Secrets of a Sydney past

Another bridge, further down the Parramatta River... at Gladesville. You can see where 'Victoria Place' diverts from current Victoria Road, running down to a lower-level bridge. There is a similar arrangement on the northern bank with a strangely-wide and curved road leading from the ferry wharf. You can picture the trams climbing up to Drummoyne, can't you?

And another, but on the Hawkesbury River near Brooklyn. It was Peat's Ferry, in its day the only way across the river by motor vehicle. Replaced with a bridge that was then semi-replaced with a Freeway. Note the roof of the mothballed eat-in/drive-in '50s-style roadhouse:

Meanwhile, down south on the Georges River, Forest Road ends abruptly, as though you are meant to start swimming... or catch a ferry. There are 'remains' on both sides of the river. Forest Rd was the original road link to the Illawarra, so, like Peat's, this would have been a busy vehicle ferry.

Labels: bridges, vehicle ferries

posted by gtveloce  # 3:56 AM 0 Comments

The Maroubra Speedway was just about there... in what is now Coral Sea Park.

Old road bridge lost in the Christmas '94 fires... it was a wooden trestle bridge from memory, just east of the current Ryde Road. I always meant to photograph it, then it was gone...

Roseville. Interesting approach (Babbage Road) to a low level bridge, replaced by a higher one, of course! There was once a recreation/holiday camp/dance palais on the Forestville side of the river, too.

Iron Cove... another bridge that was, with just the ramparts left on both sides... and note that there's a tram lane on the "new" bridge, too, now used as a T-way:

Labels: bridges, Maroubra Speedway, Meagher St, trams, vehicle ferries

posted by gtveloce  # 12:54 AM 0 Comments

1. I plan to look at disused, discarded or removed railway lines in Sydney (here's a short list: The line from Richmond across the Nepean and up the mountains; the line from Campbelltown to Camden; the Toongabbie private line to the Associated Blue Metal Company quarry near the CSIRO's sheep research station at Prospect that survives as an embankment in a field; Widemere, same area but servicing the Sydney and Suburban Blue Metal Quarry Ltd, running from the south eastern side of Prospect Reservoir down to the main railway at Fairfield; and the private zig zag railway at Thornleigh)
2. "Old" roads, like Old Cowpasture Road, now mostly known as the Horsley Drive
3. Disused ferry crossings, like the Georges River crossing at the southern end of Forest Road - still largely intact. Or the ferrymasters' cottage and remains of the punt infrastructure at the Punt Bridge, East Gosford
   
4. The remains of old bridges, like the original Iron Cove Bridge at Gladesville, still clearly visible, or the burnt out remains of the Lane Cove River Bridge at North Ryde; the original low-level Roseville Bridge, of which the snaking approach roads tell the tale
5. Old tram routes, especially the steam trams such as the line to Parramatta from Castle Hill, or from Redbank Wharf
   
6. And anything else I stumble over.
   

Labels: bridges, old roads, Sydney, trains, trams

posted by gtveloce  # 11:35 PM 0 Comments