of Sydney’s lesser known beaches, Whale Beach, just to the north later in the day. Throughout the day I flew across the outer edges of Sydney, that were lined with many scenic belts of reserved subtropical rainforests, where native plants such as eucalyptus, acacia, banksias, and grevillea thrive. I flew over the Nepean – Hawkesbury River System on my way back to Sydney business district. On my way back I noticed that most of the land, surprisingly, was residential usage, but unlike here in Canada
the majority of houses were two stories with a noticeable backyard, by noticeable I mean you actually need a lawnmower instead of a pair of scissors. This means that the city of Sydney is very low density, but surprisingly it has one of the lowest rural population figures in the world, something around 15%. There is
some noticeable public housing flats located on the western side of the city, but I can see there are some attempts of removing this type of housing. A possible reason for this is the associated crime rate that comes with shoving low density accustom people, into high density apartments. Though, it seems that in replace of these high rise buildings, they are following England’s style and introducing townhouses. I also noticed developments linked to the term conurbanization as more and more residential housing is being built up along the transportation routes in the west. After about a 4 hour flight I returned to Bankstown Airport.
The main shopping areas I was informed about was in North Sydney called Saint Lenoard’s, north of Port Jackson called Chatswood, which are both great tourist attractions along with a shopping district in Parramatta. I decided not to go visit them because shopping has never interested me. As I took a taxi from the airport, which was on the outskirts of Sydney, I made my way through several suburbs and noticed that there were many mini industrial areas, the ones I passed through were Revesby, and Marrickville. But I know of several others north of Botany Bay, and several in Parramatta. I arrived at my hotel in the CBD of Sydney, called (this is an original name) Sydney Hotel, and fell into bed with the Sydney skyline in my mind.
Nite,
Christine Yablonka
Dear Journal, (Human & Environmental Interactions)
Day 3 – August 4th, 2005.
Even with all the protection and importance placed on the perseverance of nature in Sydney slowly tree by tree, its disappearing. The outback is being destroyed due to its popularity in the tourism industry as more and more people travel through it. Not only are the sandland country being destroyed, but more beaches become public, and become surrounded by highrise hotels, and the neighbouring bushland is destroyed to make room for summer housing. It’s a sad prospect I believe, you want to share the beauty with the world, but in the end you just end up destroying it. I always thought that Sydney was perfect city when it comes to the preservation of important green space in the
city, or example the Botanical Gardens, and the Ku-ring-gai Chase National Park which contains most of Sydney’s northern part, but Sydney has its share of problems as I learned as I visited a museum in the CBD. For example, industrial development in rural areas are contaminating sources of water and food of the surrounding wildlife, and the danger associated with the Great Barrier Reef , which is about 100km north of Sydney, where the largest coral reef in the world is being threatened by an increase of ships, and tourism. But the main problem that arise from human involvement is the poor farming practices in the rural areas of Sydney, and they also apply to many other places in Austrailia. These poor farming practices result in a poorer quality of water, and clearing for grazing lands effects the local wildlife leading them to enter to the city and become an annoyance.
I visted a beach today, I believe it was called Blondi Beach. You know, there are many magnificent beaches in Sydney, and they attract tens of thousands of tourists each year. Imagine that Australia because of being a very large island, practically out of the way of everything, that started out as a prison colony of the world, is now a one of the most popular tourist destinations of the world. This tourism industry leads to an
increasing economical growth every year, providing jobs, and helping keep many local businesses prospering. Its crazy how much you can be educated with just one visit to the beach. Sydney, being close to the shore, is prone to cyclones so buildings have to be made to withstand its torment, during summers the hot heat attracts visitors but can cause great draught and severe forest fires. Strange to think also that Sydney being close to so much water has a lack of fresh water in the surrounding area, as I heard on the radio a water ban. I also saw many jewelry stores on the beach shopping strip, and it occurred to me that due to the fault near Sydney there is the possibility of a diamond mine near here, so I looked into it when I got back to the hotel on the internet. I found out that not only is there a diamond mine in northern Sydney, but also bauxite, coal, iron ore, copper, tin,
gold, silver, uranium, nickel, tungsten, mineral sands, lead, zinc, diamonds, natural gas, petroleum are mined around or in the Sydney district. Anyway, that was way too much information for any journal entry, but I guess one day it could come in handy.
Christine Yablonka
Dear Journal, (Movement)
Day 4 – August 5th, 2005
New South Wales has a great rugby team! I guess it being the most populated and economized state in Australia really helps them finance a winning team. Sydney, being in the New South Wales region, really takes this sport seriously, make sure not to cheer for a different team while sitting in the bars….um…I mean…ice cream parlors.
Canada is so much like Australia. Friendly people, fair climate, no snowboarding though =P. Its hard to believe that Australia is about as big as our neighbouring country USA, if you minus Alaska, but I guess being its own continent its just that big. Not only in size is its quite significant compared to Canada, but also its government. They still honor the old queen Elizabeth and chose a democratic system of
government. And just like us Canadians with our “ehs”, and symbolism with beer, Australia has there own, but luckily they speak English, or what I call I dialect of it….its almost impossible to understand them at times. Especially today, I was asking for a glace of tea (its my addiction), and the waitress spoke at high speed saying something like, “Down out with the diary, or straight and cranked.” I translated it as milk or straight, oh well, I love experiencing different cultures.
Christine Yablonka
Dear Journal, (Movement)
Day 5 – August 6th 2005.
Sadly, today is the day I head back to Canada. So I decided to go on another sight-seeing trip through Sydney, and because I didn’t have access to my motorcycle I decided on using different types of public transit. There were many ways to choose from as there is extensive railway systems that take people from all the suburbs into the city’s downtown, and even a monorail between the CBD and darling harbour, both of these scuttling thousands of workers (number of workers: agriculture 5%, industry 22%, services 73%) everyday to and from work. There are also state operated ferries carrying people from Port Jackson, Manly, North Shore, Circular Quay, and as far west as Parramatta. As for roads and highways in Sydney, you’d be surprise to find that there aren’t many. The city has taken a standing to focus away from the use of individual cars, and give money into its growing cheap public transportation. In face the first freeway, and only one, was built in 1968 called Warringah Expressway, and there is only one tunnel built in
1992, only to relieve traffic congestion on the Sydney Harbour Bridge…its called the Sydney Tunnel…they really have inventive names. Transportation to the rural areas aren’t really important as 85% of the population lives in the suburbs. Transportation in information is just the same as in Canada, TV, newspapers, word of mouth, and internet (9.47 million people have internet). So taking all this into account I decided to take the train system. The train took me north to Hornby, then around to Parramatta, and back into the CBD. After this adventure I was 2 hours away from my plane departure at Sydney’s largest airport, Kingsford Smith International. So I bid farewell to Australia, and the beautiful and informative city of Sydney, New South Wales.
Christine Yablonka
