Genuine 1972 prices

The phrase ‘a day on the greens’ may conjure one of the following images for you: golfing, salad eating on a diet, drinking only VB/ green Coopers beer or maybe just smoking plenty of dope on the couch. There is another way to have a day on the greens and it can combine all of the above…barefoot bowls. You have the green lawns of golf, the BBQ with salad, plenty of drink and .....a relaxed atmosphere.

Barefoot Bowls is just lawn bowls (without the shoes and white clothing), but it’s also one of the best ways to meet the locals, have a drink, enjoy the sun and anyone can play. Think of it as the difference between test match cricket and pyjama cricket.

There are some greens with great views in Sydney (Clovelly), but my local ‘bowlo’ in Coogee is the best. Apart from having plenty of bowling talent, it has the cheapest beers in the Sydney’s Eastern subs to turn you from Barefoot into Barfoot. They’re not quite genuine 1972 prices but at about $4 a beer it’s at least 1992.

To draw another cricket comparison, Coogee even has Moonlight Bowls, Barefoot under lights. It’s the day- night/ World Series Cricket revolution all over again (Google it or ask someone over 30)!

2 hours of Barefoot will cost you $10 any time from 10am till 10pm (8pm weekdays) and this includes the bowls and a lesson if needed. There are BBQs that are BYO for the acronym lovers and you’ll have to sign in when you get there or become a member for $5. Don’t forget to take your hat off inside, it’s disrespectful.

To get yourself in the mood or maybe just to get an idea, check out the Aussie movie Crackerjack.

Below is a newspaper clipping from 1888 about the new Coogee Bowls Club and Aquarium. The aquarium is still there, its just a pub now.

Harry Ate All The Pies

Who ate all the pies? This is a question with too many answers. Harry, however, is the guy who made all the pies (in Sydney anyway). Harry’s Café De Wheels is a Sydney icon and has been serving up hot dogs and the famous ‘Tiger Pie’ for 70 plus years.

The café is little more than a pie van next to the Garden Island Naval Base in Woolloomooloo, but it’s listed with the National Trust. In the BK (Before Kebabs) era of 1938, Harry ‘Tiger’ Edwards started serving ‘pie n’ peas’ and crumbed sausage from a van at this spot. The late night grub became popular with all walks of Sydney life from sailors and soldiers, to cabbies, starlets, streetwalkers and coppers alike.

The ‘De Wheels’ part of the name comes from a time when the council said that mobile food vans needed to move at least 12 inches everyday. Harry complied, until his wheels were oddly stolen and his position became more permanent.

The Tiger Pie is Harry’s most famous dish and the house special. It’s a chunky beef pie served with mushy peas, mash & gravy for $6.

Notable Harry’s customers include: Frank Sinatra, Elton John, Pamela Anderson, Sir Richard Branson, Jerry Lewis, Bill Clinton and a list of celebrity chefs including my favourite … Harland ‘The Colonel’ Sanders.

It’s always the best place to finish your Kings Cross night at ridiculous o’clock. The cabbies all hang around for a feed and you might even catch Harry’s next door neighbour Russell Crowe devouring a late night dog’s eye with dead horse.

Lunch Date?

If you’ve tried to have your lunch in a park in Sydney, you’re usually not alone. As soon as you unwrap whatever it is you plan to eat, you make a few friends of the winged variety. By far the most irritating are the seagulls and the dirtiest are the pigeons, but what is that massive white bird with the long black beak stalking your sandwich? That is an ibis.

Ibis are native to Australia, but are found in other parts of the world, especially Africa. In Australia, they are more common in swamp areas further in land, but due to drought they’ve been moving to more coastal regions and you can now find them all over Sydney and further north in Brisbane.

In their natural environment, their usual diet consists of insects, crayfish and mussels and you’ll see them dig out shellfish form the mud with their long beaks and then break them open on a rock. Today, however, you’ll see them competing for scraps with the pigeons and seagulls in Hyde Park and surrounds. They’ve perfectly adapted to life in suburban parks and it’s not uncommon to find one standing on a bin rim reaching in and picking out garbage with its beak like an animal world version of a Skill Tester. The coloured bands around their ankles and knees are part of a program to monitor the birds' movements as they've become a pest, but are still protected as Australian native animals. 

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