This landslide in McElhone Street Woolloomooloo fell on Friday night. Police at the site say no cars were parked underneath -- very lucky as this street, close to Kings Cross, is usually parked out on weekend nights. The hole above is within the grounds of a four storey block of flats fronting Brougham Street, approximately 1950s vintage. The cliff beneath is the site of one of Sydney's original sandstone quarries, dating back to the mid-1800s.
Then on Sunday a cyclist and a small white van collided in the same street -- it looked as if the car, facing the roadblock in front of the landslide, had turned right towards a driveway intending to turn around -- just as the cyclist was overtaking. The cyclist was standing as police attended -- although bleeding from the head. He was taken away by ambulance.
3 comments:
The McElhone Street quarry may be older than quoted as the sandstone blocks used to built the Darlinghurst Gaol came from this area. The outer walls were built around 1822 when they ran out of money. It took two committees of enquiry - in 1835 and 1839 - to get the funds needed to finish the job. The move from the old Sydney Gaol on the corner of George and Essex Streets took place on the 7th of July 1841.
Perhaps others may know more...
John Mair
Hey man did you grab all the sandstone you could lift? Maybe you could exchange it with the stone from the convict road to St.Albans that some genius pilfered last year.
No, I tried to lift some but did my back in. Seriously though it is tempting. Don't know about St Albans -- I'd be saving it for a sculptor friend of mine. Actually I hope they put it back to maintain the lovely sandstone cliffscape.
Meanwhile, Woolloomooloo remains effectively shut down to traffic while Council surveys the site to see who owns the wall!
I can just picture the poor buggers who own the flats above saying: Wall? What wall? We don't own it!
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