Dancing with Strangers

1788…
From Middle Head, the journals tell,
natives pointed Hunter’s party
 to the ideal place to land.
It was about Balmoral that Bradley wrote,
“These people mixed with ours and all hands danced together.”

Extract - Through the Heads to BALMORAL





Did you know that Antony Symons has created a wonderful sculpture called Dancing with Strangers? It pays tribute to the historical occasion on 29-jan-1788 when a group of Gamaragal hunters, armed with spears, signalled to a long boat under the command of Captain Hunter to land on a beach at Middle Head.

The Gamaragals knew Middle Head by the name of Cubba Cubba or Gubba Gubba, depending on how people wrote down the unfamiliar sounds made by First Australians who were living in greater Sydney on the day when 11 ships, flying the British flag, sailed through between North Head and South Head, turned left, then turned right at Bradleys Head and eventually dropped their anchors in Sydney Cove.

The exact location of this first contact between the British invaders to Sydney Harbour and the First Australians, whose ancestors had been in the greater Sydney region for at least 40,000 years, is not known definitely. But the reading of entries in logs and note books written that day indicate that the location is the north facing beach now known as Cobblers Beach.

Less likely, alternative locations are: 1) the southern end of Balmoral Beach, which is also labelled as Hunters Beach in early maps of the Middle Head coastline 2) Obelisk Beach on the east side of Middle Head, or at very long odds 3) Chowder Bay, which the First Australians knew as Goree.

To find out more about this sculpture and it's anticipated relocation -  visit:-

  www.cubbacubba.net.au 

But can you match our history, Bondi & Manly?

 



 

Extract  -  North Head - Guardian of our Harbour                 
from 'Balmoral Picnic'

"You've stood guard against the vagaries
of an ocean, heaving fitfully
between your sandstone headlands.
With South Head, you define and defend
the entrance to our harbour.

 Ideally placed, your timeless view
leads the eye and imagination
from our harbour to the open sea.
In between, Middle Head
still networks our defence.
.....

You witnessed the DNA of Colonisation;
Through your great gateway
you saw all the ships
that passed through,
voyaging to the distant world and back.

1788…
From Middle Head, the journals tell,
natives pointed Hunter’s party
 to the ideal place to land;
It was about Balmoral that Bradley wrote,
"These people mixed with ours and all hands danced together."

1788 …
Sydney,  a container for those condemned
"For the term of their natural lives".
Leg-irons and lash – conditional pardons;
their labour  advanced and
developed  a new colony.

1791…
‘Came the rough and bearded whalemen
In ships  from the southern seas’…
‘We saw sperm whales in great plenty!’
It could be said, ‘The colony rode
to wealth on the whale’s back.’

1801…
“The foe – They come! They come!”
Imperial rivalries and wars
Brought invasion scares,
 arcs of fire, fortifications;
Your  cliffs  became ‘Fortress Sydney’.

1878
Following settlement of foreshores;
 you heard current land-owners’ protestations
on repossession of these shores;
to be dedicated as Public Reserve
 to us all -  for eternity. .....

1890’s…
Streeton and Roberts, “pulled through the lazy green water
 and lunched in the shade and in the open air”,
to join their fellow artists under canvas-
in camps set up by Hopkins and Ashton.‘Til matrimony claimed their souls.'
.....
1862…
 Sydney ferries, on your watch
conveyed picnickers and excursionists
in their hundreds,  to Balmoral Gardens
Men in suits and tall hats,  women in
 crinolines with parasols overhead;

‘Refreshments, dancing saloon, boarded floor
with splendid band engaged.’
 But larrikin London costers in pearly coats
 became  ‘A blot upon the healthful
enjoyment of the picnic’.

1912

Sea and sand between toes  represented  freedom …
then  a century of repressive restrictions
until modesty maintenance moved on
to,  ‘Shall be clad from neck to knee’
and the victory of all day surfing.



1922…
The Evening News reported,
‘The old place of quiet waters and rustic gums
is  gone forever.  The trams did it. 
Not a square inch of sand  untrampled -
‘Balmoral is alive!’

1923 - 1950
Order of the Star of the East Amphitheatre  
built to view the returning  Christ
walking on the waters through your rugged  cliffs;
Replaced by a red brick citadel.
‘Suburbanisation had conquered all’        .....

1929 - 1932
 ‘The Great Depression’ seized the world.
An ‘economic ogre’ crippled industry,
threw workers to the streets -
and having vent its worst fury,
lingered in the shadows until WW2.


Hardship endured;  depression employment
yielded   Sydney Harbour Bridge -
Balmoral beautification scheme; 
 Rotunda, Bathers Pavilion, Promenade.
‘Concrete mad’, they all said.
.....
1945…
Gaff-rigged ketch, Kathleen Gillett’,
first of many to begin the race
past your cliffs, bound for Hobart.
Sailing and water sports became the
forefront of post-war revival.
.....
2014 TO ETERNITY
Children play in rockpools;
early morning swimmers brave the chill;
we all enjoy the picnic;
Your rocky timeless heights stand firm  
 eternally   -   as   guardians to us all.

Claire Mitchell 2013
'Balmoral Picnic' is scheduled to be released as an E-book in Spring.