Abandoned - Darling Harbour 1988
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- Опубликовано: 24 июн 2019
- To celebrate 1,000 subscribers, I am returning to Darling Harbour to examine the original Darling Harbour development from 1988 until 2013.
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My family and I spent a lot of time at Darling Harbour through the 90s and 2000’s and have good memories of all the locations like Sega world and even the monorail. I may be getting old and sentimental but it doesn’t feel like the old Darling Harbour anymore. It was never perfect but I’m glad I experienced some of how it was originally envisaged, not like the vanilla sameness it is now. Thanks for the walk down memory lane Sir Laptop. I’ve enjoyed your series so far. Good stuff!
I feel the same way - I’m 35 now and feel a sense of loss after memories spending time there with family and friends. The new centre is “modern” however it’s just a bland copy and paste design that has nothing unique about it.
My favourite feature of the original Exhibition centre was the huge masts and cables used to support the huge roof. It was intended to reflect the masts of sailing ships :-)
Yes, it look horrible and characterless now
i never grew up of darling harbour of old. but whilst unimaginative, darling harbour today feels lively and exciting due to the people who make it alive, rather than the architecture itself.
still, its a travesty that not more creative designs were introduced for darling harbour's redevelopment.
It's great to see someone doing "abandoned" type videos that are Aussie specific.
It would be also great to see all future seasons kept as entirely Aussie content, rather than global content.
Keep up the good work.
I’m of two minds about this.
On the one hand, I have fond childhood memories spending time in Darling Harbour for big events, spending time with family going to the museums, Aquarium, IMAX, fun rides on the monorail, even going to boat and car shows just to look, since we were never in the market for a boat.
On one hand, yes, I like the nostalgia and perhaps it was a mistake to rebuilt everything with just one developer.
On the other hand, Darling Harbour was NEVER fit for purpose. It had always been a badly planned, mish mash of tacky, isolated buildings and the whole thing felt like a sort of twilight zone surrounded by, but still isolated from Sydney.
We cannot pretend, just for nostalgia’s sake, that the old Darling Harbour was salvageable. It had been failing gradually for decades, regardless of how much tinkering around the edges was happening. The only way to fix Darling Harbour was to go in for a BIG fix, and let’s not pretend otherwise.
I can’t say I LOVE the new buildings, but I don’t hate them either. It is, in my books, an enormous improvement, and the only way Darling Harbour was ever - or could ever - actually meaningfully improve. I don’t mourn the loss of the old buildings. It wasn’t “vandalism”.
Of course, the architect who thought that is going to think that. But the overall area felt outdated and non-functional. I do think that the new buildings, in many cases, genuinely are an aesthetic improvement, and if the area now draws more people in, including workers and residents and non-tourists who actually want to be there, that is a good thing.
I generally agree with pretty much all your points, but the new model is not an improvement in terms of attractions and more people orientation. I mean, while tacky, the peddle boat lake and Sega world area is just simply a commbank HQ now. The ICC also feels a tad bit less accessible then the exhibition and convention centres of old.
My best memories of Darling Harbour were going to the Motor Show with my Dad and brothers.
No doubt I still remember the Old Darling Harbour. Me and my family have spent a lots of time there throughout the 90s and 2000s and I have lots of great memories, wonderful memories of the location like SEGA World Sydney, Sydney Aquarium, National Maritime Museum and especially the old Children’s Playground. Even though it’s changed to what it is now I will never forget the old Darling Harbour and it will remain a part of my childhood memories forever.
With its lake
I remember going on a school excursion to the original exhibition centre to see some dinosaurs back in 1996. We were sitting eating lunch or something and some people came up and asked if we would like to go to Sega World... for free. Well yeah!
This is good to watch, thanks. I have been documenting a lot of the changes around Darling Harbour over the past 8 years and as they are now going to demolish Harbourside it was interesting to watch this. I am hoping to get shots of that demolition tho I do find it a little sad its all been replaced.
Darling Harbour was my favourite place when I was five in 1988. It was so much better then than it is now.
The last time we were at darling harbour was 1998 and we stayed in the big hotel behind
We rode on the monorail it was great
I sorry it’s all gone now
Was down Darling Harbour last weekend, haven't really been through the area for over 15 years. Barely recognised the place, development is inevitable but it doesn't have the same personality it once did.
SEGA World, Bring it back
Yep
Still have memories of that
If only I could see the old playground one last time, the bridge lives in my memory now 🥲
wait there was an old playground?
Yes I’ve been trying to find a video or a least a photo of the old playground, right under Sega world right? And it had water near it too. But like not a water park. It was a legit playground like right on the water. Idk if I’m correct or not I was really young and I can hardly remember
@@sararosekilic9397 yep it had water pistols on pedestals!
You dont get many views and you dont have many subs, but rest assured your videos are very appreciated
Sad... I was there on opening day in 88 and went there a lot. Why do they need to rip all the Bicentennial 1988 buildings down ?... I'm guessing money and greed has taken over😕 .
i was there too mate! Parents took us, was a cracker day. Then our school tooks us a few weeks later. Loved that place so much.
THIS IS GREAT I was in Sydney during the latter half of 1988 and it was great to see Darling Harbour before it got crazy and modernised again. I loved the monorail
Yep. I described it too my dad like this, "if you blind folded me and put me in certain spots I couldn't tell you where I am". Only Harbourside, the skyline and Haymarket give it away. It's ugly too. I hate lend lease for personal reasons.
Just spent a weekend in darling Harbour, pretty much a ghost town pretty sad.
The development of barungaro seems to have killed off what is left.....
This appears to be an anomaly of when you were there. I walk through Darling Harbour everyday, it is is extremely busy, especially the water playgrounds.
Ive always been optimistic about Darling Harbour, for as long as I can remember. Even though even I agreed it could be cheesy and grimy on the sides, I had many good times there, and always felt ir was the best hangout spot/best place for fun in Sydney since at least 2000. This makes it so depressing though, I didnt know people thought tje Darling Harbour project was quite this critical :(
As for the project today? I dont dislike it that much, but I will agree that its just the same same sort of average modern architecture that doesnt speak much, and I would agree with the old architect that the area is becoming more of a hotel/casino tycoon park, away from when it used to be more people orientated (Im sure lockout laws, and the ridicolous ease of concessions we gave to Packer with Barangaroo and the International Towers didnt help) I dont think the 1988 bay area wouldve ever lasted too lomg though, but it is a shame that it couldnt have lasted for a bit longer than about 20-30 years, as it was supposed to represent a big moment for Australia (bi centennery of modern Australia since first settlers 1788)
Seems the Darling Harbour project always went through barbs, from its hurried conception, to another fairly overdeveloped planned demolition of Harbourside
Now Harbourside shopping centre is being demolished too. Darling harbour isn’t the same it’s tooo modern and urban now😢
Not the one I grew up in
As a tourist spot, it needs to be updated to reflect the times. The Cox aesthetic is very tired. We can’t be using Ken Done bedsheets forever.
Very well made video. It's interesting to compare Melbourne's urban renewal projects with Sydney's. Down here we had Southbank, Docklands, South Wharf and soon Fishermans Bend. Totally different mistakes were made down here, but our authorities seem to have screwed up slightly less than Sydney's have.
I lived in north melbourne in 2008 and my balcony looked over the broken ferris wheel that had issues with hot weather at the time in docklands, memories
People will complain about anything, the redevelopment of Darling Harbour has been great! the location of Darling Square was once an oversize above ground carpark & now its buzzing food precinct & neighbourhood. But the recent redevelopments in Sydney & Melbourne, Sydney Triumphs within the city with new locations with street level activation in locations like Barangaroo,Central Park,Quay Quarter & Darling Square. Melbourne has gone Tall & looks great from a distance but the podiums are 10 level carparks at ground level.
Melbourne’s Dockland were never intended to be their answer to Darling Harbor. Tourism never seemed to have been seriously factored in. (Apart from that ridiculous Ferris Wheel). The emphasis has always been on commercial and residental development. As it should be, who is going to travel across the globe just to see a dirty brown river with generic looking office and apartment buildings next to it.
@@themickcolloagree 100% with your “10 storey carpark at street level” comment, but it’s only really true for the Southbank area. The CDB at least has some kind of zoning regulations that preserve the streetscape, not so Southbank. A huge blunder IMHO. Southbank is not pedestrian friendly, it has no human scale and is best traversed in a car or a bus. As for Sydney, I haven’t seen most of what you have mentioned yet. Barangaroo interests me, but that horrible Crown Tower is not a good sign.
I haven't been back to Darling Harbour since 2010. I'm afraid to ruin my happy childhood memories.
In Brisbane we had similar challenges for an least a decade or more with the old Expo 88 site and Southbank south Brisbane (which included shutting down a monorail and theme park. Now it is actually a beautiful parklands and fantastic dining precinct connecting Museums, cultural centre, exhibition centre, hotels and residential commercial.
In twenty years of living in Sydney, I can count on one hand the number of times I visited this area by day. It had a tacky feel to it, plonked between over sized motorways and dereliction, it never looked finished. The only reason for me to go there was to go to home night club, and when you're on party drugs, everything looks fantastic.
The insights here are fascinating. All these developments came about just before my time, so I feel like a missed out on a lot of Sydney's most recent history that you've explained here. Great work!
The new Darling Harbour is pretty nice if you ask me, maybe cause I am young and love that style of architecture.
Agreed, and I am not so young, love it though
I hate what Sydney has become. First Sega World was demolished, then Metro Monorail, the convention centre, IMAX, and now the fucking Harbourside shopping centre.
Lendlease is turning good structure into random glass shapes. Sydney is now the city equivalent to sliced wheat bread.
Don't forget the Entertainment Centre was wiped, too.
@@garethwest9069 OHHHH FUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUCK
@@echonomad94 We have the Super Theatre a few hundred metres from where the Entertainment Centre was, and we have the indoor arena at Olympic Park. I see a lot of people complaining about SEGA World closing. Well, it wasn't making enough money, apparently. If you want to complain about something, complain about the Malaysian company that bought Wonderland , ran it into the ground, and sold the land off for industrial use. The Monorail was a bit of a gimmick, a tourist ride. I didn't hate it, but some did.
I agree with Philip Cox and the area has been destroyed by Lend Lease. What was once great is now a boring area and just overcrowded.
I miss the old darling harbour. It had so much character! Sega world will hold a place in my heart forever.
As a tourist from Melbourne I have always enjoyed the monorail. But it only ran in one direction and was relatively expensive. If you wanted to go to a station in the wrong direction, you had to go all the way in the other direction and there was only one fare.
I did like the way it clung to the sides of buildings and stations were built on top of verandahs, but was only a tourist attraction.
I also like the wrap around advertising, one was for a chocolate bar (I forget which) and it looked like a giant chocolate bar.
Ayyy. Monetized, congrats.
Thank you for the reminder and information never knew
Always miss the old entertainment centre with the McDonalds at the front of Harbour Street and the small walk way via the park that went underneath Pier St with the timed water feature. So many good memories of seeing Disney on Ice as a young child at that building, and all the Melbourne shuffle meet ups in the late 2000s at the water fountains past Tumbalong Park. Walking into Darling Square now, you can barely recognise the old parts. Too many shops and business, not enough community spirit Oh well. Don't understand why they knocked over a lot of the old buildings by Andrews and Cox of the 80s, they were brilliantly designed and well ahead of their time. I only recently went there at the beginning of the year after leaving Sydney for over 9 years for work and was gob smacked. There is a good Japanese restaurant in one of the alleyways tho.
This makes me feel ashamed to say I was born in NSW and I love the place but it's just to costly to live but that's wrong
Thanks for the upload. I’m fairly new to your channel and need to say the background music makes it very difficult to hear you and concentrate on the great content. I have to mute it and put subtitles on.
The place feels really cluttered now.
Actually all covered up
The mono rail was the best part of all this place
The problem with the monorail was it didn’t go far enough around Sydney
really looking forwardv to season 2
I think I made a comment on your original Monorail video that I always shame they never integrated it into the public transport system by having stations closer to Central Station and Circular Quay basically what the light rail does now.
Good research. Nice video footage from the past.
Looks like the whole area is Lend Lease, they also did Barangaroo north of that.
They've kept the water spiral thing in the ground where kids go down.
There're some popular restaurants at the Harbourside shopping mall that have a queue all the time, it's still going ok.
Just yesterday I walked past the new exchange area. There're "coming soon..." signs everywhere. It's almost ready to open.
Tourism has increased a lot since it was first built, much more than the local population.
The spiral thing will probably go out with the redevelopment of Harbourside though, which Sir Laptop saod was imminent unfortunately
There used to be those jumping blocks and a hill maybe a lake plus the entertainment center and heading into the toilets
Goodbye harbourside now as well, R.I.P darling harbour, officially has zero reason for me to visit now(hard Rock cafe and a couple of the arcades being why I still visited)
As you say it's just all bland same same as the rest of Modern Sydney areas
The rainforest cafe was called drain teen cafe. But I do have a rainforest cafe near my house at Ontario mills mall.
You are too kind👌
Will the Opera House be the next knock down rebuild?
They won't knock down the Opera House. Too much of note about it. Too " iconic ". Big uproar if they moved on that, starting with the Snots and Lah-De-Dahs.
I worked at Jordans in 1991
You ahould make an update on this when harbourside finishes rebuilding
I'm not sure if you take requests for abandoned topics, but - if you do - I'd like to suggest that you make an episode about the history of United Video. Granted, that might seem a bit of a lazy option, since you've already covered a video rental chain. I'll try to think of something else.
Since the railway line to Hobart was shut down recently, perhaps you could make an abandoned episode about the closed/disused railways in Tasmania.
And now we only have one. Great.
oh no not around the world
i was wondering why many people were viciously against today's darling harbour?
in a city, things change, people adapt, and perhaps we should reconsider our perspective of cities. are they necessarily buildings and infrastructure, or cities defined by the people?
because what darling harbour used to be was about the buildings, but what darling harbour is today is the people, a monotone, blank canvas, one with every right to be criticised for the lack of artistic vision, but one with many more people, and people can do all sorts of interesting things.
a walkway of mirrors turned into a free dancing room, a wide walkway with enough space for roller skaters to practise tricks, a water park with lessons in physics and engineering just by play, and not to mention people create all sorts of businesses to cater to all needs; all sorts of trendy restaurants reside darling square today.
i do wonder, shouldn't we finely critique darling harbour, with both suitable compliments and criticisms, without disregarding any benefits the changes have made?
Used to deliver freight there,back when.Way back when,just sayin'
I remember sega world and the waterfront park with water pistols on pedestals and paddle boats in the water, they have absolutely ruined the place.
The new darling harbour is beautiful I dont know how you can bag it !
People bagging the redevelopment of Darling Harbour don't have a clue, beautiful boulevard surround by great public space. They forget Darling Square used to be an ugly carpark and now it's busling public square surround by cafes, restaurants & laneways.
None of you even existed when Darling Harbour was like this. You did not ride the monorail, or go to Sega world, or even old darling walk
cool
Worst thing they ever did was get rid of the monorail, Sydney's just another hole now...
Havent been back to DArling Harbour since maybe 2010, got to go back to see how ugly it gets
3:54 That aged well
I want footage of the old drive thru indoor McDonald's lol
Darling Harbour still very busy with goods movement into the seventies. As recorded in this NFSA film:
ruclips.net/video/S0izTlCTHJc/видео.html
Darling Shunters is another one to look at from a few years later.
Anyone remember Dagwood Burgers?
I'm glad to see there are others that do. As a kid whenever we went to Harbourside, it was Dagwood burgers and Timezone for me. Best flame grilled burgers I ever had :(
@@RogueCannon dogwoods was my first job :)
Unfortunately No, I Was Only Born In 2003
If Sega plans a Sega world California, I would go there to celebrate the end of the coronavirus. I’m sure that the new Sega world Sydney might be in another part of darling walk. But it might have a few mods to the original. Like the statues of sonic and sally if they are restored. They might even bring the original sign back.
Imax did need to go, stank bad in there, needs a remodel
Also more trees is a good thing
need to do a follow up please. :)
The Ribbon was planned to be finished by 2019? It's 2023 and it's still not finished
Yes, it took a long time. It's pretty well finished now. Even internal fit-outs should be just about done. Two construction companies went bust, Grocon (Melbourne company) and the local arm of ProBuild (South African). Every time a new builder takes over a site, they have to do a lot of due diligence - they don't want to be held responsible for any problems left by the previous builders.
No locks 🔐 their heat vision
That's the only thing that keeps Sydney NSW economy going. Build it knock it down. Darling Harbour is a horrible tourist trap.
Well so much for the re-built IMAX and hotel that never happened as the old IMAX is still there although a certain pandemic is likely responsible for that but Darling Harbour has certainly changed a lot through the years and when these never ending lockdowns ever finish I look forward to going back and seeing how things are nowadays.
The old Imax was knocked down a couple of years ago, and they are nearing the finish of the new building
@@andrewstensel7409 Huh? Really? As the last time I was in Darling Harbour it was still there although that was a few years ago now so you're probably right
Well done and well said LEND LEASE ARE A BUNCH OF WANKERS
This guy really hates the letter "H"
I seem to be one of few negative comments which shows that the majority of people and government officials have poor taste and want to change a lovely and well developed site into a flashy and trashy looking destination. The Sydney City Council are also poor judges of taste and are biased towards pedestrian only movements around the City and environs. Needs other design alternatives to view.
Sydneysiders are sadly very spoiled and entitled.
Once something gets a little old, they want something new.
When they get something new, they continue to complain.
Pathetic really!
I have a package for ada ;)
The Kastle granny flat mafia uncle lily Greg mint
Really made me quite sad. We spent time at the Aquarium, the Powerhouse Museum, the Chinese Gardens, ate at some nice but expensive restaurants, travelled on the little tractor train...But it was ALWAYS a pain to get to. It was boiling hot in summer, a bitterly cold wind tunnel in cooler weather. And it was a hug area to traverse with small children. Also never bought anything much because u had to lug it around. Really interesting take on section of Sydney’s history. Maybe get someone else to do the voice over. I’m hardly advocating a BBC accent but there are only so many times u can hear Darlin’ ‘arbour without flinching.
A chase around after a whole lot of useless good-for-nothing crap.
COVID-19 conrona flying cop 👮♂️ ghost 👻 fruit ghost town ranbuild
these videos will get better when you stop putting your opinions in as much, i don't agree with your opinions of the new look, and if anything i'd love to know what a person who can't even be a consistent youtube uploader would build in these locations, got any designs sketched out?
I placed a really nice comment on this video ... TWICE! Both have been removed for what reason I have no idea. Now I've unsubscribed from your list and removed the links from my Group.
although the new darling harbour looks bland, I did hate the 1988 'legoland' darling harbour with a passion, it sucked bad and the tubular metal that took to rusting and leaking very quickly after its construction was just meh, the jolly swagmen or sheep shearing statues ignored recent immigration attributions to the country and soley forcused on british history, not terrible but a bit tone deaf to the 'partition' of the chinese gardens a stones throw away, all feels like the Olympic stadium in homebush, great for its intended purpose but rather pointless after the fact, darling harbour did have some cool features but attracted some bad crowds from far and wide that would see locals only to pass through it on their way to work and not really stay there except for big work functions or conferences at the conference center there.
very sad
Great video mate, but you really gotta get rid of that forced vocal fry, because holy hell, it's super grating on the ears and sounds really unnatural. Stop trying to make your voice sound deeper than it is. It's excruciating.
I want footage of the old drive thru indoor McDonald's lol
Same lol