46. Balmain, from a workers' district to an elegant suburb of Sydney

By Filipe Morato Gomes	Where is Sydney?
I flew from Hobart, Tasmania to Sydney, my last Australian stop before heading to South America. While in Sydney, I appreciated the charming Balmain district, downtown Sydney and the unique architecture of the Sydney Opera House, before saying goodbye to Australia eating a typical Portuguese meal. A very good week!

Coming from a short visit to Tasmania, Sydney was my last and quick stop before heading for the American continent. After arriving in Sydney it would be taken as the normal thing to do to look for accommodation in a hostel in the centre of the town. I would have stayed near the city tourist attractions and the image of the postcard-perfect building of the Sydney Opera House. However that was not the case. Fortunately, I must admit.

A view over Sydney bay, from Balmain district

An exchange of electronic mail messages with an Australian couple, Mary and Mike, allowed me a temporarily stay in Balmain, a lovely suburb of Sydney where they live. As so, just because their hospitality, I got to know a different Sydney from the one tourists usually visit. Balmain is a quarter stuffed with history, personality and beauty, and I was glad Mary offered me a place in their house.

Balmain is located just a ten-minute bus drive away from the bustle of downtown Sydney. Twenty-minutes, if you go by ferry-boat. Nowadays, no one would say Balmain had once been the industrial centre of the all Sydney. Heavy industry like shipbuilding, railway lines construction as well as mining equipment production was sited in Balmain until the midst of the XX century. At that time a great number of those who worked for the heavy industry needed budget accommodation and so Balmain grew up with small and modest housing, which was built to be rent to the workers of those industries.

However, intellectuals, teachers and artists gradually discovered Balmain area and chose it as their permanent shelter. A nice and pleasant area, full of charm resembling a small and elegant rural town, but near enough the conveniences of Sydney centre, Balmain was the perfect place for having a relaxing life with a great metropolis nearby.

A house from the district of Balmain, Sydney

As a consequence, the small houses were rebuilt with an tremendous good taste which combined with the excellent geographical location - many houses still have fabulous views over Sydney, on the other bank of the river - made Balmain one of the most expensive areas for real estate business. “We have bought this house for a song when Balmain was noticeably an area outside Sydney. Today it is worth indeed a lot of money but we're not planning to move”, Mary told me one day.

Balmain was my base camp to explore not only the quarter itself but also the pleasant city of Sydney. People say Sydney has one of the most fascinating ports in the whole world. I don't know many ports worldwide so it's not easy for me to compare but at least I can guarantee that the area surrounding the port is, in fact, very attractive. It is designed for people's well-being. Green parks, long pedestrian areas and the views over the river, the bustling port life and the famous Sydney bridge made every curious tourist, as well as local inhabitants looking for a better physical fitness, feel delighted. Between the bridge and Mrs. Macquarie belvedere, there it was the sumptuous Sydney Opera House, a controversial building designed by Jorn Utzon, a Danish architect who, ironically, has never personally seen his most acclaimed building finished, after having abandoned, sorrowful, the troubled political process of the Sydney Opera House construction.

Sydney Opera House

A couple of days latter, I was planning my last hours in Australian soil when Mike, who was an excellent company, said without warning: “Would you like to have lunch in the Portuguese quarter of Sydney?” “Why not?”, I answered back. And there we drove for about half an hour until we got to a street where the signs of the shops were not understandable at all for Mike. “Restaurante O Pescador” (The Fisherman Restaurant); “Prato do dia - sardinhas pequenas com arroz de tomate” (Menu - small sardines in tomato rice). I was in a quarter of Sydney where almost everything was written in Portuguese. I could not help having an huge smile in my face. “You look happy”, Mike said. “Of course I am. I can't believe we are in a Portuguese street right in the antipodes of my country”, I replied.

We entered a restaurant where I could easily tell that all the customers were Portuguese. A well cooked traditional meal and a good cup of coffee sealed my passage through that Portuguese community beyond borders. An excellent way to end up another part of this around the world odyssey, reminding me how good it is to occasionally feel the pleasure of “coming back home” when you're travelling around the world for such a long period of time.

(originally written in Portuguese)

» Read On the Road - When a rainbow hugs Uluru

» Back to top of the page