Tom M. Wilson

I’ve been in Sydney for the past week, staying in Bondi Junction and then in Surry Hills. In the past I’ve dismissed this city as a brash and anonymous pile of high-rises, and not really thought it a high-light in the Australian scene, or bothered to spend much time here. This time I’ve enjoyed tumbling out of bed and onto the well-beaten pavement and into the shifting metropolis of faces and lives. On ANZAC day I was strolling through Hyde Park and noticed this young guy walking in front of me with his brass instrument gleaming.

South of Sydney to Coledale for one day, and I found myself passing through the cabbage palms and dramatic escarpment of that area just north of Wollongong. I noticed these stones shining in the shallows of the Pacific.

I was at Taronga Zoo for one morning. Not being a fan of caged life, I’d just hoped it would be a nice place to just walk around in - like Perth Zoo with its old trees and bamboo groves - but wasn’t overly impressed. If you can say that a crocodile is the warm mangroves as much as the warm mangroves are the crocodile, I don’t really see the attraction in seeing one bit of an ecosystem floating there out of context.

As for wildlife in the city, I saw a seven foot transvestite happily saunter down Flinders St. in bottemless chaps the other night, but was more impressed by the glistening wings of this bat who passed above me.