucalypts, banksias and wattles that were there before them. The garden exists because the soil was improved, the water was brought in and the site was protected from grazing; without those three things it would be the same coastal heath as the headlands, which is what the reserves further along the shore still are.

The harbour shoreline that the garden follows is also a record of the changes the city has made to it. The natural edge of the drowned valley was a mixture of cliffs, rocky platforms, sandy coves and mangroves; the edge that exists now is largely a constructed one, with seawalls, reclaimed ground, wharves and the landscaped banks of the parks. The garden preserves a piece of the softer version, and the seawall at the end of the point is the boundary between the two: on one side a managed shoreline, on the other the channels of a working harbour.

The tide is the clock of the harbour, and the walk along the seawall shows it. At high water the rocky platforms at the base of the point are covered and the ferries pass close to the wall; at low water the same platforms are exposed and the shoreline moves fifty metres out. The sailors, the fishermen and the people who swim at the harbour beaches organise their day around that movement, and so does the wildlife: the birds feed on the exposed flats and the fish move in with the flood.

Things to See

The garden is best walked slowly and in stages. The route from the Opera House to Mrs Macquaries Point takes an hour at an easy pace, it passes the ponds, the fernery, the palm grove and the succulent beds, and it ends at the harbour viewpoint. The middle of the day is hot and the shade is uneven, so the walk is best done in the morning or the late afternoon, and a bottle of water is more important than a map.

Mrs Macquarie’s Chair is the destination for most visitors and it deserves the fuss. The view from the sandstone bench takes in the Opera House on one side and the Harbour Bridge on the other, with the ferries and the yachts in between, and it is the one place where the two landmarks can be seen together with the water in front of them. The path down from the garden is paved and easy, and the walk back along the seawall towards the Opera House is one of the best short walks in the country.

The collections of the garden repay a slower visit. The fernery holds a collection of the ferns of the region, the palm grove is arranged by continent, the succulent garden shows what plants do in dry conditions, and the glasshouses hold the tropical species that will not grow outdoors in Sydney. The labels are in the scientific and the common names, and the garden runs free guided walks for anyone who wants the stories behind the planting.

The day can be finished at Circular Quay, which is a few minutes from the entrance of the garden. The ferry wharves, the towers above them, the cruise ships at the passenger terminal and the buskers on the promenade make up the busiest square of public space in the city, and the ferries leave from it in every direction. An evening crossing to the north shore, with the lights of the city behind the boat, is the cheapest and the best of the harbour cruises, and it ends at a wharf within walking distance of a dozen places to eat.

A word on the practical side of a day in the gardens. The garden opens early and closes at sunset, entry is free, and the paths are graded from easy to steep; the walk out to the point is flat, the walks through the interior involve steps. There are cafes and toilets at both ends, the ferry and the train are within a few minutes of the Opera House, and the shade is scarce in the middle of the day. The guided walks happen at fixed times and are worth joining if the timing suits, since the guides know the collection plant by plant.

References

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