Finger Wharf

Infobox Historic building
name=Finger Wharf

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caption=The Finger Wharf and marina in Woolloomooloo Bay
location_town=Woolloomooloo, Sydney
location_country=Australia
architect=Henry Walsh
client=Sydney Harbour Trust
engineer=
construction_start_date=1911
completion_date=1915
date_demolished=
cost=
structural_system=Timber
style=
size= The Finger Wharf or Woolloomooloo Wharf is a wharf in Woolloomooloo Bay, Sydney, Australia. The structure is the largest timbered-piled building in the world and was completed in 1915. During its working life for around 70 years it mainly handled the export of wool, but also acted as a staging point for troop deployment to the World Wars as well as a disembarking point for new migrants arriving in Australia.

Today it has been redeveloped as a fashionable complex housing a hotel, restaurants and residential apartments. The well-known film actor Russell Crowe lives in a $14 million penthouse at Finger Wharf, which as a result has become famous in Australia and abroad and as well as one of the most expensive and sought after places in the country. [cite news |first=Christine |last=Sams |title=On the move with Russell and Danielle |url=http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2003/05/31/1054177765250.html |work=Sun-Herald |date=2003-06-01 |accessdate=2006-10-22 ] Australian media personality John Laws also owns an apartment in the wharf.

Description

The wharf, with a length of Convert|410|m|ft|0 and width of Convert|64|m|ft|0|abbr=on|abbr=on, is composed of two side sheds running almost the length of the jetty, connected by a covered roadway between. The roofline is three parallel gable roofs and the external elevations are distinguished by a repetitive gridded structure.

At the northern end a carpenter's workshop used to exist, it has now been replaced by a concrete and steel apartment building detached from the main wharf building. On the western side is a promenade running the length of the wharf with a marina on the waterfront and restaurants at the southern end. On the eastern side is a roadway for vehicular access to a carpark for residents.

The "Blue" hotel (formally the "W" hotel) occupies most of the southern part of the wharf building while apartments mainly make up the rest of the structure.

History

The wharf was built by the Sydney Harbour Trust between 1911 and 1915 with the charter to bring order to Sydney Harbour's foreshore facilities.cite book |last=MacMahon |first=Bill |coauthors=et al |title=The Architecture of East Australia |year=2001 |publisher=Edition Axel Menges |pages=p. 49 |isbn=3-930698-90-0 ] The Trust's Engineer-In-Chief, Henry Walsh, designed the massive waterfront building.Cite web |title=The Finger Wharf History |publisher=Maju Sequence |url=http://www.maju.com.au/wharf_history.cfm |accessdate=2007-02-11]

The Finger Wharf was an operational working wharf for much of the 20th century. But by the 1970s, new container ports with larger wharfing facilities and cruise liner terminals around the city meant the usage of the wharf declined. By the 1980s the wharf lay derelict and empty and in 1987, the state government decided to demolish the Wharf.

A new marina and resort complex was approved to replace the wharf in Woolloomooloo Bay, but when demolition work was due to begin in January 1991, locals blocked entrance to the site.Cite news |title=Live and let lie policy for wharf |first=Anne |last=Susskind |publisher=The Sydney Morning Herald |date=1991-01-15 |page=2 |id=ISSN 0312-6315] Unions imposed a Green ban which stopped demolition crews from undertaking work.

Notes