Observatory

Walking along Barangaroo Reserve

You can spot two green domes

From far:

The coppered patina of time

Stares from the shadows

Of a sandstone sentinel –

Here, Sydney Observatory slumbers

Over a quaint hidden hill

 

For a hundred years and more,

Storytellers of the stars

Gathered here –

Drawing weather maps,

And atlases of an infinite sky;

Curious of the unknown

In the footsteps of

The forefathers of Gadigal lands

 

Today, it is yet another landmark

Drawing in the tourists,

‘The views of the Bridge are terrific’

‘The glass towers of the CBD look flashy’

Some trickle at night

Keeping alive

The tradition and purpose

Remembering the observatory that looked above

 

Sometimes though,

When you hear silence

Descending at night

Upon the lawns of Barangaroo Reserve,

You may still see the old building lit

And wonder

If the observatory only looked up

All the while

 

What if it looked down as well?

Keeping an eye

On an old colony

That crumbled, groaned, then grew

From convict colony

To Emerald City

Whispering, ‘Warrane,

You have come a long way…

 

This tiny universe

By shimmering waters

With so many stars -

Their faint light reaching us

Even today.

Warrane shimmers and fades -

The cosmos changes,

The silent observer grows old and wise…