White Bay is a bay on Sydney Harbour with a surrounding locality near the suburbs of Balmain and Rozelle in the Inner West of Sydney, New South Wales, Australia.
White Bay is named after John White, the naval surgeon aboard the First Fleet to Australia in 1788. [1] Since the nineteenth century the bay has been used for water-based transport and industrial activities. In conjunction with adjacent Glebe Island it has been a multipurpose port, owned and controlled by the Government of New South Wales since 1901. [2] [3]
White Bay was the first port in New South Wales to handle containerised shipping, opening in 1969 on reclaimed land. [4] [5] In the 1970s there were several companies operating container terminals, with rail transfer via the Metropolitan Goods line to larger holding yards at Chullora. Container handling moved out of White Bay in late 2004 moving to Port Botany. [6]
The White Bay Cruise Terminal opened in April 2013 replacing a terminal at Wharf 8 on Darling Harbour. [7] White Bay is also used for marine refuelling. [6]
The White Bay Hotel was a historic hotel on Victoria Road. It was built in 1861, rebuilt in 1916, and refurbished in 1925 and 1933. It closed in 1992, landlocked by roads and with no local workers. Until 2004 it served only as a platform for billboards advertising to traffic on the Western Distributor, and on 5 September 2008 was destroyed by a suspicious fire and immediately demolished. [8] [9] The state government bought the site in June 2010. [10] The rubble was removed on 29 October 2010 and the block levelled.
The derelict White Bay Power Station dominates the landscape. On the eastern side stands the Anzac Bridge, which was completed in 1996 and is the main arterial link between the inner west and Sydney city. Below the bridge lies its predecessor, the Glebe Island Bridge, which opened in 1903. [11]
For 25 years from 1971 to just before her death in 1996, one of Sydney's true characters, Beatrice Olive ("Beattie") Bush, sold papers to passing motorists at the junction of The Crescent (City West Link) and Victoria Road. [12] Every morning in all weather, wearing Balmain Tigers socks and running shoes, Beatrice was part of the drive to work for thousands of motorists. [12]
The 1984 song The White Bay Paper Seller by Judy Small was written about Beatrice. The 1986 painting Beatrice the Paper-Seller of the White Bay Intersection by Susan Dorothea White shows Beatrice Bush running between the cars and trucks, selling newspapers in the rain. The 2004 documentary, The Paper Queen by Julie Nebauer documented her life. [13] In 2005 a new cycle bridge crossing Victoria Road at the intersection of The Crescent was named the Beatrice Bush Bridge in her honour. Her newspaper trolley, hat, gloves and other clothing items are held in the Powerhouse Museum collection in Sydney. [12]
Port Jackson, commonly known as Sydney Harbour, consists of the waters of Sydney Harbour, Middle Harbour, North Harbour and the Lane Cove and Parramatta Rivers, is the ria or natural harbour of Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. The harbour is an inlet of the Tasman Sea. It is the location of the Sydney Opera House and Sydney Harbour Bridge. The location of the first European settlement and colony on the Australian mainland, Port Jackson has continued to play a key role in the history and development of Sydney.
The Anzac Bridge is an eight-lane cable-stayed bridge that carries the Western Distributor (A4) across Johnstons Bay between Pyrmont and Glebe Island, on the western fringe of the Sydney central business district, New South Wales, Australia. The bridge forms part of the road network leading from the central business district, the Sydney Harbour Bridge, and Cross City Tunnel to the Inner West and Northern Suburbs.
Balmain is a suburb in the Inner West of Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. Balmain is located two kilometres west of the Sydney central business district, in the local government area of the Inner West Council.
Pyrmont is an inner-city suburb of Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia 2 kilometres south-west of the Sydney central business district in the local government area of the City of Sydney. It is also part of the Darling Harbour region.
Rozelle is a suburb in the inner west of Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. It is located 4 kilometres west of the Sydney central business district, in the local government area of the Inner West Council.
The Glebe Island Bridge is a heritage-listed disused swing Allan truss road bridge that carried Victoria Road across Johnstons Bay, located in the inner city Sydney suburb of Pyrmont in the City of Sydney local government area of New South Wales, Australia. The bridge, that connected Rozelle to Pyrmont by road, is one of the last remaining swing bridges of its type in Australia and in the world. It was designed by Percy Allan and built from 1899 to 1903 by Bridges Branch of NSW Public Works Department. It is also known as RMS Bridge No. 61. It was added to the New South Wales State Heritage Register on 29 November 2013 and was listed on the Register of the National Estate on 19 April 1989.
Drummoyne is a suburb in the Inner West of Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. Drummoyne is six kilometres west of the Sydney central business district and is the administrative centre for the local government area of the City of Canada Bay.
The White Bay Power Station is a heritage listed former coal-fired power station on a 38,000 m2 (410,000 sq ft) site in White Bay, in the suburb of Rozelle, 3 km (2 mi) from Sydney in New South Wales, Australia.
The Iron Cove Bridge is a heritage-listed road bridge that carries Victoria Road (A40) across Iron Cove, between the Sydney suburbs of Drummoyne and Rozelle. Iron Cove is an arm of Sydney Harbour.
The Sydney Freight Network is a network of dedicated railway lines for freight in Sydney, Australia, linking the state's rural and interstate rail network with the city's main yard at Enfield and Port Botany. Its primary components are the Southern Sydney Freight Line (SSFL) and a line from Sefton to Enfield and Port Botany. The Network has been managed by the Australian Rail Track Corporation (ARTC) since 2012. Prior to the completion of the SSFL, it was managed by RailCorp as the Metropolitan Freight Network.
Western Distributor is a 4.3-kilometre-long (2.7 mi) grade-separated motorway that is primarily elevated for the majority of its route on the western fringe of the Sydney central business district. It links the southern end of Bradfield Highway at the Sydney Harbour Bridge to Victoria Road in Rozelle, at its western terminus near White Bay. It is a constituent part of the A4 route.
Balmain is an electoral district of the Legislative Assembly of the Australian state of New South Wales in Sydney's Inner West. It is currently represented by Kobi Shetty of the Greens.
Johnstons Creek, formerly Johnston's Creek, is an urban gully, located in Sydney, Australia and situated in the Inner West and Sydney local government areas. The creek flows from Petersham, past Annandale, Camperdown, Forest Lodge and Harold Park, before spilling into Rozelle Bay, within Sydney Harbour.
Victoria Road is a major road in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia, connecting Parramatta with Rozelle and is currently one of the longest roads in Sydney. The road passes over two major bridges: the Iron Cove Bridge over Iron Cove, and the Gladesville Bridge over the Parramatta River.
The White Bay Hotel was a pub that operated between 1860 and 1992. The land has been acquired by the New South Wales Government after being destroyed by fire and demolished.
The Beach Hotel is a historic de-licensed pub in the suburb of Rozelle, above White Bay in the Inner West of Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. It is currently a private residence after having been in a long state of abandonment.
Glebe Island was a major port facility in Sydney Harbour and, in association with the adjacent White Bay facility, was the primary receiving venue for imported cars and dry bulk goods in the region until 2008. It is surrounded by White, Johnstons, and Rozelle Bays. Whilst retaining its original title as an "island", it has long been infilled to the shoreline of the suburb of Rozelle and connected by the Glebe Island Bridge to Pyrmont.
The Rozelle Interchange is an underground motorway interchange in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. It was built as part of WestConnex and opened to traffic on 26 November 2023. The interchange includes a toll-free bypass of Victoria Road between the Iron Cove Bridge and the Anzac Bridge known as the Iron Cove Link.
Johnstons Bay is a bay of Port Jackson, between Pyrmont and Balmain, New South Wales, connecting White Bay, Rozelle Bay, Blackwattle Bay, Jones Bay, and Darling Harbour.