Griff Rhys Jones tells us all about the magical city of Sydney in part 2 of his Greatest Cities.
Sydney is a city where people work to live and live fabulously well in what Griff describes as ”surely one of the most beautiful locations in the world”.
Sydney came into existence as a British penal colony scarcely 200 years ago and Griff asks if this may have given the city an identity crisis.
Griff’s 24 hours in Sydney starts on one of the city’s beautiful beaches at five in the morning. He explains that before Sydneysiders put on their business suits for the day, they like to put on their bathing suits and spend quality time on the beach before work. These breakfast swims are also an opportunity for something else – sharks. Griff joins the team of Surf Watch in their helicopter as they scan the sea for potential danger. Last year there were five shark attacks in Sydney’s waters and Griff is told that sharks as big as four and a half metres in length have been seen in the area.
Walking along the beach Griff reflects that it is all strangely familiar – saying it is like “Finchley by the sea”. Although it is sub-tropical and exotic birds fly overhead, the promenade is reminiscent of the British seaside – even down to the amenities. Griff is amused to discover a municipal British public toilet on the sea front.
Griff’s next visit of the morning is to the Iceberger’s Club. To be a member here you have to guarantee that you are going to turn up to take part in a race three Sundays out of four, for five months during the winter season, and you have to do this for five years in succession.
Sydney had a tough past and Griff visits a street known as Suez Alley, which had a notorious reputation in the 19th century as a haunt for gangs. One ferocious gang of women would jump on unwary sailors and pull out their gold teeth and steal their clothes.
One group with a tough reputation today are the riggers on the Sydney Harbour Bridge. Griff joins two of them working 100 metres above the water. Both are immigrants, Joseph Cerovav from Croatia and George Napier from London’s East End. Griff asks George if adapting to life in Australia was difficult. George says: “What would be difficult? It’s warm and sunny, good food and nice people.”
Still in the harbour area Griff visits one of the city’s most famous landmarks, the Sydney Opera House, which took over 20 years to build and went 20 times over budget. But it has been an important factor in the regeneration of the harbour, which has helped make Sydney one of the richest cities in the world.
Sydney’s lifestyle attracts immigrants from around the globe. 1,000 new immigrants arrive in Sydney every week and most days nationalisation ceremonies are held. Griff attends one, where immigrants of all nations are sworn in as Australian citizens. Afterwards Griff says: “That was nice, it was as if all those people were being given the chance to start all over again – to wipe the slate clean and be reborn in this city. I felt oddly envious.”
It’s late afternoon and Griff takes a flight to the national parks – the ‘real Australia’. As he looks down from the light aircraft he says: “The edge of the city comes with a suddenness that takes your breath away.”
The parks make up 30 per cent of the metropolitan area. They are a reminder of what Australia was like when the ancestors of the man Griff is about to meet arrived more than 70,000 years ago.
Allen is an aboriginal cultural leader who takes Griff to a sacred site of aboriginal art that is more than 7,000 years old. Griff describes the park as an indigenous art gallery and says meeting Allen Madden and seeing the art is a reminder that Sydney is “like a ship in the sea – it’s a capsule of modernity afloat in a wild place”.
As the day turns to evening Griff takes the helm of a ferry taking workers back to the western suburbs where he is told he will find the real heart of the city.
In the evening the suburbs are quiet, and many of the inhabitants head for the Returned and Service League Clubs, which are very similar to British Legion clubs but with a hint of Las Vegas. These clubs, of which there are hundreds across Sydney, cater to Sydneysiders’ main obsession – gambling. The club Griff visits made a million dollars last year, from the slot machines and gambling tables, and raffles.
Griff is to host this evening’s and has 28 food hampers to give away – the main prize being a tray of meat. He thinks this will be a simple task, saying: “All I have to do is read out the numbers. All the punters have to do is check the numbers and pick up their groceries.”
It may sound simple but with so many prizes and a tough crowd, it’s a long evening for Griff.
Escaping from the raffle, Griff visits one of Sydney’s other obsessions – Rugby League. He visits the Manly Sea Eagles Stadium, where he meets the Eagles Angels, an all female supporters club with a difference. The women are all ex-athletes and have 15 Olympic medals and 300 world titles and records between them.
Leaving the Eagles, Griff’s final Sydney experience is with a bird of a different kind. He joins a wildlife rescue unit who have been called out to a girls’ boarding college where an owl is trapped in one of the student’s bedrooms, causing great consternation amongst both staff and students.
Armed with a large net Griff attempts to catch the bird but his netting skills need improvement. Worried that he may injure the owl, he hands over to an expert who gets the bird in the bag.
Finally, Griff takes a last look over the city from the Macquarie lighthouse and says: “I can see the dawn coming up now on Brighton down there, Putney over there and Mortlake. Epping over there, and right over there Liverpool. But if I turn the other way the nearest land is 7,000 miles away. Sydney was incredibly isolated for 200 years and perhaps that’s the reason people who were living here wanted to make themselves at home. They wanted these things to be cosy and homely and perhaps it’s only in the past twenty years they’ve allowed themselves to be a little bit more exotic.”