The Wild Reed: Sydney

Showing posts with label Sydney. Show all posts

Sunday, April 12, 2026

Australian Sojourn – April-May 2026

Part 1: Sydney and Newcastle

Australia bound! . . . Friends, I’ll be visiting my homeland for the next four weeks.

I have my dear friend Noelle to thank for the picture at right. In the first couple of ones she took just before she drove me from my home in south Minneapolis to the Minneapolis/St. Paul International Airport, I looked kinda stiff and tense, no doubt due to the rather hectic previous few days I’d experienced getting ready for my trip. She made me laugh and loosen up, however, for this particular shot.

My flight from the Twin Cities took me to San Francisco.

Above: The United Airlines aircraft that took me from San Francisco to Sydney. It was a 14-and-a-half hour flight.

Left: Enroute from San Francisco to Sydney I watched the in-flight movie A Wolf Among Swans . . . twice! Yeah, I enjoyed it that much. It’s a 2024 biopic on the famed Brazilian dancer Thiago Soares, an image of whom I used in this 2015 Wild Reed post.

Above: The view of Sydney’s Port Jackson as we were coming in to land — Saturday morning, April 11, 2026.

Above and below: Sydney’s Central Station, where I caught a train to Broadmeadow, just outside the coastal city of Newcastle. It’s about a 3-hour train ride.

Above: A colourful character at Central Station.

Above: With my cousin Sharon and her husband Ross with whom I stayed on my first night back in Australia.

Above: Australian sunset — Raymond Terrance, April 11, 2026.

Above and below: Sharon and Ross drove me back to Broadmeadow Station the next day so that I could continue my journey northward.

NEXT: Gulmarrad

See also the previous Wild Reed posts:
• Home to Be With Mum (June 2025)
• Journeying South (March 2025)
• Central Station (2023)
• Sydney Sojourn (2010)

Images: Michael J. Bayly.

Monday, June 23, 2025

Home to Be With Mum

I’m currently in my homeland of Australia where I’ll be spending the next three weeks with my family – my mum in particular. As some reading this will already know, mum has recently had some health issues.

Although she continues to make a good recovery from the stroke she experienced two months ago (just a day after my return to the U.S. after a month-long visit), mum will be moving into the assisted-living section of the retirement village in Port Macquarie that’s been her home since 2013, first with dad and then, after his passing in 2019, on her own.

The time is right for this move, and I’m looking forward to helping it go as smoothly as possible. I’m also looking forward to supporting mum during this time of transition and change, and to spending meaningful time with my family.

Following are some photos of my journey from Minneapolis to Guruk (aka Port Macquarie).

Above: Late-spring light in my attic apartment in south Minneapolis on the morning of my departure for Australia – Thursday, June 19, 2025.

Right: My dear friend Kate drove me to the airport on Thursday. On the way, we had a delicious lunch at Wise Acre Eatery in Minneapolis.

Above: Californian hills outside of San Francisco.

Above: Leaving the U.S., with the lights of San Francisco in the distance.

Above: Flying over the wharf of the former Kurnell Oil Refinery (now an import terminal) in Botany Bay. We were coming in to land at Sydney Airport – Saturday, June 21, 2025.

After landing at Sydney Airport’s international terminal, I made my way to its domestic terminal (above and below). Here I boarded my flight with QANTAS to Port Macquarie.

Above: Shortly after takeoff, the plane that took me to Port Macquarie yesterday morning flew right over Sydney Harbour. What a spectacular view I was treated to! . . . It was just over two months ago that I had a much more up-close experience of this world famous harbour.

Above: A view of the beautiful Mid North Coast of New South Wales – Saturday, June 21, 2025.

Above: Mum — Saturday, June 21, 2025.

I think this photo is a lovely one of mum, but she’s not so enthusiastic about it, saying she looks like an “old lady.” 🤣

While in Port Macquarie I’m staying at mum’s villa in the independent-living section of her retirement village. For almost a decade now, this very spacious villa has been home for me whenever I’ve returned to Australia from the U.S. for a visit. It’s definitely strange to be staying here alone. Indeed, I realized on my first night that I’m here with my father’s ashes and my mother’s absence.

It is without doubt a challenging time for my mother. Yet in certain ways it’s also a time of transition and change for our entire family, myself included. Now that mum is in assisted-living, my days of having a “home” in my homeland are coming to an end. With such a realization there comes a range of emotions. And yet I remain hopeful . . . for both myself and mum.

Interestingly, within an hour of arriving at mum’s villa, I came across a book in the kitchen/dining area. It was Julia Cameron’s Transitions: Prayers and Declarations for a Changing Life, a book that Cameron herself describes as “a companion in challenging times.” A page was bookmarked, no doubt by mum, and I immediately experienced the prayer on this page as a blessing, one that I continue to hold in my heart; again, for both myself and mum.

All change can be expansive in potential. The choice is ours. As I open my heart to accept change, my heart softens and grows larger. Every experience carries the seed of transformation. Every event can bring blossoming and wealth. My personal will can resist change or embrace it. The choice is mine and determines the life I will have.

Today, I choose to embrace change. I open my heart to its hidden but abundant blessings.

– Julia Cameron
Excerpted from Transitions: Prayers and
Declarations for a Changing Life
Jeremy P. Tarcher / Putnam, 1999
p. 3

Above: For the last two mornings I’ve watched the sunrise from this bench on Port Macquarie’s Shelly Beach. It’s been a very grounding, very anchoring way to start each day.

NEXT:
This Moment

See also the previous Wild Reed posts:
• Thanks, Mum!
• Last Days in Guruk (April 2025)
• In Birpai Country
• Happy Birthday, Mum! (2024)
• Last Days in Australia (March 2023)
• Family Time in Melbourne, Guruk, and Gunnedah (2023)
• Return to Guruk (2019)
• Family Time in Guruk . . . and Glimpses of Somaliland (2019)
• Across the Mountains
• Guruk Seascapes, From Dawn to Dusk
• Port Macquarie Days
• Happy Birthday, Mum! – 2024 | 2018 | 2017 | 2014 | 2013 | 2011 | 2010 | 2009
• Congratulations, Mum and Dad! (2009)
• Catholic Rainbow (Australian) Parents (2006)
• Trusting the Flow
• Surrendering in Sacred Trust
• The Guidance of Higher Forces
• A Prayer of Anchoring
• Resting in the Presence of the Beloved
• A New Day
• The Art of Gentle Revolution

Images: Michael J. Bayly.

Monday, April 07, 2025

Sydney

Australian Sojourn – February-April 2025 • Part 12

Early this morning mum drove me to the Port Macquarie coach stop where I caught the NSW TrainLink coach to nearby Wauchope, which is where the nearest railway station to Port Macquarie is located. From Wauchope, I caught the morning XPT to Sydney, arriving at Central Station at 3:30 this afternoon.

I then made my way to Victoria Cross station in North Sydney where my good friend Garth works. As he was still finishing up his work day, Garth suggested I leave my luggage in his office and walk down to nearby Lavender Bay as it affords some spectacular views of Sydney Harbour and its various landmarks. He was not wrong!

Above: Blues Point Tower, an apartment block at McMahons Point, close to North Sydney. Designed and built in the Internationalist Style, Blues Point Tower rises to a height of 83 metres (272 ft) with 144 apartments over 24 levels. It’s regarded by some as one of the ugliest buildings in Sydney.

Notes Wikipedia:

Construction was completed in 1962, and it was Australia's tallest residential building until 1970.

The architect was Harry Seidler and Associates, who had planned a high-density redevelopment for the entire suburb. Reacting to a 1957 suggestion that the area be zoned for industrial use, Seidler proposed that McMahons Point could instead house hundreds of apartments, all with harbour views. Although the industrial zoning was rejected, political support for Seidler’s plan quickly faded, and Blues Point Tower was the only element of the plan to be built.

. . . Blues Point Tower is considered by many Sydney residents to be inconsistent with its surrounding buildings and cityscape. Over time, many public figures have criticised it, or even called for its demolition. However, in 1993, North Sydney Council added the building to its local heritage register.

Above: Sydney’s famed Habour Bridge, as viewed from McMahons Point – April 7, 2025.

Notes Wikipedia:

The view of the bridge, the Harbour, and the nearby Sydney Opera House is widely regarded as an iconic image of Sydney, and of Australia itself. Nicknamed "the Coathanger" because of its arch-based design, the bridge carries rail, vehicular, bicycle and pedestrian traffic.

. . . Under the direction of John Bradfield of the New South Wales Department of Public Works, the bridge was designed and built by British firm Dorman Long of Middlesbrough, and opened in 1932. The bridge’s general design, which Bradfield tasked the NSW Department of Public Works with producing, was a rough copy of the Hell Gate Bridge in New York City. The design chosen from the tender responses was original work created by Dorman Long, who leveraged some of the design from its own Tyne Bridge.

It is the tenth-longest spanning-arch bridge in the world and the tallest steel arch bridge, measuring 134 m (440 ft) from top to water level. It was also the world’s widest long-span bridge, at 48.8 m (160 ft) wide, until construction of the new Port Mann Bridge in Vancouver was completed in 2012.

Above: The Sydney Opera House – April 7, 2025.

Notes Wikipedia:

The Sydney Opera House is a multi-venue performing arts centre in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. Located on the foreshore of Sydney Harbour, it is widely regarded as one of the world's most famous and distinctive buildings, and a masterpiece of 20th-century architecture.

Designed by Danish architect Jørn Utzon and completed by an Australian architectural team headed by Peter Hall, the building was formally opened by Queen Elizabeth II on 20 October 1973, sixteen years after Utzon’s 1957 selection as winner of an international design competition. The Government of New South Wales, led by the premier, Joseph Cahill, authorised work to begin in 1958 with Utzon directing construction. The government’s decision to build Utzon’s design is often overshadowed by circumstances that followed, including cost and scheduling overruns as well as the architect’s ultimate resignation.

Above: Lavender Bay – April 7, 2025.

Notes Wikipedia:

Lavender Bay is a harbourside suburb on the lower North Shore of Sydney . . . The suburb takes its name from Lavender Bay, a natural feature of Port Jackson (Sydney Harbour) immediately west of the Sydney Harbour Bridge. It lies between Milsons Point and McMahons Point.

. . . Lavender Bay was named after the boatswain George Lavender, from the prison hulk "Phoenix", which was moored there for many years. The bay is dual-named Gooweebahree, (also sometimes written as Quiberee) in the Dharug language of the local inhabitants, the Cammeraygal people of the Eora nation. The colonists also called it Hulk Bay and sometimes Phoenix Bay. George Lavender lived on 14 acres (57,000 m2) adjacent to the property of Billy Blue.

Above and below: Luna Park – April 7, 2025.

Notes Wikipedia:

Luna Park Sydney is a heritage-listed amusement park located at 1 Olympic Drive, Milsons Point on the northern shore of Sydney Harbour. The amusement park is owned by the Luna Park Reserve Trust, an agency of the Government of New South Wales. It is one of Sydney's most famous landmarks and has had a significant impact on culture through the years, including being featured as a filming location for several movies and television shows.

. . . The park was constructed during 1935, approximately 600 metres (2,000 ft) from the northern approaches of the Sydney Harbour Bridge. It was an extremely popular attraction during World War II and the post-war period. . . . [After numerous closures and redevelopments beginning in 1979 and continuing into the 1990s] it reopened in 2004 and has continued operating ever since.