Outpost at Cockatoo Island

So, this restless vegan isn't so restless anymore. Actually, I'm trying my best to settle into Sydney, but the lack of employment prospects is doing it's best to thwart my plans. Being unemployed has one advantage - I can visit lots of Sydney sights without the weekend crowds getting in the way.

Last Friday, S & I headed over to Cockatoo Island to visit the Outpost street art exhibition. The island is heritage listed and contains the remains of the machinery from the shipyards that ran on the island until 1992.

This was my favourite work - it's a reproduction of the artist's childhood home.

Inside the house there was a video playing, showing the artist destroying these 3 Commodores.

There was also a huge exhibition of vintage & collectable t-shirts. It was visually very interesting.

The juxtaposition (love that word!) of the old machinery with the art was fantastic.

My other favourite exhibition was the Oi You! collection, featuring a number works by Banksy that have never been seen outside NZ. This was my favourite work in the collection.

After we checked out all the exhibitions, we climbed up to the top of the island, which contains loads more machinery and factory buildings as well as lots of examples of the other histories of the island - which has also been a convict prison, industrial school, reformatory and jail. The views are also pretty nice.

My favourite thing about the whole day was just wandering around, looking at all the old buildings and imagining what it would have been like in the past. I love that the government has the left the island as is, rather than pulling the old buildings down and trying to develop it into something else.

If you haven't visited Cockatoo Island yet, put it on your list - it's a really nice way to see a different view of Sydney.