Ben, Dani and I walked it one night after too much fine wine with some Australian colleagues. I’ve jogged across it many times. And walked, like in this pic from 2004 (right).
But I haven’t seen any cows.
On Sunday, for the first time since the 1930s when farmers paid tuppence to move their stock across the span, dairy cows, along with about 6000 people are expected to attend a picnic on the coathanger as part of the Breakfast on the Bridge event, the centrepiece of the Crave Sydney festival.
To help the cows acclimatise, a hectare of Kikuyu turf from Pitt Town in Sydney’s far north-west will be transported to the heart of the city and laid over the tarmac.
Danielle Krix, the farm manager at Hurlstone Agricultural School, said,
”For some people that come from the city, it’s going to be an eye-opener that milk comes out of an actual cow and not a carton.”
Evergreen Turf is the company responsible for trucking in the turf to cover the bridge roadway and its chief executive, Dean Holden, said it would take about eight semi-trailers to transport it and three hours to lay it.
”Three o’clock in the morning is always fun to be doing a bit of work … but while looking over Sydney Harbour it will be a magnificent experience.”
There will be a cow milking display for the ticket holders.
Breakfast on the Bridge will run for two hours from 6.30am, with the bridge closed on Sunday from 1am to 1pm.