Cockatoo Island Adventure

One of my best friends turned 40 a couple of weekends ago.  It was a super celebration weekend as he and his partner rented the holiday houses on Cockatoo Island.  We had never been to Cockatoo Island.  It's in Sydney harbour at the junction of the Lane Cove and Parramatta Rivers.  I stressed about how we were going to get there with all of our luggage, but we were able to get a parking spot at the Woolwich wharf which is only one stop from Cockatoo Island.

The house is pretty special. 



See that tree on the left.  There was a lovely table and chairs underneath it.  We sat out there a lot. 

The tennis court next to the house.




Ed's party was on Saturday afternoon.  I didn't take very many pictures at the party which was at the Island Bar.   Here's the birthday boy at his party

Happy Birthday Ed!

Here's Will partying down.


His poses made me laugh.

The same weekend was the beginning of the Outpost Project on the island, so we spent a bit of time looking at the art and doing some of the activities.

The chalk was really popular.

We still don't know what "218?" is about.  Mollie is enigmatic at times.

Will conquers Ed.


Will recording his observations.


We had to correct someone's grammar.


Some artsy stuff



This exhibit had this really dark music playing which echoed in the shed.  Mollie hated this work.  We discussed how sometimes art makes you uncomfortable.  Then we joked about how it just like where Daddy grew up.  (not really, really.  Col grew up in the western suburbs of Sydney which have a bad rep.)

There were tons of screenprinted t-shirts.  The KMFDM shirt made me giggle.

For the record I am a Depeche Mode fan.   I bought Ed one of the specially screen printed shirts made there.










There was lots more stuff that I didn't photograph.  It's definitely worth a trip over there if you are interested in this type of art.  My only word of warning is that if it is a really hot day, it's going to be stinking hot on the island.  There isn't much shade outside of the buildings.   And if you want an alcoholic drink, the bar will be full of hipsters out for a drink.

Waiting for the ferry to go home.



There are some photos that I haven't blogged which are interesting views or buildings or crazy psycho seagulls.

Thanks Ed & Steve for a wonderful weekend.  It was really great to meet some more of Ed's "family".  Ed had friends fly in from the US, NZ, up from Melbourne and down from Brisbane and the Sunshine Coast.  I got to meet Ed's other woman, R, and Steve's sister.  The people made the weekend.