Finger Wharf
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The Finger Wharf in Woolloomooloo Bay, Sydney, Australia, is the largest timbered-piled building in the world. It was completed in 1915 and during its working life for 70 years it mainly handled the export of wool, but also acted as a staging point for troop deployment to the World Wars as well as a disembarking point for new migrants arriving in Australia.
Today it has been redeveloped as a fashionable complex housing a hotel, restaurants and residential apartments. The actor Russell Crowe and Australian media personality John Laws own apartments in the wharf.
[edit] Description
The wharf, with a length of 410m and width of 64m, is composed of two side sheds running almost the length of the jetty, connected by a covered roadway between. The roofline is three parallel gable roofs and the external elevations are distinguished by a repetitive gridded structure.
At the northern end a carpenter's workshop used to exist, it has now been replaced by a concrete and steel apartment building detached from the main wharf building. On the western side is a promenade running the length of the wharf with a marina on the waterfront and restaurants at the southern end. On the eastern side is a roadway for vehicular access to a carpark for residents.
The Blue hotel occupies most of the southern part of the wharf building while apartments mainly make up the rest of the structure.
[edit] History
The wharf was built by the the Sydney Harbour Trust between 1911 and 1915 with the charter to bring order to Sydney Harbour's foreshore facilities.[1] The Trust's Engineer-In-Chief, H.D Walsh, designed the massive waterfront building.[2] n.
[edit] Notes
- ^ MacMahon, Bill; et al (2001). The Architecture of East Australia. Edition Axel Menges, p. 49. ISBN 3-930698-90-0.
- ^ The Finger Wharf History. Maju Sequence. Retrieved on February 11, 2007.
