Cockatoo Island

Are adventure photographers inherently selfish people? Maybe we are. For the last few weeks I have been enjoying climbing, hiking, paddling and biking all over New South Wales, Australia, but you don't see any photographic proof of that here. Did I make any photos while I was out, a few, but most of the time my hands were full of sweaty bike bars or trying to

plug a number two cam into Blue Mountain sandstone. So I didn't have much time to shoot photos of the adventures. But a couple of days ago on a recent sea kayak paddle around the Sydney Harbour I stopped in on Cockatoo Island. This is the biggest island in the harbour and was a former island jail turned into ship manufacturing yards. The island was a prison for 50 years and the ship building on the island lasted for nearly 100 years. The metal works ended in the early 1990's when the island was taken over by the Sydney Harbour Federation Trust and made into a park.

After I parked my sea kayak I walked to the admin building and the nice volunteer lady at the info centre told me that most of the ship building stuff was taken away years ago. But there is still so much to see on the island. I probably spent four hours exploring around the place. OK there was a stop to have a beer and chips at the cafe somewhere in those wanderings. I entered every unlocked door I could find to explore the interiors of the massive buildings, I spied about 50 ancient cranes, and marveled at the remnants of some of the massive machines that were used to bend and shape the steel hulls of ships. Exploring the island is really like finding yourself in scenes out of a Alastair Reynolds steam punk novel. But you'll know this is not a sci fi parallel universe because of the thousands of nesting silver gulls that are squawking and dive bombing your head.  The scenes from the island can be best listed in the category of post punk industrial Apocalypse. That must be why it's the location in November 2011 of the OutPost Project, Art from the Streets. An exhibit of street art from around the world. I was told the invited artists are actually making the art on location. I'll bring my respirator for spay paint fumes because that is an event I plan not to miss. Also the Redbull X fighters world tour motocross finals will be held there next month- event organizers could not have chosen a more perfect venue. Here are my photos from the expedition to Cockatoo Island.