Get Aways
Sydney Morning Herald
Wednesday September 20, 2000
David Dale looks at what to do when you've got no tickets and time on your hands in the Olympic city.
The last half hour of Mission: Impossible 2 was filmed on Bare Island, near the southern Sydney suburb of La Perouse, but the place has even more historical interest than that. Bare Island fortress was built in 1881 to repel a feared Russian invasion of Sydney a state of the art weapons delivery system that was never used. Earlier, in 1788, a French ship called the Astrolabe, under the command of the Count of La Perouse, landed at the beach near Bare Island. If the count had just arrived two weeks earlier, he'd have beaten the English fleet and Australians would have been eating quiche instead of fish and chips for the past 200 years. The count had to sail away disappointed, leaving behind the grave of the ship's priest, Father Receveur. You can see all this and the excellent Cable Station Museum (with both French and Aboriginal artefacts) by taking the 394 bus from Elizabeth Street in the city.
© 2000 Sydney Morning Herald
