Frank's Christian Thoughts: Travel Biography Photo Extravaganza

Saturday, 9 August 2025

Travel Biography Photo Extravaganza - Part 34.

Arrival at Palm Beach, NSW.

After arriving in Sydney - its city centre pics will appear next week - I took two trips out of the city. The first trip involved a two-hour train ride from Sydney Central to Katoomba Station, around 60 miles, to Blue Mountains National Park. It was here that, after spending the first day on the rim, centred around the Three Sisters, I did some serious hiking through the rainforest on the second day. I even suffered a bout of pareidolia, mistaking a dead log ahead for a puma or a bear.

Yet, the hike was well rewarded by the sight of waterfalls tumbling into the canyon. These weren't intense falls, nothing like the Niagara or the Victoria Falls. But their presence enhanced the natural beauty of the scene. Furthermore, the sound of cockatoos in the trees added life to the forest. Although I was the only human (as far as I was aware), in another sense, I wasn't alone.

The second trip combined a ferry and a bus ride to Palm Beach, the filming site for the teatime TV soap, Home & Away. My niece, Clare, was once a fan of the soap, along with its rival, Neighbours, which was shot in a suburb of Melbourne. Although in 1997, I never travelled as far as Melbourne, I have a close friend who did, and I have a snapshot of him holding up a Ramsey Street sign used for filming.

But this wasn't a rivalry. It was a privilege to visit a site made famous by a TV soap opera, which was watched around the world, especially in Britain and possibly in Europe as well. When I was in France in 1989, I was sitting in a bar when Neighbours was aired, and the English spoken by the actors was dubbed in French.

Palm Beach is a peninsula separated from the mainland by Pittwater Bay. Unlike most short and stubby headlands I have lately described, this peninsula is up to ten km in length, or over six miles. Palm Beach is a sandbank which bridges the main peninsula headland to Barrenjoey Rock, 2.8 km or 1.74 miles distant. Looking at the whole area, I can't help thinking that Barrenjoey Rock, on which a lighthouse is built, was once an island until longshore drift created by the waves formed a sand bridge, and vegetation binding the sand to form a double beach causeway, which is fully navigable.

Palm Beach viewed from Barrenjoey Rock.

Although the whole of the Palm Beach sandbank strip is called Palm Beach, the actual beach is on the ocean side. On the west side, that is Station Beach, and it slopes into Pittwater. It's at Station Beach where the cafe, made famous by the soap, is located, along with the beach clubhouse. Indeed, this part of Australia, several miles north of Sydney, is quite a complicated affair, and could be difficult to describe in words that would explain the photos below.

Thus, I have drawn a fairly accurate map of the area, as taking a direct copy from Google Maps might be a breach of copyright. If not, then it was better to err on the side of caution. Transport was first by a ferry out of Sydney Harbour to Manly, then a bus to Palm Beach. Had I known better, there was a bus direct to Palm Beach from the city, but having watched the ferries ply across the natural harbour, I felt inclined to board one just for the experience.

I felt excited about visiting an area made famous by television. However, I hope you will still enjoy looking at the pics I have taken here, a large number for a relatively small region. Also, I was rather surprised at the lack of visitors at Palm Beach. I was expecting groups of escorted tourists or just a higher number of visitors. Perhaps, as it was, scarcely populated, I visited the site in its normal daily routine. It was better all around.

A Day spent at Manly.

One of the ferries I boarded was remarkable in the sense that it had a bow at both ends and no stern. It looked like the bows of two ships joined in the middle. This was the Manly ferry, and it could dock in the harbour and reverse out without the need to turn. This vessel was unique to Sydney, and I had the privilege to sail in one. Photos of this ferry will appear next week.

Manly is a town proper located on a narrow neck of land joining North Head to the mainland. Like Palm Beach, Manly also has two beaches, one on each side of the neck. The eastern beach faces the ocean; it's the main beach. The other beach, Cove Beach, faces North Harbour. The town's shopping precinct, the Corso, was traffic-free and had a strong resemblance to Santa Monica's 3rd Street Promenade. The pedestrianised street, one at a perfectly symmetrical grid, linked both beaches as it crossed the neck from beach to beach.

North Head, named that, as it's a natural rock forming the "upper lip" of the harbour mouth from the ocean, has an area designated as a National Park. A trail offers some good views of the cliffs from which the headland rises above the sea. Unfortunately, after some distance covered, the trail petered out, and I was compelled to turn back rather than complete the circuit, as was my original intention.

Click here for the Index linking to the main Biography, covering Weeks 93-96.

Photos of Palm Beach.

Self-drawn map of Palm Beach.