John Faulkner (NSW, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

Near the beginning of last century, Henry Lawson penned The Bonny Port of Sydney, which begins:

The lovely Port of Sydney

Lies laughing to the sky,

The bonny Port of Sydney,

Where the ships of nations lie.

You shall never see such beauty,

Though you sail the wide world o'er,

As the sunny Port of Sydney,

As we see it from the Shore.

Tonight I want to speak about the greatest natural asset of the city in which I live—Sydney Harbour—and a modest public works project that will ensure the public can experience all the beauty that Lawson wrote of. The harbour has always been the heart of Sydney. However, while a ferry ride to Manly is an essential for any visitor, the harbour lacks a defining experience that would enable everyone—whether they are from across the world or from down the street, whether rich or poor—to enjoy all it has to offer.

So tonight I want to propose a very modest public works project that will enhance the amenity of the harbour—a way marked walking track uniting two of Australia's most famous icons, Bondi and Manly beaches. This 'Bondi to Manly' track would connect these two world-famous beaches by following the shoreline of Sydney Harbour. It would pass the Sydney Opera House and cross the Sydney Harbour Bridge—perhaps our country's best-known international landmarks. I am confident a walking track from Bondi to Manly, if promoted and supported by all levels of government, has the potential to quickly become one of the great urban trails of the world. But what's more, this walking route already exists—it just remains hidden from the public.

Setting out from Bondi Beach the route heads up to South Head, then across the Sydney Harbour Bridge and finally along the northern edge of the outer harbour to Manly Beach. The walk is nearly 70 kilometres in length, much of it on existing bush tracks running along the edge of the harbour through the Sydney Harbour National Park. In parts, walkers need to follow roads and paths in built-up areas, behind houses with harbour or ocean frontages, but for the vast majority of its length the walk follows the water's edge.

To those not fortunate enough to have spent any time in Sydney Harbour's parks or walking on its tracks, it comes as a surprise to learn that you can bushwalk, right now, from Sydney's most beautiful and famous southern beach to Sydney's most beautiful and famous northern beach and, along the way, have a front-row view of one of the world's most extraordinary coastlines and beautiful harbours. It is all there, just waiting to be formally presented to the world.

I am certain that, once completed, this walking track could not be bettered anywhere in the world. It would become a 'must do' for walkers everywhere—a truly world-class walk that would sit comfortably in the company of the Thames Path in London, the Dragons Back Trail in Hong Kong, Vancouver's Sea Wall, the Berlin Wall Trail, and the walk in the Tijuca Forest in Rio de Janeiro. These walks are not only important cultural and recreational experiences, they are also important generators of tourist revenue. All these walks are great attractions in the city where they are found. They are all different, all spectacular, all worth a visit. They are fun, educational, good for health and wellbeing—and there is just no better way to experience and explore a great city than on foot.

Sydney is also a great city—I believe a city of unsurpassed natural beauty. Surely it is time to take some small steps to showcase it to walkers from around the world? While the costs would be small, the benefits—cultural and economic—would be great. Way markers, maps and signage are all that is required. The potential of this walk to focus the attention of the world on the spectacular natural beauty of Sydney Harbour and the thousands of acres of national park along its shoreline is huge.

Why this walk? Sydney Harbour has played a central role in our national life—our history, geography, economy and culture. It is the birthplace of modern Australia, but its importance goes well beyond marking the place where black and white Australia first really met. Local Indigenous communities, who made up the Eora nation, had been living around the shores of Sydney Harbour for thousands, if not tens of thousands, of years, before the harbour first came to the notice of Europeans.

From that day, in 1770, when Captain James Cook first sailed past the rocky headlands then known to the local Aboriginals as Car-Rang-Gel and now known as South and North Head, Sydney Harbour has captivated millions. Cook named the harbour Port Jackson, after Sir George Jackson, the Judge Advocate of the British Fleet. By noting its value as a 'safe anchorage' in the Endeavour's ships log, Cook became the first European to record the virtues of Sydney Harbour. He was the first of a long, long line.

Fast-forward to the present day, and Sydney, now a sprawling international metropolis, has changed beyond recognition from convict days, but the majesty of the harbour is undiminished. It only takes an afternoon's stroll along one of the countless winding bush tracks that ring the outer harbour's southern and northern edges for anyone with an eye for beauty or a love of nature and the outdoors to be spellbound.

For generations Sydney Harbour has been a drawcard. It has been a place to live, to enjoy, to work, to fish, to play, to swim, to relax, to sail, to marry, to celebrate or to contemplate. It has been a place to walk. Whether it is from the deck of a ferry or on a harbourside beach, millions of Sydneysiders and visitors to Sydney have flocked to the harbour and seen its majesty and sheer natural beauty.

Of course it is not just the scenery that makes Sydney Harbour such an important part of Australian national life

Australia's two best known man-made landmarks, the Sydney Harbour Bridge and the Sydney Opera House, grace the shores of Port Jackson, and are in turn graced by it. Together they are the quintessential Australian postcard, recognised around the world.

But despite all this beauty and all the joy Sydney Harbour has given the city of Sydney and its residents over the years, many Sydneysiders and visitors to Sydney still have an ambiguous relationship with the harbour. We love it, but unless you are fortunate enough to be one of the lucky few who lives on it, or near it, the harbour is still a quixotic place, perhaps even a little mysterious and intimidating to some. For many, its place in the life of modern Sydney, is limited to looking fabulous or occasionally filling us with wonder as the backdrop to a night of fireworks.

It is my hope that by clearly and simply way-marking a walking track between Sydney's two most famous surf beaches—a walking track that allows walkers to enjoy all the secret nooks and crannies of the outer harbour, all of its intimate bays and secluded inlets, all of its hidden beaches and secret pathways, we can build an unsurpassed public experience on public land around the world's greatest natural harbour.

Over the past seven years, my friend Lachlan Harris and I have spent many hours exploring and investigating alternative routes to find the best options for the Bondi-to-Manly walk. I would like to acknowledge that, without his help and enthusiasm, this project would still be in its infancy.

From Bondi to Watsons Bay, most of the track runs along the bluffs of Dover Heights and Diamond Bay through a series of cliff-side reserves. From Watsons Bay to Rose Bay the track follows the Hermitage Reserve trail. From Woolloomooloo you follow the shoreline of Farm Cove and Sydney Cove through the Botanical Gardens around Circular Quay to the Rocks. Once you cross the Harbour Bridge and make it to Cremorne Point, almost the entire walk around Mosman Bay, past Taronga Zoo, around Bradleys Head and Middle Head is a bush walk through sections of the Sydney Harbour National Park. Apart from a small stretch along suburban roads from Balmoral to the Spit Bridge, almost the entire walk to Manly then trails through National Park on the northern edge of Middle and North Harbour.

The views are stunning. It is an unforgettable experience. All the raw materials for a truly majestic walk around Sydney Harbour are already there. They have been for countless centuries. The vision of early New South Wales governments, who locked up much of the harbour-side land for public use, has left us with an incredible legacy of harbour-side walking tracks. But still missing is a simple, compelling, and exciting plan to pull all these wonderful walking tracks together. And that is where Sydney's two most famous beaches—Bondi and Manly—come in. They become the start and finish of a walking track that winds around the entire outer harbour. A walk that is not only visually beautiful, but has the logic, the starting place, the finishing place, and that indefinable 'X"] factor that all great walks really need.

Walking all the way from Bondi Beach to Manly is a challenge. But it is worth it. It will take most people at least two, if not three or four days to complete the walk. But it is predominantly a bush walk, along almost the entire shoreline of the main part of the world's most beautiful harbour—at the centre of a city of 4.8 million people. There is no doubt that the Bondi-to-Manly walk could be the greatest urban walk in the world. Making it happen would cost very little. I hope some vision and commitment, along with modest financial support, will make the Bondi-to-Manly walk not only a reality but an international icon.