Nocturnal 2

Nocturnal

Paddling at night is nothing new. People have been doing it on Port Jackson for 10,000 years or more. A Joseph Lycett painting (above) from the early 1800's depicting the locals fishing by torch light.

Now the view looks like this ... Paddling towards the Harbour Bridge.

The laughing mask of Luna Park, aflame with electric light.

Mask reflection.

Tony and Luke's nocturnal odyssey.

The highlight of this very enjoyable night paddle was the homeward leg - sailing down the harbour at 11pm and under a starry sky.

Ancient Mariner

A gorgeous mid-winter's day as Tony heads out to sea alone ...

... with the Tasman Sea rolling across south reef and into the bulwark-like cliffs of South Head.

Experience has now taught us two things:

Austalian salmon are often lurking around the Heads and they like attacking the "Xmas tree" lure.

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Less common is the sight of Albatross gathering so close to the coast.

The presence of these masters of the ocean skies within sight of the continent's shoreline may be indicative of some unusual phenomenon out to sea. Perhaps an approaching cell of severe weather. Perhaps a lack of pelagic fish offshore. As with most natural behaviour there would be some deeper reasoning underpinning it.

Or perhaps it's just easy mid-winter pickings along the east Australian coastline. These Black-browed Albatross (Thalassarche-melanophris) are feeding on the carcass of a cuttlefish. Click here to see many more of the vast Albatross family.

The view over the stern as Tony leaves the sea to the Albatross.

Eora

This sketch is the earliest known rendering of Eora people in canoes ...

It was drawn in 1770 by Tupaia, a Polynesian who was onboard Cook's "Endeavour" when it sailed into Botany Bay. The sketch depicts one of the men spear fishing from his canoe. The sketch was drawn along the southern shore of Botany Bay.
"Details in his painting show the wooden spacers and tied ends of the typical bark canoes used at that time in what is now the Sydney coastal area." (Tupaia's Sketchbook / K.V Smith)

Above is a sketch from an unknown artist depicting an Eora woman and her child in a canoe. (Start 'em young, I say)

"In August 1788, 67 canoes, carrying 94 men, 34 women and nine children, were counted around the (Sydney) harbour, despite the fact that it was the season in which they make their new Canoes, and large parties were known to be in the woods for this purpose'.(An Historical Journal - John Hunter,1793).

Conclusion: paddle craft were here first, maaaaaaaaate.

Angophora Costata

Continuing the indigenous theme, this afternoon's dash across the harbour was to collect seeds from perhaps Sydney Harbour's most beautiful tree species - Angophora Costata - otherwise known as Sydney Red Gum.

Angophora Costata is particularly common on Hawkesbury sandstone where it forms almost pure stands. The genus Angophora is closely allied to Corymbia and Eucalyptus (family Myrtaceae) but differs in that it usually has opposite leaves and possesses overlapping, pointed calyx lobes instead of the operculum or lid on the flower buds of eucalypts. (Australian National Botanic Gardens)

Angophora costata

Angophora : from two Greek words, meaning 'vessel' or 'goblet', and 'to bear or carry', referring to the shape of the fruits;

Costata : ribbed; the capsules bear prominent ribs.

One of the extracted seeds from the capsule which I will attempt to germinate. Apparently germination takes two to three weeks.

When we live in a place with such beautiful endemic flora (that incidentally also supports the local birdlife) it is maddening that so many apparently sane people stuff their gardens with exotic camellias, frangipannis and jacarandas.

Archipelago

There is a chain of eleven islands strung out along the spine of the harbour.
For the most part, these islands sit idly dormant in Sydney's collective consciousness and in various states of post-industrial dereliction.
A couple of the islands have been "towed" back to the mainland by land bridges. And one or two of the islands retain indigenous Sydney bushland on their sloping faces.


The harbour as calm as it ever gets.
Above and below the surface at Five Dock where this morning's journey commenced ...


Striking out towards the eastern horizon.

Rodd Island.

(Local indigenous name unknown to me)

Snapper Island.

(Ar-ra-re-agon)

Spectacle Island
(Gong-ul)

Cockatoo Island

(Wa-rea-mah)

Crossing to the north side of the harbour at Birchgrove.

Berry Island

(Local indigenous name unknown)

An old local on its last legs.

Goat Island
(Me-mil)

The great arch.

Paddling through a forest of turpentine tree trunks that form the supporting structure for wharves at Walsh Bay.

Drifting beneath the suspended deck of the Harbour Bridge.

Pinchgut Island
(Mat-te-wan-ye)

Garden Island
(Ba-ing-hoe)

Clark Island

(Bil-long-ololah)

This island was carefully restored with indigenous species in the 1970's by the Sydney landscape architect Bruce MacKenzie.

"Bruce Mackenzie pioneered the use and conservation of indigenous Australian planting that made use of natural structural materials and native plants, combining a romantic attachment to landscape aesthetics with a pragmatic approach to conservation. He is considered one of the foremost practitioners of the 1970s and 1980s in the promotion of landscape design that respected and harmonized with natural environments. Significantly his first article extolling the use of native plants was published in 'Architecture in Australia' in November, 1966. "

(Heritage Branch NSW)

Shark Island

(Bo-am-billy)

Pausing briefly at Shark Island.

The eastern end of the archipelago ...

Bottle & Glass Island
(Mo-ring)

A bird's eye view of this morning's paddle.
Starting in the west ...

... and finishing 20 kms later in the east.

There is much to explore at each of these islands - from large-scale industrial wharves, abandoned buildings and rusting machinery to the gems of native bush rock and twisted angophoras. The trip along this "archipelago" deserves much more time than we could afford today. A good reason to do it all again.

Leave no footprints ...

Previously we've made brief references to the people who have been paddling their craft across Sydney Harbour for many millenia.
Here's a little more information ...


View in Port Jackson, 1789 by T. Prattent
"This saltwater scene in Port Jackson shows Aboriginal men, women and children in bark canoes. Women fished with handlines and 'crescent-shaped lures' that were ground and chipped from shells. Fires burning in the canoes were used to cook fresh fish and mussels, which they spat into the water to attract fish."
(State Library of New South Wales Catalogue)

Other than burning the landscape from time to time to flush out animals, these original harbour-dwellers left few marks on their physical environment.

A few traces of their existence are found in a handful of evocative rock engravings that were incised into sandstone shelves around the harbour's edge.

The images below are hand-sketches (drawn in the year 1845 by two Europeans) of rock carvings observed at South head, Middle Head, and at Point Piper depicting whales, sharks, fish, kangaroos, wallabies, hand tools, shields and people.

The profiles of sharks and large fish at Middle Head.

Rock wallabies and a fish at South Head.

Hand tools, fish, wallaby and shield at South Head.