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Sydney Insiders Blog

A step, step, step back in time

For decades, Sydney locals would plunge the depths into Wynyard Station by using the wooden escalators in York Street. Terribly nostalgic with a rhymical rattling sound, over time these would become more of a problem than they were worth. With great sadness they would be replaced. So, what to do with the four tracks of…

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November 11, 2021

Still Life with Stone & Car

For the 2004 Biennale of Sydney, Arkansas-born Berlin-based artist Jimmie Durham created this installation from a 1999 Ford Festiva hatchback purchased in Homebush, and a two-tonne quartz boulder from a Central Coast quarry – painted with a face. Originally the car was parked on the Opera House forecourt, and onlookers watched as Durham painted a…

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November 10, 2021

The prince of Parramatta River

Located in the Parramatta River off Henley Point is a broken marble column. Many locals have no idea that this was not the result of an accident, but the column was designed this way for a very good reason. This point is the finish line of the course on which Australian sculling champion Henry Searle…

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November 5, 2021

The coat hanger of Warwick Farm

Possibly the only one of Australia’s “big things” to actually be smaller than the original, Sydney’s second harbour bridge is like a sapling growing far from the tree it sprung from. The bridge marks the entrance to the Peter Warren automotive empire. Sydney’s longest running auto “mall”, the Peter Warren compound occupies a lot the…

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November 4, 2021

Big Brew is Little Bondi

The backroom of a small tobacconist is probably the last place you’d look for a high-end specialist shop, but this is precisely where Joelie Zhou decided to open a traditional Chinese teahouse selling some of the priciest leaves money can buy. Welcome to the Taishan Tea Club. Located out the back of a convenience store on…

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November 3, 2021

Quench your thirst

Throughout the later part of the 19th century and into the 20th century the Hordern Family dominated the Sydney retail trade. Beginning with ‘Mrs Hordern’s’ drapery shop in 1823, Anthony Hordern and Sons soon became the largest department store in Sydney, with businesses in Europe, America and China. By the end of the 19th century…

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November 2, 2021

From famine to feast

The Australian Monument to the Great Irish Famine (Great Hunger) is located on the southern wall of the Hyde Park Barracks, on the site of the former convict-era kitchen and mess halls The monument was inspired by the 1995 call of Irish President Mary Robinson to remember the famine of 1845–52 and those who died…

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November 1, 2021

YININMADYEMI Thou didst let fall

This major artwork located in Hyde Park South honours Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander men and women who served in our nation’s military and their families. Sydney-based artist Tony Albert created the work, inspired by the story of his grandfather Eddie Albert’s narrow wartime escape. The work is also based on research by family historian Trisha Albert. The artwork YININMADYEMI Thou didst let fall depicts four standing bullets…

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October 29, 2021

Sydney’s Fountain of Good Luck

Il Porcellino, meaning ‘the little pig’, is a larger than life-sized bronze wild boar, anatomically realistic and resting on its left haunch and front legs. It is located outside the Sydney’s oldest hospital, Sydney Hospital, facing Macquarie Street. The sculpture is an exact replica of an original by Pietro Tacca which has stood in Florence,…

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October 28, 2021

Silver Shish Kebab

Located across Sydney are fine examples of public art. They inspire, some even confuse but they all celebrate living in one of the world’s greatest cities. One such fine example is found on Pitt Street. The Dobell Memorial sculpture commemorates one of Australia’s most celebrated landscape and portrait artists. Australian painter William Dobell was born…

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October 27, 2021

From tip to tip top

Sydney Park, Sydney. This Park is located in St Peters and borders Alexandria in the south of the city. It is well known by its high brick chimneys. A large 40-hectare site with hills, grasslands, wetlands with an extensive cycling path. Sydney Park is bounded by the Princes Highway and Euston, Campbell, Barwon Park and…

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October 26, 2021

Inspiration for a national treasure

Nutcote, located in North Sydney, was the home and studio of May Gibbs, Australia’s first woman cartoonist who is well remembered for her children’s stories and illustrations. He books have enchanted Australian and international children for over 100 years and the inspiration for incredible characters came from the gardens of Nutcote, The Blue Mountains and…

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October 25, 2021