I entered this degree seeking to understand the relationship between the individual and their surrounding landscapes, and how the landscape informs the creation of individual and collective identities.
I have always understood landscapes as contested territories, an issue that is heightened in Australia due to our nation existing on stolen land. Even so, I have constantly been challenged by the fact that I still feel ‘at home’ hereparticularly in the landscapes of NSW.
This is the confusion that I sought to clarify. I feel that it is an issue particular to colonial settler nations. As Simon Schama notes in Landscape and Memory, the landscape is where we find the roots of our national myths; it is the place where our identity is conceived. So then in Australia, how can we successfully form a sense of identity via the landscape, when/where there has been so many challenging moments of violence and dispossession?
Even post-invasion, what does our landscape say about our relationship to the land? How have we modified the land to make it bow to our systems of capital extraction? What do our landscapes convey regarding our exploitation of our natural resources, and each other?
It is not that I wish to solely focus on histories of tragedy and exploitation, it is more that I have realised that the landscape is an essential forum where we discuss these things, a place where we deal with these difficult histories. From a few years of looking at landscape design approaches in Australia and around the world, it has become apparent that the landscape is the single most effective way at dealing with historic trauma, truth-telling, and offering us a chance to move onwards.
It is here that my studies are focused. How to ethically, effectively, sensitively memorialise the past in the landscape. To reveal past injustices, to create a sense of place that is founded on material reminders of what has happened in particular landscapes.
Most importantly, however, I’m interested in creating a sense of optimism via landscape design in these landscapes.
How can we both memorialise, and offer a path out - some kind of collective redemption vis a vis what has occurred in/on any particular site?
Each landscape response to tragedy seeks to instill a sense of permanent memorialisation. There is no other means in our cultural/linguistic toolbox to more effectively instill a sense of historic inquiry and acknowledgment of past wrongs/natural disasters. Landscape based truth telling has immense power.
Left
Rise by John Nicholson Tamarama, NSW Sculpture to victims of LGBTQIA+ violence
Middle Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe Peter Eisenman/Buro Happold Berlin, Germany
Right
Cretto di Gibellina Alberto Burri, Sicily, Italy Memorial to the town of Gibellina, lost to an earthquake
Reflections on history that are designed via the landscape use materiality and relics as their main mode of communication. The spirit of the past is captured in the physical make up of objects of the site.
The use of these materials in design is a powerful way to communicate and transfer meaning from the past to the present.
The Bays Precinct, with its defunct Power Station, extensive concrete aprons and crumbling edges with emergent novel ecologies is a place where material history can be easily noticed, and touched.
The site has a contested history, from invasion where all signs of First Nation use has been either quarried or in-filled. Port-side working class culture has been replaced with million dollar property. A once magnificent natural landmark of Glebe Island has been flattened. What we have left on this contested ground is a collection of forms and materials that are now needed to be ‘curated’.
The landscape architect has the ability to approach White Bay, to preserve histories for remembrance and to create a deeply meaningful sense of place in reference to the site’s challenging histories.
stand ins for the violence wrought on human bodies.
https://inhabitat.com/911-memorial-museums-design-honors-the-history-and-recovery-of-ground-zero/911-memorial-museum-impact-steel-below/ visited 20th April 2021
stand-ins for people and their histories (and subsequently their communities’ histories). This on the one hand heightens their value, but also reinforces the need to display with care. The style of representation has immense weight in how historical objects and materials are received. Objects that are over-aestheticised have the potential to lose their ability to memorialise history, becoming
Figure 2: Twisted impact steel from the 9/11 Memorial Museum. To Marita Sturken, these objects act as
Figure 3: Rusted digesters at Waterfront Park, Pyrmont. These objects at first appear as sculptures representing an industrial past. They are in fact actual parts of an industrial process that took place on site - digesters for the extraction of cellulose from wood. Do these objects memorialise?
Photo by author
The existing forms and materials of Glebe Island are products of the dialectical relationship that exists between us and the landscape. We had the industry to quarry and flatten a 20m high island, to infill its borders and to create an immense deep water port. But also, in reverse, natural forces have eroded concrete, have rusted steel, have crumbled bricks, and have infiltrated liminal spaces with novel native and weedy ecologies. What we now have is a complicated synthesis of natural and human forces.
I believe there is beauty in this complicated relationship, and it is this relationship that forms a sense of place.
I think it is tangible in the landscape - our destruction and industrial use of Glebe Island has created an extremely unique space.
When visiting the site, we observe a totality of visual and material reminders of the site’s industrial history. But also, some elements don’t fit. The casuarinas clumping chaotically - the pampas grasses appearing as islands in concrete deserts. These outbreaks of nature in such a desolate landscape offer a disconnect in understanding the site. They open up conceptual thoughts of what the site could become.
Current form of landscape - never static
We were required to create a research mind map of topics and themes to be explored for our graduating project.
I looked at the representation of working class culture in the landscape, seeing a necessary point of inquiry in relation to Glebe Island.
Working Class Objects in Middle Class Neighbourhoods: The Aestheticisation of Labour in Pyrmont
Indigenous History
Wangal, Wallumedegal, Gadigal and Cammeraigal
Three different clans, each a part of the Eora nation. Wangal land, on which our site sits, extends from Goat Island westward almost to Parramatta.
The Wangal were amongst the first groups to encounter Europeans.
Evidence of Original Landuse
Due to extensive land reclamaition and alteration, archaelogical record of original land use is scarce. There are two sites on Goat Island (a midden and a cave (B Rich, 1985: Goat Island Archaeological Survey and Assessment of Aboriginal Sites). However, because of large-scale infil, there is potential for preservation of materials across the Glebe Island/White Bay area. This would be a key concern in the remodelling of the site in the future.
Wangal Clan of the Eora Nation
Pre 1788 - Wangal Country
A coastal group from wider Eora Nation used site as resource - area with reliable food and fresh water sources, as well as stone for the making of tools.
Wangal Industry
Common belief that ‘industry’ began after settlement. Re-think needed? Wangal people used the natural surroundings for their livelihoods and also traded goods with neighbouring groups.
Heritage Still Underground?
Potential for site of Wangal archaelogical significance below the original White Bay Hotel built in 1860. Infill of area done in the early 20th century would have preserved archealogical deposits. (Artefact: The Bays road relocation works – Aboriginal heritage assessment p. 14)
Harry Dunn Phoebe Jong Chris Liu Samuel Lockwood Yee To Ng
Everything Changes: White Bay as Industrial Site
The Industrialisation of The Bays
Due to White Bay’s long waterfront and it’s location next door to the burgeoning Sydney CBD, it became a site of development. In Sydney’s early days roads were tricky to navigate. Water was the main form of transport and connection between each outpost on the harbour. Source: Artefact
Pre 1788
Wangal Country Bay as sustainable resource 1840’s Copper smelting works on Johnstones Bay 1800
Large land grant to William Balmain - whole of Balmain Peninsula
1799
First land grant on White Bay - John White, a surgeon from the first fleet
1840’s Boiling down works established by W.Bell Allen on Blackwattle Bay
1875
Australian Gas Light Company (Today’s AGL) construct gasworks along White Bay waterfront
1899
Tender put out for the design and construction of ‘Pyrmont Bridge’connecting Pyrmont to Glebe Island. Large land reclamation takes place to form a causeway below bridge
1913 - 1916
Further large-scale works to reclaim land for wheat and coal handling at Glebe Island
1912 - 1917
1850-1863
Government claims land to build an abbatoir on Glebe Island via act of Parliament. Tanners, tripe makers, soap and candle makers build industries adjacent to large abbatoir
Metcalfe and Co built six silos, within works was continuation of land reclamation areas
Construction of the White Bay Powerstation by the NSW Railway Commission. Built to power Sydney’s expansive tram network.
1850-1863
Government claims land to build an abbatoir on Glebe Island via act of Parliament. Tanners, tripe makers, soap and candle makers build industries adjacent to large abbatoir
Bay Babes
The dismantling of Glebe Island
Glebe Island
Glebe Island: Flat as a tack
Balmain 1800’s Today
Pyrmont
Harry Dunn Phoebe Jong Chris Liu Samuel Lockwood Yee To Ng
I found a theoretical foundation in the work of Svetlana Boym. Boym was a cultural theorist whose work had a strong focus on the concepts of nostalgia. Boym grew up in the USSR, and saw the way that history was used as a political tool to control contemporary thought. Patriotic national myths were reconstructed out of the ruins of the two world wars, to support the totalitarian tendencies of Europe. Immense statues were constructed to memorialise important chauvinistic histories.
a sense of balance and harmony in landscapes that have historically been contested ground for communities and their exploitation/displacement. Furthermore, objects and materials that remain in the landscape, following Sturken, could be bodily metaphorical representations of people and communities who have come before, so therefore need to be treated and displayed with utmost sensitivity.
Instead of these statues - a ‘restorative’ nostalgia, Boym argues for ‘reflective’ nostalgia. To examine the rubble rather than to clear it away for a sanitised version of history. Indeed, it is the patina, the ruins that hold the most important meaning.
As we’re dealing with a lot of rubble and ruin at Glebe Island, her analysis was very helpful in interpreting the site.
To respond to these complex issues, this essay looks to Svetlama Boym’s notions of reflective and restorative nostalgia as guides in the act of landscape site curation.
Restorative nostalgia puts emphasis on nostos and proposes to rebuild the lost home and patch up the memory gaps. Reflective nostalgia dwells in algia, in longing and loss, the imperfect process of remembrance (Boym p. 41)
For Boym, restorative nostalgia is about reconstructing ‘truths’, and ‘characterises nationalist revivals and … myth-making’. Reflective nostalgia ‘ lingers on ruins, the patina of time and history, in the dreams of another place and another time.’ (41) A design ethic that took inspiration from Boym’s reflective nostalgia may allow space for different, difficult histories to be told. Figure 4
Boym, S. 2001. The Future of Nostalgia, Basic Books, New York (p.41)
Re presenting Histories
Materiality and History in Pirrama Park and Barangaroo Headland
Theoretical Framework
Panita Karamanea, in her article Landscape, memory and contemporary design argues that landscapes are historical palimpsests. Layers upon layers of human intervention and action have, in certain places, created landscapes of deep historical and cultural meaning. These landscapes reflect our cultural history and therefore the landscape is a key element in the formation of our collective and individual identities.
Karamanea formulates a design argument - almost a design ‘ethic’ - regarding designing with and in respect to the history of a site. Designers should try to ‘awaken’, ‘reveal’ and ‘underline’ histories that exist on site, but do so with a resilient mix of architectural and natural elements. This poster uses Karamanea’s idea of landscape as historical palimpsest to study and cross-analyse two parks on Sydney Harbour: Barangaroo Headland Park and Pirrama Park. It seeks to understand how these parks reveal and underline different historic layers. It is particularly focused on the history of these waterfronts as working ports, and how this history is represented through objects, materials and storytelling on site. The analysis sometimes includes the parks’ adjacent streets and areas - as these neighbouring sites contribute to the story that is being told within each park.
Whose History? Which History?
History can play a central role in the creative direction of site design (Heyde, 2015). Pirrama and Barangaroo are examples of this - where different histories have been highlighted. Materials play a large part in this. Preservation, modification or the removal of existing site materials guides the narrative of a landscape intervention. Therefore, what is left on site, and what is new on site, should be clear markers of the designer’s intent, and reveal what kind of history has been intended to be told.
Pirrama Park
Landscape Architects: ASPECT
Pirrama Park is a foreshore tract of open space looking north and east towards Balmain and Rozelle. Its topography is flat - evidence of its previous use as a wharf. It is dominated by a hardwood walkway apron. This too reminds us of the area’s previous life as a working port.
City of Sydney
~ 3.5 Ha
Key Layers - Palimpsest
Barangaroo Headland is a park that seeks to recreate the natural shoreline, as well as the bushland that would have been growing there. Its focus is on the natural form and also on the First Nation heritage of the site. There is an art installation called Wallema by Alison Page & Nik Lachajczak, which highlights the significance of Sydney Harbour to First Nations people.
Sydney’s Key Periods
Three main periods in Sydney’s History: Pre-settlement in 1788; The early years of Sydney’s colonial expansion (1788 ~ 1850) and then the years of the harbour as industrial port ~1850 onwards. These three historic periods - and their inherent ‘themes’/materials are typified in foreshore areas across Sydney. The foreshore is thus a living museum, with objects, materials and stories being told.
What ever period is most ‘in focus’ gives a foreshore space a dominant character.
it
been
Site & Landform
Site & Landform
Landscape Architects: PWP Client:
Client: Barangaroo Delivery Authority~ 7 Ha
Barangaroo Headland
Pirrama Park’s shoreline is completely transfigured. Straight lines have replaced curves. Timber, concrete and sandstone have all been run in lengths
Barangaroo, like Pirrama, was a flattened wharf-front. Today
has
re-naturalised, with a large hollow hill below the recreated
Image source: NearMaps
source: NearMaps Image source: NearMaps
source: NearMaps
barangaroo
industrial
and efficiency. These materials are a mixture of existing and introduced - although now it is difficult to discern what has been added.
Signs of Ageing
At the water’s edge old piers have been left to decay, a keen representation of the history that has been, and the movement of time.
Section - Waters Edge
The topography forms the canvas upon which the materials sit. Pirrama Park is generally flat. This contributes to a feeling of industrial scale. This single topographic layer gives a sense of place to all of the industrial materials across the park.
Pirrama: Historic materials and signification
1. Marine Hardwood+ Lichen Wharf/nautical history
3. Concrete wharf relic Industry/machinery
4. Corten-encased sandstone Labour/manufacturing
Conclusion
A period hidden?
Section - Waters Edge
Barangaroo’s topography is sloping - a curved movement that is further highlighted by the curved pathways. There are no straight lines in nature - and the ‘natural’ movements of the landscape give natural elements a logical context.
The re-naturalisation process has removed and industrial materials from Barangaroo Headland. However, clues still remain. For example, this straight section of shoreline at the eastern extreme of the park.
Barangaroo: Historic materials and signification
4. Wayfinding Modern materials / ancient languages
2. Serpentine Paths Following ‘natural’ contours
3. Cave ‘Hollow’ heart - statement of nonnatural design / hi grade concrete
References
5. Natural foreshore Sandstone blocks in curved pattern
6. The complete picture Recreated ecological communityconvincing that this is as it once was
Branding from ex factory Historic companies/Old world
8. Sandstone marking Stone in working environment now plaything in childrens playground.
Sandstone Pillar Monolith entrance / saw cuts as signifier of artificiality
Sand stone Deco gran. Stone paved Recreated bushland
Gilles Clement’s landscapes at Saint Nazaire, France, convey this idea with beauty. The submarine base’s concrete is stained and crumbling. How uncanny to see a flourishing coastal ecology amongst the brutal militaristic forms?
What does this suggest about our history and what is possible in the future?
Fig. 8
Svetlana Boym
Fig. 10
Giles Clement “Jardin du Tiers Paysage” (third-landscape garden) 2009-2012
Fig. 9
Submarine Base Roof Top Saint-Nazaire, France
JMD’s clifftop walk at Cockatoo Island is a local example of Boym’s ideal of a reflective nostalgia. The design intervention is a simple and functional set of walkways - to allow safe transition across a deeply meaningful landscape. JMD have understood that no typical landscape design could compete with the deep level of meaning coming from what is there now.
Other similar approaches are evident across the harbour - in particular Illoura Reserve with its natural simplicity, and Pirrama park with its fading port forms
These were inspiring precedents for speculations at Glebe Island.
An open-ended experience
A direct connection with the past
Fig. 11 Illoura Reserve
Fig. 12 Pirrama Park
Fig. 13 Cockatoo Island
Part 2: Precedent Studies
Precedent Materiality Representation
outlines this below: Precedents were chosen for their proximity to the studio site, and because both parks have endeavored to portray their site’s previous industrial history. Within Pirrama Park, this essay will focus on the section of Pirrama Park that was upgraded in 2010, at the western side of the headland.
z5195224 Sam Lockwood Landscape, History and Nostalgia Curating historical objects and materials at White Bay
Figure 5: Words in wood. Text inset and painted bright red indicating prior use of Pirrama’s site.
Figure 6: Historic plates are arranged to display the workings of the CSR sugar factory. Their small size mean they are stumbled upon, rather than dominate the landscape.
Figure 7: Lichen on marine hardwood at the water’s edge suggest reflective nostalgia.
Figure 9: A segment of the previous wharf sits stranded from the shore. This brutalist artifact of the past reads as ruins. It evokes the past in a contemplative way, appearing solid but also through its surface conveying a sense of time passing.
Figure 10: A feature of the shoreline at Pirrama is the remaining old wharf structures, which are falling apart before our eyes. This is a powerful statement which reveals the sites maritime history, but also conveys time’s
Source: nearmaps.com
Figure 8: Concrete and steel: New surface materials that connect to the industrial utility of the site’s history.
Pirrama Park
z5195224 Sam Lockwood Landscape, History and Nostalgia Curating historical objects and materials at White Bay
Figure 11: Metamorphosis by Anton James. The shapes rotate and shift along the path’s side. The shapes represent the landscape in that it always stays the same, but our perception changes. Landscape is the constant in this essay’s discussion. What changes is the treatment of the surface elements.
Photo by author
Figure 12: Pressings into sculpture. The concrete surface has formed an aging patina. On each leaf are fine cracks, heightening the intimate sense of time’s effect on landscape.
Waterfront Park
A collection of anti-precedents - not that these types of designs are not correct, it’s just that they are already a well trodden path.
The form and materiality of a site is totally transformed - the connection with a site’s challenging history is lost and a totally new experience is created. It is a handy way to forget.
a spectacle of capital
Fig. 14 Proposed Fishmarkets
Fig. 15 Darling Quarter
Fig. 16 Architectus’ Vision of The Bays Precinct
Site - Analysis
Landuse Green Open Space
Proposed Circulation
Ecological Areas
Key Cycle Routes
Early analysis of proposed neighbourhood plans for the Bays Precinct
How can we memorialise the destruction to both the First Nations who called this area home, but also the actual natural landform that was so completely flattened and transformed?
Fig. 3 Glebe Island 1835
Fig. 4 Glebe Island 1911
Fig. 5 Glebe Island 1916
Fig. 6 Glebe Island 1923
Fig. 7 Glebe Island 1945
Impressive Height, Natural Bathymetry
Seeking to understand the original form and sub-soil structures to what was there. If one is to remember something, one must research all fragments of information to form the best picture possible.
The seafloor is a 'soup' of clay, sand and silt sitting on bedrocklargely dredged in places. Existing
HAWKESBURY
Glebe Island (Original)
DEEP CUT
Glebe Island Bridge American & Australasian Photographic Company 1870-1875
A wider view of the island, in its immediate context. I used historic maps to overlay what was there, and what it became
Long Section: East West
Visual Studies
& TEND 4
Undulating, Textural, Alive
Undulating, textural, alive
Dead flat, capped
Dead Flat, Capped
Visual montages were created to explore different themes and approaches to
Explorative Drawing 1 (Disintegration)
Explorative Drawing 2 (Disintegration)
Looking
Explorative Drawing 3 (Renewal)
Explorative Drawing 4 (Renewal)
But also, what has been built can disappear
I wanted to interrogate the meaning of nature’s re-capturing of the site.
I created a grid to mark out the scaled form of the site. What was discovered was that after the tide had reclaimed the land, what was left was the grid and the frame. Ideas in the superstructure out last physical form. What ideas will be brought to the Island?
Explorative Drawing 5 (Disintegration and Renewal)
Exploring ways to represent the celestial movements and their relationship to a fluid tidal edge. I was looking to interrogate the natural forces still existing on site. These forces may take centre stage once again.
Decisions came about via exploration of themes through note and sketches.
The size of the site and the type of response required writing and sketching to understand where I was at in the process.
Trimester 2 - Focus on Public Domain
In the second trimester, We looked at particular areas of the site to explore our themes. I chose the area around the Power Station, as I felt this was an area with the most palpable sense of history.
A scheme was created that brought focus to the history of the site, but also the forward looking opportunities of novel ecosystems.
I main design move was to do little - to preserve what was there and through a bit of cutting, get down to the original sandstone bed rock to reveal a foundation in natural history.
Final Project - Glebe Island Remembered
A main intention was to acknowledge the divide in accessibility to wonderful places in Sydney. The harbour offers some of the most beautiful beaches in the world, however there are all in the wealthiest areas of Sydney. The waterways of western Sydney are generally in poor condition, and are inaccessible. How can we tip this balance?
Chowder Bay
Balmoral
Rose Bay
Redleaf
Circular Quay
Sirius Cove Beach
Pannerong
Burrabru
Warrang
Wa-rea-mah
Annandale Site
Mosman
Rose Bay
Burra.wa-ra
Nielsen Park
Waverton
White Bay
Blackwattle Bay
Darling Harbour
Fern Bay
Rozelle Bay
Watson’s Bay
Camp Cove
Parramatta
Refurbished Glebe Island Bridge 2.3 km
How would we approach this site if it was covered in native ecologies? The sites to the north of the harbour are precious and protected. Could we create something like that, and instill a sense of value to a site that is currently awkwardly ignored?
How would we value this landscape if it was a natural habitat like those on the North Shore headlands?
Site
Natural Headland Divide
Sydney
Warrang
Bradleys Head
Warrungarea Blues Point
Bringing people to the park, via the proposed new Metro Station.
The metro station will be around 100m from the harbour. If this edge to the harbour was made swimmable, it would provide the most accessible beach in Sydney.
“ Let’s get the metro to the Bays and go for a walk through the reserve.
“ Remember last time we saw that rare bird and that bloody snake!...
Bays Metro Station
“ OMG totally. Should we pack our swimmers?
From Fairfield/ Liverpool
Parramatta Metro Station
The
From Blacktown/ Penrith
Coastal Dune Ecology
Coastal Heath Ecology
Hind-Dune Ecology
Rockpools
Beach
Metro Station
Visual sketch/render of what could be...
Caroline Pidcock: 3 Design Principles
Our site offers us a chance to make an example of what is possible
Culturally Rich
Interpretation
History conveyed through form and materiality
Historic Justice
‘Light Touch’
Reflective Nostalgia Land form
Socially Just
Planning/Social Geography
Accessibility to inspiring natural spaces as right
Ecologically Restorative
Science
Remediation
Novel Ecologies
Functioning, perpetual living systems
But also
Dismantle, recycle, reuse
Any new land-forming will be done using spoil materials from the nearby tunneling (Westconnex/Metro West), in combination with existing soil remediation on site
This could be a profitable exercise
Typical section - Park creation on apron
Existing Slab - Ground Level
New mounded parkland - built on spoil
Recycled concrete
Tunneling for Westconnex through deep bedrock
Useful resource: Future artificial reef?
Fig. 17
Fig. 19
Fig. 18
The Site: Glebe Island Today
Chosen site:
Glebe Island’s Northern extents from the foregrounds of the power station to the Glebe Island Bridge.
This is the heart of our site.
2.3 km from site to CBD
Pyrmont
Annandale
Balmain
Problematic Spaces
Extreme under-usage of land represents awkward position of site
Some areas are currently important holding yards for Westconnex/Metro West.
Assets: Problematic Spaces
Water’s edge is a ‘Liminal Space’ - other than some stretches of shipping frontage it is fenced off.
Novel unplanned ecologies exist across the site.
Anzac Bridge
Original Glebe IslandIndicative location and topography Fundamental Assets: Original Topography
Indicative representation of original Island
Most of the Liminal and underused spaces exist beyond the outline of the original island
White Bay Powerstation
White Bay
Anzac Bridge
Give Them Their Island
Could we use this as a meaningful boundary of a future park?
Original Glebe Island Topography
New Park
White Bay Powerstation
White Bay
Anzac Bridge
Original Islandflattened and industrialised
Apron - 'unnatural' but ours for the taking
Apron - 'unnatural' but ours for the taking
Original Island
Unnatural concrete apron as park?
Plan of Site
Continuing on from the second trimester, the main thematic inspiration was to leave the site as it is, in the main. See what can come from what it there, to allow the sites history to be a palpable main player in the experience of the site.
Glebe Island has been heavily engineered and its form is one of the main historical signifiers. I sought to maintain the form of the island in the main. The concrete apron remains, with spoil on top from the nearby tunnelling for Westconnex and the new Metro line to Parramatta.
It is a celebration and examination of the sites challenging history, and the addition of waste products from the nearby mega projects adds to this theme of challenging, acknowledging and accepting our destruction of natural landscapes. The aim is to take these ingredients of destruction and create something hopeful and beautiful.
Sculpture of Original Island Footprint
Move the park and its guiding principles into the public domain of the remaining developed areas of Glebe Island
Cove 1
Headland
Cove 1
The first cove is a place of reconnection to the water. An uncanny combination of a working port adjacent to a swimming spot is an untried landscape typology in Sydney Harbour. Why can this not be a possibility?
With simple cuts and fills, and with a bit of sand from the spoil of the Westconnex tunneling, a new beach is formed.
Importantly, the industrial elements remain - the artificial reef is created by stacking units of the concrete apron. The wharf is deconstructed to reveal a new edge condition.
The site is already spectacular - we need not do much to facilitate a spectacle. Importantly, the less we do, the more tangible the sites history becomes
What has been done?
Some sand from the Westconnex tunnel has been deposited - that is all.
Single Vehicle Carriageway Separated 2m Bi Directional Cycleways
Tidal Pools
Recycled Concrete Wharf Units
Rockpools at High Tide
Existing ground line Beach of remediated fill and ground Westconnex spoil
Speaking to the artificial reefs/edges of Barangaroo, but with concrete units, not sandstone
Artificial Reef
The wharves were constantly a place of examination. They are impressive solid hard wood structures. How can these be used/dismantled to create wonderful places to be in, but also as a source of materials for the rest of the site?
Mend - Roots of Industry
A model exploration of the interaction of the levels under water, the wharf, and how it could be deconstructed.
Section: Model 2
Dismantling
Section: Model 1
A new engagement with the water’s edge through dismantling the wharf. Remnants remain however, as material reminders.
Concrete Steps
Pirrama Park
Our site is already a striking landscape
Dismantle the slab, add plantings and sand - a hybrid experiential landscape
Headland Park
The Headland Park is where the main novel/restorative ecological design moves occur. It’s wide open expanses are eerily similar to the heath-headlands of the outer Sydney Harbour. I had been walking through La Perouse and Cape Banks during lockdown, and noticed similarities in the landscape both there and at White Bay. A huge flat area is an opportunity for a unique heath-based ecology.
Beach and Sculpture
Central necklace of swamps and detention basins
Forrested Interior Rambling Network of Paths
Heath Transition
Deconstructed Caissons to create tiered edge
3.5m Active Transport Direct Route
Headland
Dunal Edges
Site has been engineered heavily to withstand forces of large ships and heavy on-deck loading
It is a resilient landscape currently, and a question arises what are the (environmental) costs/needs in changing anything?
Fig. 20 Plans and Elevations of Piles at White Bay
Fig. 21 Section of Wharf
Fig. 22 Section of Wharf
The restored ecologies will move from dune, to heath/fore-dune, to a typical Sydney Coastal Heath ecological community
... containment by physical covering in conjunction with appropriate control measures is considered appropriate for the impacted fill/disturbed natural materials proposed to be covered such that there are no opportunities for future exposure of site users to impacted fill material
UrbanGrowth NSW
Site Wide Remedial Concept Plan
The Bays Precinct Urban Transformation Area
4 December 2015
Hind Dune/Coastal Heath Forest
Dune Heath/Fore-dune
Banksia ericifolia
Spinifex sericeus
Atriplex cinerea
Austrofestuca littoralis
Canavalia rosea
Epacris microphilla
Eucalyptus camfieldii Wallum Frog
Red Bellied Black Snake
Little Eagle
Common Bent-Wing Bat
Allocasuarina distyla
Angophora Costata
Xanthorrea resinifera
Dillwynia floribunda
Grevillea oleoides
Re-introduced Fauna
Fill Slab
New fill from Westconnex
Sandstone Bedrock
Precedent: Ballast Point Park
Fig. 23
Fig. 24
The sandstone and dredged infill sits below a disintegrating concrete slab and mounds of imported spoil
The sub surface layers are highly modified but also uncannily at home in the landscape.
Bed Rock
Disintegrating Concrete Contaminated Fill
Imported Spoil as Coastal Soil
Slab Maintained as Walkway
Recycled Piers from adjacent deconstruction
Existing Slab
The structures take inspiration from Bruce
structures
Hardwood wharf timbers are so suggestive of the Sydney water’s edge. They bring a strong sense of place to the headland.
The wood is recycled from the dismantling of the adjacent wharf outlined previously.
Bruce Mackenzie: Drawings for Timber Stairs at Illoura Reserve
Mackenzie’s
at Illoura Reserve.
Along the path, where the levels are above the slab, the path is laid with deconstructed recycled concrete sections of the existing slab
Recycled concrete
Cove 2
The story of the site matterslet it tell that story to us.
An early stage of the site’s transformation? Simple measuresplantings, painted walkway and lighting.
Design with Fundamental Assets 3
Marked path
'New' beach Pier Novel ecosystem Edge incisionmarking the original Island's extent Lighting
Dock Maintained
Sculptural Historical Interpretation
Enhancing of existing novel ecosystems
Tidal Pools
Artificial Reef
New Cove
Glebe Island Bridge as Cycling Highway
New Silo/Dry Storage Arts Industries and Affordable Housing
An illustration of the simple methoed of cut and fill to create the beaches on the site. The underwater level drop offs are quite dramatic. The sea is held in place be an artificial reef created by the stacking of units from the concrete apron.
Connection to Cove from Cycle Highway
Original Island Levels
Rock pools at Low Tide
Artificial Reef/ Structural Barrier Holding Beach in situ
Glebe Island Bridge: Active Transport Highway
Original Fill
Two paths diverge, both offer a dramatically different experience.
Highlighting the value of maintaining current landscape use
A speculative view to Pyrmont and the city - which is achievable with remediation, effective use of spoil and native plantings.
Sculpture
How to memorialise this?
A main intention was to memorialise Glebe Island. I wished to create a sense of the majesty that was once there, that had been completely flattened.
I came to the conclusion, following my research, that what might be appropriate is a visual reminder - a suggestion of what was there. To spur a question in the visitors to the park and passers by.
Using industrial materials, the aim is to represent the landscape/human dialectic in sculptural form.
Oxidised finished steel framing and steel wiring will hold lighting that outlines the original islands profile. By day it will be a jarring angular linear sculpture, by night a constellation of pearls lighting up a line of topography showing how the island once was.
Land Sculpture outlining original Island footprint
Not prominentrecessive and within the trees
A model was made to explore scale and interactions with paths across the headland
The Landscape/ Human Dialectic in sculpture form across the Island
Like a pearl diver who descends to the bottom of the sea, not to excavate the bottom and bring it to light, but to pry loose the rich and the strange, the pearls and the coral in the depths and carry them to the surface
Hannah Arendt on Walter Benjamin’s Method
Like the pearl diver, the landscape architect need not bring up the sea floor, rather bring to the surface the pearls - the rich and the strange. Our site is covered in pearls - fundamental assets - of infinite scale. Our effort need not be great. I argue that with small design interventions and strategic planting, the pearls of the site can be revealed to create a challenging but inspiring landscape and public domain.
The intention was to use this final project as a means to explore my own questions regarding the landscape and identity, and what could be possible with a response to a landscape question that is grounded in a certain type of theory.
Landscape memorials need not be singular and distant from experience. If one was to incorporate existing historic forms and materials into a new landscape design, the past will be tangibly there for all to interpret, touch and understand.
We don’t need to put the past on plinths and describe what was once therewhat was there is still there, and is part of an ongoing process of becoming and disintegration. It is quite popular to put aside a few key elements found on site to ‘represent’ the history of a space, and then clear the rest of the site in a violent transformation cutting off the site from its history and its previous physical form. Artifacts that were set aside are then used as mantle pieces to suggest what was there.
I believe this enters the realm of the tokenistic and opportunistic - a simple way to clear the slate, create a tabla rasa for a complete departure from the sites complex landscape dialectic.
Glebe Island is facing this problem. Most of the current speculative responses to redeveloping Glebe Island involve a radical redesign of what is there. Why can’t we keep what is there in the main? What is more meaningful than a site with complex layers of history - no matter how brutalist they appear?
Ideas of sustainability and the restoration of ecologies were intended to go hand in hand with the themes of historical representation on site.
The jarring ideas of an industrial nowhere-land and a flourishing restored heath/dune ecosystem would be the perfect landscape contradiction to represent the previously described landscape dialectic. Such a style of intervention would naturally question our horrible history of the destruction of Glebe Island, but also offer a sense of redemption, in that we have the opportunity to re-adjust the meaning of the headland from industrial exploitation to natural reclamation.
Finally, the idea of social geography and Western Sydney’s access to spaces like this is a major design influence. The proposed Metro station at White Bay would open up the site directly to people of Western Sydney. I believe it should be an imperative to offer people with restricted access to beautiful places a direct, affordable, equitable access to the harbour and the chance to swim in a beautiful cove.
Glebe Island, and the Bays precinct, offer Sydney a chance to convey something different to its residents. A sustainable, historically-aware and accessible harbour foreshore that is both conceptually challenging but also historically and naturally wild. A place that unavoidably represents our destructive relationship to the land post invasion, but also at the same time a proposition of redemption, where the same site of destruction reveals flourishing ecosystems - a sense of hope in what has been repeatedly described as a wasteland.
List of Referenced Figures
All other figures in this document are by the author. Base mapping from nearmap.com, GIS Data from NSW Government’s Clip and Ship Service.
1. Glebe Island: American & Australasian Photographic Company 1870, Glebe Island Bridge
2. Wheat Galleries Image of Bulk Wheat Galleries, State Library NSW
3. Glebe Island 1835 Mason, Walter G & Mason, Walter G. Australian picture pleasure book 1857, Glebe Island, Port Jackson, J.R. Clarke, [Sydney]
4. Detail of map ‘Shewing Main Wharfage of the Port of Sydney’ attained from the Port Authority of NSW - Dated at 1911
5. Detail of map ‘Shewing Main Wharfage of the Port of Sydney’ attained from the Port Authority of NSW - Dated at 1916
6. Detail of map ‘Shewing Main Wharfage of the Port of Sydney’ attained from the Port Authority of NSW - Dated at 1923
7. Detail of map ‘Shewing Main Wharfage of the Port of Sydney’ attained from the Port Authority of NSW - Dated at 1945
8. Portrait of cultural critic Svetlama Boym, accessed in November 2021 at https://media.newyorker.com/photos/59096f91ebe912338a376e0a/master/w_2794,h_1864,c_limit/Gessen-Postscript-Svetlana-Boym.jpg
9. Naval Base at Saint Nazaire https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Le_toit_de_la_base_sous-marine_(Saint-Nazaire)_ (7716934422).jpg accessed November 20121
10. Gilles Clement - Garden of the Third Landscape https://www.pca-stream.com/en/articles/gilles-clement-favoringthe-living-over-form-115 accessed November 20121
11. Detail of Illoura Reserve https://www.innerwest.nsw.gov.au/explore/parks-sport-and-recreation/parks-and-playgrounds/parks-by-suburb/balmain-parks/illoura-reserve accessed November 20121
12. Author’s own - Image of Pirrama Park wooden pylons
13. Detail of JMD’s Clifftop Walk at Cockatoo Island https://jmddesign.com.au/projects/cockatoo-island-clifftop/ accessed November 20121
14. Render of proposed Sydney Fishmarkets: https://www.sydneyfishmarket.com.au/Corporate/Redevelopment accessed November 20121
15. Aspect’s Darling Quarter: https://www.aspect-studios.com/au/project/darling-quarter accessed November 20121
16. Architectus’ speculative render of Glebe Island proposal: https://architectus.com.au/insight/bays-west-the-resilientcity/ accessed November 20121
17. Westconnex - https://www.westconnex.com.au/media/tfdma23p/image-80.jpg accessed November 20121
18. www.nearmap.com
19. Concrete Rubble - https://cf.specifyconcrete.org/img/IMG_8690.jpg accessed November 20121
20. Detail of engineering drawings, attained from the Port Authority of NSW
21. Detail of engineering drawings, attained from the Port Authority of NSW
22. Detail of engineering drawings, attained from the Port Authority of NSW
23. McGregor Coxall’s Ballast Point: https://mcgregorcoxall.com/project-detail/125 accessed November 20121
24. McGregor Coxall’s Ballast Point https://mcgregorcoxall.com/project-detail/125 accessed November 20121
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