Bytes: Walk Sydney Streets

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I received an email yesterday from Byter Sue P as follows:

Hi OttoI have received these for many years but suddenly thought that you may not?Plenty to explore but I thought you’d like to start with the man himself http://www.walksydneystreets.net/obituary.htmRegards, Sue

Thanks, Sue

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I am a subscriber to Alan Waddell’s blog although, sadly, Alan has passed away. His sons maintain the blog and I continue to receive regular email updates, as does Sue.

The homepage for his site is:

http://www.walksydneystreets.net/index.htm

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From Wikipedia:

Alan Mossman Waddell (24 July 1914 – 2 September 2008 was an Australian walker who received national and international media attention for walking every street in over 280 suburbs in Sydney.

Waddell was born on 24 July 1914, completed his schooling at Sydney Boys High School in 1931 and qualified as a chartered accountant. He served in the Citizen Military Forces during World War 2 and married Marjorie Eileen Hume on 30 May 1942. When Marjorie died in 2002, Waddell took up walking as a pastime and to combat aneurysms in his legs. After walking every street in his local suburb, he began to venture further in 2003. By 2004, he started to attract interest from the media. This led to further interest from radio and television. Over the next five years, he was a regular feature across print and electronic media. A list of all articles appears on his website.

By the time of his death in 2008, Waddell had walked 5000 kilometres and covered every street in 284 suburbs of Sydney.[ Over the years, his feat had been covered by media in many other countries, including China, South Africa, Thailand, the United Kingdom, and the United States.

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Alan’s website is well worth looking at and indeed to subscribe so as to receive periodic updates,

It includes pictures under categories headed Surprises, Secrets and by reference to places.

A selection appears below.

To subscribe, click on:

http://www.walksydneystreets.net/contactus.htm

then click on the “Join Our Mailing List” link and follow the prompts.

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Gallery:

Selections of photographs and comments from Walk Sydney Streets . . .

Surprises:

Fails:

The old, bandaged warrior in Jaques Avenue, Bondi Beach, will survive a few more deliveries.

Our web site values every visitor, so we want to warn you for your safety. When crossing Anderson Street, Chatswood, always check the direction that cars don’t come from.

Wheeler Park, Narrabeen

We lean on our neighbours whenever help is needed in Forest Road, Penshurst.

Surprises:

This young girl certainly surprised us. Her specialty is walking narrow fence railings in Beaconsfield Park, Beaconsfield. This is one walk that Alan declined.

Will we mark our boundary in Mawson Parade, Chifley, with a fence or trees?

Yes.

Like a cross between a giant caterpillar and centipede, a Moorilla Street fence crawls up a Dee Why hill.

Secrets:

Gardens:

Tarbrett Street, Banksia: Stare at the black-and-white design for long enough and the middle row starts to rotate.

A clattering line of traffic careers around a garden corner in Franklin Crescent, Blackett.

Imagine how plain this yard in Huntingdon Parade, Cambridge Gardens, would have looked had the path on the right been straight. And since you’re one of our cleverer visitors, you’ve already noticed what the shape of the lawn represents, haven’t you?

Houses:

At Bonnet Bay, Hoover Place’s double optical illusion house: the top balcony appears to narrow and slope, doesn’t it?

Your dream home in Fisher Bay, Clontarf? Water views, usually level site …

What Sydney road lets you build your house above it? See this gem from Forest Lodge’s Junction Street.

Streets:

Where is the world's only eight-lane pedestrian/cycleway? See it from the Pacific Highway at Artarmon. It must be the only one, surely.

Erskineville is great for pedestrians, soul-destroying for motorists. Try getting to the other side of this Munni/Union Streets intersection by car without using a street directory. Even if you successfully dodged all the traffic barriers, one-way streets and no-turn signs, you would still have to drive more than a kilometre.

Water:

Where do you find a gutter that cheats and takes a short cut? In Jarvie Avenue, Petersham.

Negotiate this entrance to a garage at the Hughes Place rear of Wayside Chapel, Potts Point, and you’ll never complain about your driveway again.

Stating the obvious.

Alan would have preferred other methods of quenching his thirst such as bubblers, fountains or taps. But there is always this Paul Street, Bondi Junction, horse trough from more than a century ago.

Other:

Is Alan down a square well? Is he in an old prison? No, he’s at the bottom of a moss-covered rock stairway in a reserve between Jeffrey Street Wharf, Kirribilli, and the prime minister’s home. For a view of the bridge, Opera House and Sydney city, you can’t do much beter than from here.

Places:

Merrylands: