![]() ![]() Seemingly emerging from yet at the same time sinking back into the ground, the artwork resembles an archaeology of the city. Memory is Creation Without End was created to symbolise the circular connection of past, present and future. This spiral of sandstone blocks in the Tarpeian Precint near where the Cahill Expessway crosses over Macquarie Street consists mainly of relics carved by stonemasons from demolished buildings around the city centre. The quarry provided the building materials for some of Sydney's early stone buildings, particuly those built by the Government for its own use, that were constructed around the turn of the 19th century. One of Sydney's oldest sandstone quarries, the Tarpeian Way forms part of the forecourt of the Sydney Opera House. This area is named the Tarpeian Precinct, after the resemblance of the escarpment created by quarrying to the famous Italian Tarpeian Rock. Once quarried for the city's early sandstone buildings, the Tarpeian Precint is now but a thin veneer of earth covering the Sydney Harbour Tunnel. After the hospital opened, many stately homes were built by members of the medical profession on the east side of the street near the hospital, whilst the courthouse built later on its western side attracted lawyers and judges, who also built luxury homes here and turned this end of town into a high class area.Ĭut off from the rest of The Domain (of which it is a part) by the Cahill Expressway, Sydney's Tarpeian Precint is a narrow strip of open parkland alongside the eastern side of Macquarie Street and the western boundary of the Royal Botanic Gardens, rising towards the north to encompass the elevated area near Bennelong Point, where it overlooks the forecourt of the Sydney Opera House via a rocky escarpment. Like Sydney town itself, Macquarie Street was brought to life by the Governor who built the Government House stables (today's Conservatorium of Music) at one end of it, the Rum Hospital (today's Parliament House) in the middle and Hyde Park and the Hyde Park Barracks at the other. ![]() Up until Macquarie's arrival in Sydney in 1810, Sydney town was still a backwater penal colony and Macquarie Street was just a ridge-top bush track which served no other purpose than as the eastern boundary of the town. Macquarie Street's name commemorates Governor Lachlan Macquarie, the colonial Governor whose vision for Sydney is reflected in the city we see today. Macquarie envisaged as Sydney's town centre, Macquarie Street and the buildings along it are akin to a potted history of both the city and colonial Australia itself, documenting the growth and development of Sydney and early Australia like no other street in the country. Stretching from Circular Quay close to where the First Fleet came ashore in January 1788, to Queens Square which Gov. Though George Street is Sydney's most well known thoroughfare, Macquarie Street is the city's most significant historically and culturally.
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