High Tide

Sydney Morning Herald

Thursday January 5, 1995

LOVE/HATE RELATIONSHIP LOVE: Bragging. Yeah , yeah, Sydney is a beautiful city, at its most gorgeous when the sun is shining and the boats are out on the Harbour. Boy, do we love to remind ourselves and our visiting relatives and friends that we live in one of the most attractive metropolises on the planet. Melbourne? Brisbane? Adelaide? Nothing next to our primo real estate.

HATE: The ugly truth. Most of the people we know in Melbourne, Brisbane and Adelaide are paying so much less on their mortgages that they're holidaying overseas this summer.

A BEACH A DAY SYDNEY BEACHES YOU MAY NOT HAVE BEEN TO: Kyeemagh, to runway chic. A large expanse of flat land on the edge of Botany Bay, this looks like the perfect place to build an airport. And since the land at what is now Kingsford Smith has been used as an airstrip since 1919, others obviously agreed. Consequently, Kyeemagh, just to the west of the tunnel on General Holmes Drive which runs under our parallel runways, is not what you would call a nice beach. A rusty pipe runs from the sand out to sea; numerous air traffic control towers lend an ambience of Alcatraz; and the environs are inhospitable. If, however, your favourite book is the evergreen Which Plane Is That? then this is the beach for you. All brands, all sizes, and all that shiny silver colour. For the serious jet-checker, though, it seems the carpark on the other side of the Drive, facing the airport, is the place to be. Here, in a bizarre techno drive-in, avid plane-spotters sit behind the wheel peering through binoculars while in the next car P-platers snog in the back seat. An acute observer himself, Mr Whippy has long since abandoned the beach and now idles beside the carpark, ready to sate the ice cream cravings of the spotters.

THE SUMMER OF US Some of us are stuck behind desks waiting summer through the window. To cheer us up, we're asking you to send us your most impressive, stupidest, funniest family holiday snaps. Win a night's accommodation (harbour view), with breakfast, from the Hotel Intercontinental. Entries: Summer Agenda, Sydney Morning Herald, GPO Box 506, sydney, 2001. Entries close January 18.

GALLERY South end, Coogee Beach, 1993. Photograph taken by waterproof Herald snapper James Alcock.