Woolloomooloo by Louis Nowra

Author:Louis Nowra
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: NewSouth

THE BAY OF FLOATING HATS

BEFORE TREES LINED THE FOOTPATHS, AND THOROUGHFARES were blocked or truncated, you could stand on William Street and see all the way down to the bay. The waters around the wharves were deep at high tide. In some places, as long as it wasn’t near the sewerage outlet, it was clear enough to see the sandy bottom. In the warmer months, when the waters were calm, the sea became an intense emerald green; the sky was so clear that locals could see all the way across to the wealthy suburbs of the north shore. In winter the chilly winds ruffled the surface of the bay, its colour became an ominous dark inky green, and fishing boats would hurry back to shore racing the storms coming in through the Heads.

On hot summer nights residents opened their windows and doors to let in the cooling harbour breezes. In the moonlight the waves were, according to Kenneth Slessor, dusted with ‘diamond quills and combs of light’, and residents slept on the foreshore seeking relief from the heat. There were times during the day when the waters were so tranquil, and the sun burning so brightly, that it was impossible to look at the mirrored surface of the bay without squinting. It’s hard to imagine now just how much it dominated the sightlines, and the hours of work and relaxation. Fishing, swimming, sailing and work on the wharves were part of daily life for the locals, and for many the bay defined and regulated their lives.

Nellie Stewart, once an unrivalled prima donna of the Australian stage, was born in Cathedral Street in 1858 and remembered the area fondly in her autobiography:

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