Maintaining the Breezeway
The walkway built when Walsh Bay was developed as a port precinct in the early 20th century is now used by locals and visitors.
Project Status: In progress
We’ve installed temporary scaffolding to protect the sandstone façades of this historic passageway between Hickson Road and Windmill Street. Heritage architects have assessed the walkway and conservation works will be undertaken in 2024.
History of the Breezeway
In January 1900, an outbreak of bubonic plague sparked widespread panic and accelerated urban and economic change on Sydney’s waterfront in the decades that followed.The state government compulsorily acquired, or resumed, parts of The Rocks, Millers Point and Darling Harbour. Land on the waterfront here was valuable, given its proximity to wharfs and maritime trade on the harbour, and there was pressure for commercial development.
In the early 20th century, the Sydney Harbour Trust engineered and built an integrated port precinct at the tip of Millers Point. This precinct was named Walsh Bay in 1919. New wharves, shore sheds, warehouses, bridges and roads were built from 1906 to 1922.
Hickson Road was built along the edge of the shoreline, wide enough to carry a possible railway line to connect with the goods yards at Darling Harbour. This new road cut off the wharves and shore sheds from the warehouses and bond stores on Windmill and Pottinger streets.
To provide access between the warehouses and wharves, 4 bridges were built over Hickson Road. The Breezeway is the name for the narrow passageway between bond stores 1 and 2 which linked to the bridge for wharves 8/9.
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