Author Archives: Steven

Woronora Dam

On Friday we drove to Woronora Dam and stopped for fish and chips on the way. Woronora Dam supplies water to the southern suburbs of Sydney especially Sutherland Shire. A 48″ pipe connects it to the Penshurst Reservior which is close to our place. Construction on it began in 1927 and it was completed in 1941.

The Sydney Catchment Authourity has some information about its history. The National Library of Australia has some great pictures taken during construction.

We’d planned on buying fish & chips at Waterfall and taking them to the dam for a picnic, but we were so hungry when we got to the shop we decided to eat there. Legendary Fish & Chips is a popular place to stop when heading north on the Princes Highway. If heading south it is trickier: take the left lane at Waterfall train station onto the overhead bridge. Turn right and park in Kooraban St. There is a footpath leading down from the western side of the bridge to the shop. To re-enter the highway there is a lane back over the bridge on the eastern side .

I’ve added some pics to our album.

Commercial Travellers’ Club, Melbourne

In November 2006 Barbara and I visited Melbourne and we stayed at the Rendezvous Hotel in Flinders Street. Last week I spent two days and two nights at the Rendezvous and had time to wander around, admire the architecture and wonder about its history. I found some interesting details in the Victorian Heritage Database and the Walking Melbourne website.

The second source ends: “The building ceased functioning as the Commercial Travellers Association club in 1976 and fell into disrepair before being restored as a hotel in the late 1990s.”

“Disrepair” is an understatement. The National Library of Australia’s ‘Picture Australia’ database links to some amazing pictures of this hotel. Some photographs were taken by RMIT students in 1992 and show it to be completely derelict.

The new owners have done an amazing job to return large parts of it to something like original condition.