Bridges to photograph in Sydney

After my lighthouse project (photographing all the lighthouses in Sydney), I now want to photograph all the most photogenic bridges.  Here are some of them.

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Bridges I've photographed so far

• Sydney Harbour Bridge
• Anzac Bridge
• Pyrmont Bridge
• Spit Bridge
• Long Gully Bridge
• Bare Island Bridge
• Parramatta bridges  (seen by ferry)
• All posts with Sydney bridges

Researching bird spots in Capertee Valley

I am going to housesit for Ruth for 4 days in Carcoar in early December. I've decided to hire a car and drive up via Capertee Valley for a few days which is a famous birding spot in NSW. Also having a car will allow me to take Tina on outings.

I'm starting to do some research on good spots in Capertee Valley to see birds. I've been there with Ally but it was not a birding trip. They have free camping so it's a very inexpensive place to spend a few night.

Capertee Valley as a birding hotspot

• The Capertee Valley is internationally recognised as one of the top 50 birdwatching locations in the world. It serves as a vital sanctuary for 242 recorded bird species, including many threatened and critically endangered woodland specialists that have dramatically declined elsewhere in Australia.

• Situated on the western edge of the Blue Mountains, the valley sits in a unique environmental overlap. It functions as a transition zone where the moist, high-altitude forests of the mountains meet the drier, semi-arid woodland slopes of the New South Wales western plains. Because of this sub-climate, it hosts an overlapping mix of species from both eastern coastal forest environments and western dry plains.

• It is one of only three known nesting areas in the world for the critically endangered Regent Honeyeater.
• Other notable birds: Turquoise Parrot, Hooded Robin, Diamond Firetail, Superb Lyrebird, Rockwarbler, Plum-headed Finch, Red-rumped Parrot, and various honeyeaters and raptors.

Recommended birding spots

Useful documents

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Browsing at Orient House

 I went to Surry Hills and Newtown to look for a stone Buddha statue for my balcony. I didn't find one in the end but I loved all the statues and art in Orient House. Beautiful but way over my price range. Thank goodness for Temu!

Pyrmont Bridge and Anzac Bridge

As part of my new project to photograph Sydney's most photogenic bridges, I went to Darling Harbour and crossed the Pyrmont Bridge on my way to the Anzac Bridge which I also walked across. Two iconic Sydney Bridges, both beautiful in their own way.

Pyrmont Bridge

Stretching across Darling Harbour, Pyrmont Bridge is a beautiful reminder of Sydney’s maritime past. Opened on 28 June 1902, the 369-metre bridge combines Australian ironbark timber spans with a remarkable steel centre section that swings sideways to let ships pass. It is one of the world’s oldest surviving electrically operated swing bridges, originally powered by electricity from the nearby Ultimo Powerhouse. Amazingly, its huge central span takes only about a minute to swing open—an impressive feat of engineering for a bridge built at the dawn of the twentieth century.

The bridge’s survival was far from guaranteed. After it closed to road traffic in 1981, it was earmarked for demolition, but the decision was reversed. Restored as part of Darling Harbour’s transformation, it reopened to pedestrians in 1988, with its swing mechanism preserved in working order. Today, its broad walkway and distinctive control cabin offer a lovely contrast to the modern buildings around the harbour—a place to pause above the water and imagine the working port that once surrounded it.

Anzac Bridge

With its soaring towers and graceful fans of steel cables, Sydney’s Anzac Bridge is as much a work of art as a feat of engineering. Spanning Johnstons Bay between Pyrmont and Glebe Island, it opened on 3 December 1995. Its two towers rise 120 metres above the water, with 128 stay cables supporting the roadway. The main span stretches an extraordinary 345 metres without a supporting pier beneath it—making it Australia’s longest concrete cable-stayed span when it was completed. Seen from below, the cables form striking geometric patterns against the sky, a wonderful subject for photography.