Banksy, Outpost: Art From the Streets

@ Cockatoo Island.

Fantastic day at Cockatoo Island - ferry from Circular Quay to this intriguing island - the largest island in Sydney Harbour. It's a former imperial prison, industrial school, reformatory and gaol. It is also the site of one of Australia's biggest shipyards during the twentieth century. The first of its two dry docks was built by convicts and was completed in 1857. The island's maritime industrial activity ceased in 1992.

Cockatoo Island's prison buildings were added to UNESCO's World Heritage list along with ten other Australian convict sites in July 2010. Large workshops, slipways, wharves and residences retain the texture of the island's industrial past. (yup, copy lifted from the website!).

However, we were on the island for the Outpost Art Project - an incredible, enormous street art exhibition, in the most atmospheric setting you could imagine for art of this genre - huge, abandoned old warehouses; underground tunnels; rusting cranes and all sorts of industrial relics.

I've never seen Banksy in 'real life' before and it was great to see the work in this environment. It was just perfect for street art... and no queue!

Rounded the day off with a drink in the Island Bar before catching the ferry home, and then hosting our first bbq for friends who have moved from Scotland to Sydney! Late night drinking wine and watching the lunar eclipse.

A pretty good saturday all in all.