Fifteen members came on today’s walk in overcast and cool conditions.
After meeting at Wollstonecraft Station, we set off down a bushland gully, reaching Berry Island where we did a circuit around the headland.
Heading to Balls Head Reserve, we passed the site of the old Oyster Bay Gasworks, now a huge apartment development.
Thence to the site of the old coal loader where we encountered crowds of people attending an Artisans’ Market. This was an appropriate place for morning tea where, despite the numbers of people, we found a nice unoccupied wooden bench.
Resuming our walk down at water level, we traversed a dimly lit tunnel, one of four which constituted the below-ground operation of the coal loader. The old timber wharf at the site, although gradually falling into total ruin, is a remarkable structure.
From Balls Head Reserve itself there are outstanding views over Sydney Harbour, including to Cockatoo Island and Goat Island.
Some further bushland and urban walking brought us to our lunch stop at Sawmillers Reserve. After that it was a short walk up Blues Point Road to North Sydney Station and a 2-stop train trip back to Wollstonecraft.
This part of the harbour foreshore is full of interest: Balls Head named after a commander from the First Fleet; HMAS Waterhen, the 1962 naval base in Balls Head Bay; the past and present fuel terminal operations (BP and Shell); and aboriginal rock engravings. On top of all that are the magnificent outlooks over our beautiful Sydney Harbour.
