Tim Ritchie

Dog leg

The dog leg of Esther Lane in Surry Hills is a favourite, but add the glistening asphalt from overnight rain and we have a perfect Sydney urban pre dawn scene.

Tunnel

The Argyle Cut in The Rocks, Sydney, was commenced in 1843 when convicts were given tools to chip away at the bedrock. Abandoned until city engineers were set at it with explosives in 1859. It was tunnelled to avoid a steep rocky pass connecting The Rocks and Millers Point.

Flats

On a wet early morning, this pretty plain block of flats on Crown in Sydney’s Surry Hills becomes a delight. Purple pre dawn glow in the cloud, glistening pathway, bright entry light and a blue hue from a shop across the road. The security gate and letter boxes complete the scene.

tiles on the Sydney Opera House were manufactured by Swedish company Höganäs AB using high-quality ceramic clay and crushed stone, designed to be durable and self-cleaning in coastal conditions. The tiles are 120mm square and come in two finishes: glossy white and matte

Architecture

Q. It’s dark, so hard to see the detail, but try. How many tiles are there on the sails of the Sydney Opera House?

A. 1,056,006

This Saturday evening, March 7, please join me (Tim Ritchie) from 6 to 8pm for two hours of musical delights on 2SER's When The Levee Breaks. I've plunged the depths of my library to reveal some aural titillation. Also streamed live and on demand. Playlist in the link, wp.2ser.com/episodes/whe...

Dawn clouds

While specific, widely recognized pre-colonial Indigenous place names for the Double Bay aren’t known, the surrounding area of Woollahra is associated with the Dharug word 'Wallara' or 'Willarra', meaning 'lookout’. After a steamy night, a warm day ahead, and a swim for me later.

Spooky lane

Sutherland Lane in Chippendale is an all time favourite spot to evoke early 20th C Sydney. You can practically smell the rust of an old cut throat razor drifting up from behind the decaying wooden pallet.

Bridge reflections

I’ve taken this subject previously, but the joy is the result is different each time. A little bit of sunrise made its way through light clouds, the light danced on the inky waters of Sydney Harbour and the reflections of the iron works of the Harbour Bridge wiggled like snakes on golden sand.

Masts

Even on a cloudy Sydney dawn, the masts at Rushcutters Bay always point up (except their reflections point down, but you get my drift {nautical pun}).

Dawn

Known as Banarung for millennia, Sydney’s Rose Bay was named in 1788 by Captain John Hunter after The Right Honourable George Rose, a British politician (1744-1718).
On a warm grey morning, Banarung put on a brief rose hued smile.

Lane

Another damp dawn finds me at one of my favourite lanes, Boronia Lane in Sydney’s Redfern. It is one stem in a bunch of flower and plant names in the area, this is in homage to Portuguese born gardener, Joao Baptista who built a nursery and market garden nearby in the mid 1800s.

Wet

Sydney was very wet last night, so I didn’t wander far from home this morning. Surry Hills’ Wimbo Park has been many things since colonisation, including the city’s stoneyard from mid WWI to the early 1980s. Now it hosts kids, walkers, dogs…. and the light rail.

Ferry wharf

There was a little light rain about overnight, and the chance of much more today, but the best thing this early morning as I surveyed the Double Bay ferry stop was a lovely cool breeze coming across Sydney Harbour.

Sunrise

Many Sydneysiders may not know that the park under the northern end of the Harbour Bridge is named Olympic Park. Especially when you see how modest it is, but it was the place to catch the sunrise this morning. Sticky again at dawn, warm today and maybe a shower or two later.

Ocean pool

When built in 1947, this ocean pool was named Mermaid’s Pool (there were some mermaid bronze statues on rocks nearby, but the ocean kept claiming them). It doesn’t seem to have a name anymore, shallow for kids wading, it’s at the northern end of Sydney’s Bondi Beach.

Pub

Sydney had a hot and sticky sleep last night, so I set out early to capture an abandoned King Street in Newtown. This famous pub was established in 1865, renamed as The Hotel Marlborough in 1901 and got a deco refurb in 1940, rare to see it this devoid of humanity.

Public art

In an unnamed lane between Crown and Wiltshire Streets in Sydney’s Surry Hills is permanent public art installation called Village Voices. It was created and is curated by art activist @AstraHoward. She gets locals to create a set of words that is constantly refreshed.

😉⛽️

Park pond

Another dawn, another park & pond. Sydney Park is a great use what was a landfill site some decades previous. Now it is bike, kid and dog friendly, several ponds, rolling hills and a little methane leakage (not hazardous). This morning it is still and sticky, a warm on ahead.

Clouds

The Duck Pond in Sydney’s Centennial Park is about 4km from the centre of the city as the flying fox flies. On a warm grey day, there was a peak of colour as a dawn delight decorated the sky.

Waiting cat

A grey early Sydney morning is bleak for most, but not the cat of Nickson Lane. Surry Hills is resplendent in the sneaky grey night time dwellers, and cat knows this, bides its time, and has fun and a feed.

Harbour

I bang on about early mornings in my city of Sydney, so I’ll leave it just to this pic of the harbour to do the talking.

Beach

It must reflect on the way my mind works, but ahead of a warm Sydney day, an empty Coogee Beach, recently raked clear of yesterday’s footsteps by the sand tractor, seems peaceful and hopeful. What a way to start the day.

Tram

The sun’s out now, but it was raining earlier as Sydney’s CBD & Eastern Suburbs Light Rail sped down Devonshire Street in Surry Hills through Wimbo Park on its journey towards sunrise.

Urban

Photography comes from the Greek light & draw. So when I’m greeted by wet and shiny asphalt, a gloomy dawn sky, harsh reflected street lights and urban solitude, I’m in a good place. Some will find this dull and pointless, I don’t. This place is Dalley Lane in Sydney’s Redfern.

They now do bread at a bigger premises, pastries rich with butter were being baked, maybe quiche too

Bakery

One a damp early Sydney morning, I walked about rather than cycled. I think my local baker was the only other soul awake. This is the original Bourke Street Bakery in Surry Hills, there’s now a few about.

Naval base

Sydney's Garden Island, originally named Bayinguwa by local Aboriginal people, was established in 1788 as a food source for the First Fleet's crew. It evolved from a colonial kitchen garden into a fortified naval base in the 1800s, finally joining the mainland in 1942.

Dawn

I’m at the eastern side of a walkway/cycleway bridge that links Woolloomooloo to the Art Gallery of NSW. While the ”Loo” is still sleeping, a relieving cooler breeze after a sticky night graces a Sydney dawn. These light clouds will give way to showers latter.