Every Sydneysider feels an ownership of the harbour, and for good reason — it is magnificent, enormous and sparkling. I remember in the 1950s, there was such opposition to the Opera House, I’m amazed we had the sense, instinct and energy to actually put it up. We knew not what we did, and the city would be utterly unimaginable without it. It echoes the harbour in the most obvious way — its ‘sails’. It also reminds us of our forebears’ voyages. This is the spot where my Irish immigrant grandparents landed, and near where my wife’s great-grandparents, who were convicts, ended their journey. And long before we came here, this point of land was a significant place for the indigenous people.
On the other side of Sydney Cove is the Rocks, a fascinating quarter. During the 19th century, some beautiful buildings were constructed, many of which remain. And above it is the Harbour Bridge. It’s a great combination — the architectural equivalent of three sixes in a row (hit by an Australian, not a Pom), a glittering, magical place.
You can walk from where I live in Manly, on the northern shores of the city, all the way to a place called the Spit, passing hidden beaches and forests.
Until fairly recently, we lived on a hillside overlooking Bilgola Beach. There’s no land from that point until Antarctica, you just look straight down the ocean. Some nights it felt as if we were very close to Antarctica. We had a wooden sundeck, and one of the local bird species, the beautiful sulphur-crested cockatoo, loved to eat it — they are notorious around the harbour for eating their way through decking. Bird lovers should not leave without seeing the other local I love — the rainbow lorikeet. They’re very beautiful, real avian punks – they’ll frighten off any other parrot.
I’m very much a beach person but, for an Australian, I’m not a fantastic swimmer. At Manly, they have a 2km ocean swimming race, held whatever the weather. Thousands enter it — they’re good swimmers. But I still like to get out in the sea — the last good surf I had was ten days ago with my grandson and granddaughter.
Once, the words ‘Australian sophistication’ would have been a one-liner by Dame Edna, but that’s all changed. Sydney is vibrant and multicultural, and you only have to look at the number of incredible restaurants we have now. Compared to the monochrome stodge of my childhood, this is amazing. I can’t think of anything better than fish and a crisp white wine, the sort of stuff Sydney does really well. If you asked someone much younger they would give you a list of new, exciting restaurants, but for years I’ve been going to Rockpool in The Rocks, Aria, near the Opera House, Whitewater in Manly looking out over the sea, and Jonah’s high on the escarpment above Whale Beach, which has fantastic views.
If there’s one thing I don’t like about Sydney, it is that we have knocked down too much of the past. There are only a few of the old merchants’ houses left along Macquarie Street, where the state parliament is and the State Library of New South Wales.
As a child, I used to come here every school holiday. The library has a carbon copy of Schindler’s list [the names of Jewish workers the factory owner Oskar Schindler saved during WWII]. One of the survivors, Leopold Pfefferberg, inspired me to write Schindler’s Ark. I met him by chance when I bought a briefcase from his Los Angeles store. It was a hot day in 1980. He fetched the list for me from out the back. While I wrote the book, it sat on my pool table where I worked — I could spread all my documents out on it. Years later, it was a strange feeling seeing it in the library. It’s lucky I didn’t get coffee stains on it — now white gloves have to be worn to handle it and it’s treated with the respect it deserves.
Fortunately, we still have a number of fascinating buildings by Francis Greenway, a convict architect from Bristol, such as the old supreme court and the Hyde Park convict barracks. The barracks, especially, is a must-visit. It’s a reminder of that loss, the heartbreak of what was left behind.
Thomas Keneally, author of Schindler’s Ark, will be among the authors appearing at the Sydney Writers’ Festival, 17-23 May (swf.org.au).
