Having picked up a hire car yesterday I decided to head south of the city and out towards Botany Bay and La Perouse.
Botany Bay
Despite its relative shallowness, Botany bay serves as greater metropolitan Sydney's main cargo seaport located at Port Botany
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| A large container ship saioling into Port Botany |
Two runways of Sydney Airport extend into the bay which makes for spectacular take off and landing.
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| A Qantas plane coming in to land |
Botany Bay National Park is located on the northern and southern headlands of the bay. The land was settled for thousands of years by the Tharawal & Eora Aboriginal peoples and their associated clans. On 29 April 1770, Botany Bay was the site of James Cook's first landing of HMS Endeavour on the land mass of Australia, after his extensive navigation of New Zealand. Later the British planned Botany Bay as the site for a penal colony, although the penal settlement was almost immediately shifted to Sydney Cove.
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| An early impression of Cooks entry into Botany Bay |
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| La Perouse beach in Botany Bay |
La Perouse
The La Perouse peninsula is the northern headland of Botany Bay. It is notable for its old military outpost at Bare Island and the. Congwong Bay Beach, Little Congwong Beach, and the beach at Frenchmans Bay provide protected swimming areas in Botany Bay. La Perouse is one of few Sydney suburbs with a French name. |
| La Perouse and the bridge to Bare Island |
Bare Island
Bare Island is a small Island which is located about 10 miles south east of the Sydney CBD. It is within Botany Bay, close to the bay's northern headland and containing fortification facilities,.Bare Island is listed on the State Heritage Register and is significant as an almost completely intact example of late nineteenth century coastal defence technology.
Bare Island is connected by a footbridge to the suburb of La Perouse. The historic military fort and tunnels can only be visited by guided tour and then only on a Sunday. I guess I will be going back on a Sunday at some time.
Maroubra Beach
From here I drove the short distance to Maroubra where I had lunch at the Pavillions Restaurant on the front watching the surfers out in the water.
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| Pavilions Restaurant on Maroubra Beach |
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| My view from the Restaurant |
Maroubra Beach is listed as a national surfing reserve, as a result, it has played host to many surfing competitions. The most notable of which was the 2004 Snickers Australian Open. The event was covered in the Bra Boys movie, Bra Boys: Blood is Thicker than Water.
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| These shots taken today at Maroubra |
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| I am rather proud of these two shots |
Other events
Due to the large size of Maroubra beach, it has also been used for sports other than surfing. One of the more highly covered events was the 2007 Beach Cricket series which saw Maroubra Beach play home to Round Three of the series between Australia, England and West Indies. The round saw Australia and England progress to the finals which were played the following day, again at Maroubra with the eventual winner being England.
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