There was a time, long ago, when the wharves of Darling Harbour would indeed have looked like this. Tall masted ships would have been lined up one after the other, some disgorging manufactured goods from the old world, others waiting to receive shipments of primary produce from the colony of New South Wales.

There would, perhaps, have been far fewer middle-class people wandering around the dock because it was a rough old place in those days, but the masts and sails and rails would all have been present. In this case at the front we have the three masted barque Europa (seen also in last Friday's PAD) with another three masted barque, the James Craig (part of the Sydney Heritage Fleet) immediately behind her.

I took a few shots like this but opted for this one because I fluked the inclusion of the soaring seagull in it. It would have been nice had the shot been a little bit faster so that the gull was less blurred, but I still think that it adds something a little unusual to the mix.