As we near the end of winter in Australia you can already feel the sense of spring approaching. It is still very cool in the morning, evening and night as I write this, however when the sun is out during the day the temperature is very pleasant.
I made my way by car into the Sydney CBD and parked where I usually do, deep below the Queen Victoria Building, aka the QVB.
The QVB is right next door to the beautiful Town Hall building and is fairly central, allowing a relatively even distance in all directions within the city. The parking fee there on weekends is relatively inexpensive, even if the car has been there for several hours (definitely not the case on weekdays).
After exiting the QVB I usually tend to move south, and when you do that you are immediately bang in the middle of the Town Hall precinct which has arguably the best lighting conditions in the city.
In this area you have the Town Hall building itself and St Andrews Cathedral beside one another, each dating back to the 1860’s, along with modern light rail stops, seating benches, shops, passageways to the underground Town Hall train station and plenty of people.
It is this area where I usually begin to take some warm-up shots before heading further south down George Street to get the leg muscles activated.
Heading south down George Street is often too tempting for me, because I usually cannot resist purchasing some egg tarts (a small oval shaped egg custard tart) from Breadtop which is a chain of self serve Asian and Western fusion bakeries.
On this day, somehow I managed to resist getting some. I did however let myself down and eat take-away for lunch!
Sometimes during these initial warm-up walks I will stop before reaching Liverpool Street, which is only about a ten minute walk from the QVB and then turn around and begin heading north back toward Town Hall and onto Circular Quay.
On this day I decided to keep heading south as far as Chinatown, just in case anything caught my eye down there.
To be honest, it was pretty chilled between Liverpool Street and Chinatown, and despite taking pictures there was nothing I was overly happy with.
What wasn’t chilled once I arrived back at the Town Hall precinct, although without aggression or incident, were the two simultaneous protests taking place, one outside St Andrews Cathedral and the other outside the Town Hall building.
The protest outside St Andrews Cathedral was by the people of Bangladesh in relation to what they claim to be atrocities against Hindus, Buddhists and Christians in Bangladesh.
This was very much a peaceful and respectful protest, yet one which displayed much purpose and angst.
No more than fifty metres to the north, and right outside the Town Hall building was the other protest.
This protest by the people of Venezuela was part of a global protest in relation to an alleged election steal by the Venezuelan President.
Much like the Bangladesh protest, the people were full of passion and there was an abundance of rich saturated colour.
As with the Bangladesh protest, this was also peaceful and respectful, whilst spreading their strong message proudly.
And so ends a fascinating day in the city. Well, truth be told I ventured further north and took many more pictures away from the protests, however they’re potentially for another day.
Irrespective of beliefs everyone has a voice, and there’s nothing wrong with making that voice and message known, provided that it is done respectfully.
Both of these protests were conducted peacefully and respectfully, with no impact on the local community in terms of noise and potential obstruction of vehicle and foot traffic. Peace be with you.
Thank you for reading the blog, and I hope that you enjoyed the pictures.
Roger Brooks.