THE CITY OF SYDNEY. 



207 



to its edge bringing on holidays multitudes of the city folk to enjoy the freshness of tin- 

 pure salt water and the Pacific breezes. To the northward of Cooler is anoth.-r reserved 

 beach, furnished with a bathing-place, an aquarium and a skating-rink. It skirts Bond! I 

 the tram-road reaching within half a mile of the water. To the southward lit: other inl.-ts. 

 especially Maroubra Bay and Long Bay, but these have not yet been mad<- accessible by 

 the tram, or even by good roads; but they are both available for future marine esplanades. 



IN THE ZOOLOGICAL GARDENS. 



^jJ-.VV--, ,-: ,, - 



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At the north headland of Botany there is also a large public reserve. The Customs 

 House has a small station here; and here, too, starts the telegraph-cable to New 

 Zealand ; and a swing-bridge leads to the fortifications of Bare Island. The northern 

 beach of Botany Bay, which is mostly reserved, is cut off from the western beach by 

 the mouth of Cook's River, which debouches through a winding outlet between muddy 

 banks into the north-west corner of the Bay. The whole of the western beach, from 

 the mouth of Cook's River to the mouth of George's River, has been reserved for the 

 public for a hundred feet above high-water mark, and is vested in trustees ; a public 

 bathing-reserve is projected at Doll's Point. The whole line of the beach is admirably 

 adapted for bathing purposes, as the sandy floor shelves gradually down, and only very 

 seldom do the heavy easterly gales make any rough water on the shore. The Govern- 

 ment has done but little as yet to improve this reserve, but private enterprise has 

 already made a beginning in the work of turning to account its bathing facilities. The 

 niawarra Railway, after crossing Cook's River, runs within a mile of the shore, and 

 from the Rockdale Station a private tram-line has been made to the water, where about 

 an acre has been enclosed with piles to make the bathing-ground secure against sharks. 

 This locality is so admirably fitted to be the bathing-ground for Sydney that the 

 accommodation for it is sure to grow. 



Parallel to the beach, and a few hundred yards from it, but connected with it by 

 a boulevard three chains wide, is Scarborough Park, another recent dedication. It was 

 originally a swamp, receiving the drainage of the land to the west, and described in old 

 Government maps as of no value. But as the beach was opened up to occupation, and 



