The park reminds me of Cockatoo Island with an industrial and slight modernist feel and basic native plantings. This is an internal photo taken from 'Delicate Balance' which hovers over the edge of the water. There are little cut outs to see framed parts of the harbour and a steel grate which allows the sound of the water to come up the tunnel you're in.
Ballast Point Park was used to quarry sandstone in the past. Obviously being near Balmain there is a fair bit of the stuff about.
There is the running theme of rivets throughout. Another, much later, purpose of the park was as an oil refinery for Caltex.
I tried the panorama thingo on my camera. Worked a treat. Now I have no idea how to make it panorama on computer. Views from the park are amazing. Lovely clear day. Thought it was going to be all overcast.
Cake! I had the Drunken Mocha Tart ($9). Consisting of Grand Marina, Orange Ganache, Italian Meringue and..... one last thing I can not remember. Felt a little odd taking a photo of the card in the store. I know heaps of people blog about his food and take notes. Still. little self conscious Aly just didn't have the guts.
Finally, I find the padlocks. I read the first one. Sweet. I read the second and wonder if MJ is a weird relationship-py code for something, it is just a coincidence or MJ likes to throw themselves around the Inner West. The final one gave it away.
I think you pay per letter for engraving. Only one person out of ten was not stingy and got his whole name on there. I thought this was a going to have hundreds all with personal notes. Maybe there is such a wall and I missed it.
There are heaps of these retaining walls through the park. The park is a sustainable park using mainly recycled materials, including Phil's 21st Birthday Pewter mug.There is also shade cloths made out of seat belts that didn't meet safety standards.
Tank 101 is a sculpture that symbolises the Ballast Point industrial history. The sculpture is in the place of the largest storage tank in park which was used to store crude oil before processing. It was the largest tank in Australia to use rivet construction technology!
Don't know if it is a Space Invader original or some cheat.
Jeremy Gili's 2002 Mosman Rugby mug. This made me wonder if people donated stuff to the site. Caltex occupied the site from 1928 to 2002 and then it was acquired by the government to turn it back into a public space. Maybe Jeremy worked for Caltex and used his mug to cheers off the remaining days to Caltex.
Obligatory feet shot. Always with the blue nails, jeans and thongs. Am consistent with my style. The site maintains much of the industrial Caltex site. Outlining where the tanks stood and the paths around the park.
Retaining walls surrounded the park when it was still Caltex in the event that one of the tanks fell apart and the oil wanted to go into the ocean. Now, all that greenery filters out stuff before it goes into the ocean.
I do love Kangaroo paws. Barely any coloured plantings, this could have to do with the fact it is Autumn.
Finished up Ballast Point Park at about 5pm, there is a full history PDF of the site. Read it! Bit of a pain to get across Victoria Rd at this time so when I came across another park I thought I'd check it out.
Expecting to hear the screeching guitar of BH90210. Am currently going through the series.
I either saw a movie or had some weird nightmare in my youth but this tree reminded me of a 'movie' where people are absorbed into a tree or people put their babies into a tree... I just remember a tree with faces in it. I feel like a bit of a freak asking the Internets this but, meh.
I'm at Dawn Fraser swimming pool park! These are blue flowers near the pool/baths. Lovely flowers. Also a lot of spiders in this park. Heaps.
Pool is closed because of heavy rain. I didn't have my $4 casual entry fee anyway so I took a sly over the fence shot.
Why do all the boats face the same way? Genuine question.
Storm clouds look like coming over.
The end of my Balmain park tour. I really need to figure a better way of ending posts.
- A
