Sesqui Boardwalking

We started off Saturday in Sydney with a walk to Bronte; extra exciting for me because it was my first time on the new Sesquicentary Boardwalk, skirting the old Waverly Cemetery and bravely constructed on the edge of the sandstone cliffs overlooking this beautiful part of Sydney's coastline. Its a distinctly different experience to the old days of negotiating the narrow crumbling paths of the cemetery, fighting to keep your place against the oncoming waves of sweating, lycra clad joggers.

Apparently though the locals are a little daunted by the unusual name for their boardwalk, as reported in www.streetcorner.com.........


But the big question on the lips of locals was not “who did the wonderful design” or “which viewing deck was their favourite” but “who on earth came up with the ridiculous name”. Sesqui Boardwalk is named in honour of Waverley’s sesquicentenary, that’s right, sesquicentenary. It’s not really an oft used word in the average Australian vocabulary and why would it be. Afterall, 150th’s are not really the most common of anniversary’s to celebrate. Locals are wondering why the walk couldn’t have been named after a local flower, landmark or person. “Something pronounceable, something memorable. That wouldn’t be too much to ask would it,” said one local who didn’t want to be identified.


The only consolation for those we spoke to was that “ we hate the name, but it doesn’t matter because we’ll be calling it the Bronte Boardwalk”.



There were a lot of suburban "festivals" happening this weekend in celebration of the Sydney International Food Festival http://www.siff.com.au/ . We chose a little event from the dozens available and headed off to the Chippendale Food for the Future Fair in Kensington Street. This sweet little hippiesque affair (so not like Sydney) marked the launch of the Chippendale Fresh Food Co-op, and introduced us to the characters who make this pretty grotty inner suburb, with its converted terrace community Arts spaces, so interesting.



In one of the studio spaces in Kensington Street a small installation from the Big hART gold project told the stories of farming families in the Murray Darling Basin who are coping with the worst drought on record in Australia.