Sydney: A Biography by Louis Nowra

Seeing Sydney through different eyes.

I’ve not spent a lot of time in Sydney. My first visit, part of a school trip in 1970, took in Kings Cross, various sites around Sydney Harbour, and the Blue Mountains. Since moving to Canberra in 1974, I’ve been to Sydney for work quite a few times, for medical reasons more often than I’d like, but rarely just to explore the city. But I have a list of places I want to explore, and Mr Nowra’s book has expanded that list.

Mr Nowra’s biography of Sydney starts with his recollection of a surprise visit to the city as a nine-year-old in 1959. He and his father, travelling from Melbourne to Wollongong to collect a load of coking coal, took a detour and drove into Sydney and across the Sydney Harbour Bridge. The contrast between the grey of the bridge and the emerald-green harbour rendered his speechless. Twenty years later, Mr Nowra moved to Sydney.

‘This biography of Sydney is told through three strands: the first is its chronological history, the second considers some of its spaces and places, and the third consists of themes such as sandstone or water.’

While I know much of the colonial history of Sydney, I am still learning about the Indigenous people who occupied the land before the First Fleet arrived in 1788. Part of Sydney’s story is told through some of the people who’ve lived here. Some are well known, others are not. As I read, I wanted a map to guide me through places, and to walk through the areas mentioned and think about how they might have looked. George Street, Mr Nowra writes, was an Indigenous path to the south. The track (which is now the Old South Head Road) is the northern boundary of Centennial Park.

I’ve spent quite a lot of time in and around Macquarie Street, and now I want to visit the Museum of Sydney where some of the foundations of the first Government House can be seen in the forecourt.  I read about the importance of the Tank Stream, and its pollution and demise. I have spent enough time in central Sydney to appreciate how geography and individuals have defined it. Sydney is an accidental city in so many ways: it lacks the more disciplined planning of Melbourne and Adelaide, making it difficult to navigate by car but far more interesting to explore by foot. The sandstone buildings are beautiful, as is Sydney Harbour.

Mr Nowra’s Sydney is essentially the inner-city suburbs of Chippendale, Redfern, the Rocks, Surry Hills, Ultimo, Walsh Bay, and Woolloomooloo. His trips to Mortdale and Concord show another side of suburban Sydney: a different sense of community.

While I am not sure that I agree with the late, great Peter Corris, whom Mr Nowra quotes:

‘Sydney is the perfect city – its beauty, atmosphere and culture providing a spectacular contrast to its underbelly of poverty, corruption and vulgarity.’

Inner Sydney has an energy that appeals, and several places I want to visit. I’ll start with four days later this year: staying near Central Station and exploring as much as I can by foot or by ferry.

Jennifer Cameron-Smith

Book 19 in my 2023 Nonfiction Reader Challenge. I’ve entered as a ‘Nonfiction Grazer’ and this book should be included under the heading of ‘Biography’.