Hidden heritage revealed on walk

The Walsh Bay Heritage Walk is 
full of surprises. Beautiful vistas unfold across the water and along 
the headlands, from under the Sydney Harbour Bridge down to the Opera House. Around every corner is another historical gem to discover, another surprising story to hear.

Walsh Bay lies on the northern tip of the craggy peninsula next to Circular Quay, 
down the road from The Rocks and at the 
base of Millers Point. Despite the prime position, the walk is a hidden attraction, but offers an interesting way to pass an hour or two in the heart 
of Sydney’s heritage.

It was almost 100 years ago that the 
public was locked out of Walsh Bay due to bubonic plague, and 10 years since it was completely re-vamped to become Sydney’s biggest cultural, residential and retail precinct with a unique blend of contemporary and turn-of-the-century architecture.

The heritage walk is a self-guided tour with a map and directions available from the Walsh Bay Precinct website. Information points dotted among the wharves and old stores provide insight into the region’s rich industrial heritage.

The walk is a government initiative that began in 2005 after the old wharves were gutted and converted to commercial and residential space, while still retaining their outer heritage appearance. Today, many office, apartment and shop windows contain early colonial artefacts and information points.

The walk takes in a 1.6-kilometre loop from Hickson Road, round the infamous ‘Hungry Mile’ (where dockside workers would desperately seek work during the Great Depression), along the lengths of the old turpentine timber wharves, and back up along the clifftop path, skirting the escarpment overlooking the bay, with the stunning harbour views spilling out below.

The bay hides many little-known secrets and stories. In the mid-20th century, it housed a world-class cargo loading facility. The high ground ringing the bay allowed direct access to the top level of the wharves, which were fitted with state-of-the-art hydraulic cargo handling systems. The remaining wharves are now the last of their kind in the world.

Just before Hickson Road turns south from Millers Point to Cockle Bay is Towns Place. The public square was also known as the ‘bull ring’, where labourers gathered early in the morning to vie for paid work that day.

Work was scarce during the Great Depression, when only the strongest men, known as the ‘bulls’, were selected for back-breaking 24-hour shifts, carrying enormous loads of up to 80 kilograms at a time, lugging lung-destroying coal or even asbestos.

A preserved convict cottage from the 1830s provides some insight into Sydney’s settler heritage, while the site where Sydney’s first plague victim lived stands as a token of 
the city’s darker memories.

Walsh Bay was once known only as Millers Point, but was officially renamed in 1919 after HD Walsh, the Harbour Trust’s chief architect. By 1921 the wharves had 
been constructed, serviced by an access road for haulage that connected the bay to the commercial hub of Darling Harbour.

The monumental Hickson Road, wide as a freeway, was sunk deep into the sandstone escarpment. Sheer cliffs were gouged out of rocky outcrops, vaulted by arching overpass bridges that connected to the second-
story loading docks of the finger wharves.

The scenery is what attracts tourists to Walsh Bay, but it is the rich and engaging history discovered that makes the visit a special must-see stop, shedding light on Sydney’s rarely seen industrial heritage.

By Michael Foley