Wedged between a shop selling rubber stamps on the left and a jewellers on the right, the Theatre Royal’s rather mundane two story exterior could pass for a boarding house if it were not for the arched portico extending as far as the roadside kerbing with Theatre Royal painted on it. Entering the building after purchasing his ticket, the interior of the theatre impressed Henry. With red velvet chairs and walls decorated in white, gold and gray with a large glass chandelier as a centerpiece, it was certainly a worthy venue to listen to Ada play.
On stage a small orchestra had set up its chairs and music stands. The evening was to feature a variety of music, including the piano recitals by Ada. Henry settled into a comfortable velvet chair and watched as the last of the audience prompted to their seats by the theatre attendants dimming the gaslights and brightening the stage lights.
He thoroughly enjoyed the evening, not least of which Ada’s magical playing of the piano. Her ability to transfer such emotion to him through the manipulation of the keys and pedals brought a strange but not unpleasant tightness to his chest. After the performance he was quite exhilarated as he saw her emerge from a door to the side of the stage and approach him with a beaming smile.
‘Hallo Mr Giles, I do hope you enjoyed the performance.’
‘Very much so, especially your playing. You have a great talent.’
‘I seem to remember just the other week a charming gentleman saying everything comes with practice,’ Ada replied, briefly touching his arm, an action that did not go unnoticed by him.
‘I am very pleased you could make the performance. It is not often I have someone in the audience specifically to hear me play. Father does when he can, but often he has meetings and is unable to stay after accompanying me here.’
‘But I always am on time after your performances,’ came a voice from behind them. They turned and saw John standing there smiling at them.
‘Did you enjoy the performance, Mr Giles?’
‘I am impressed with your daughter’s talents. In fact I would say that all the other performers here this evening were no more that supporting the main piano pieces!’
‘Bravo! Now, I am glad I met you here tonight. Ada and I have an item of interest we would like to discuss with you. If you could meet us at one of my hotels, the Norfolk Hotel on George St, on Sunday morning at 8am, we will outline our thoughts. We may spend the day travelling to acreage I own, so wear travelling clothes.’
Henry was intrigued. ‘This sounds very mysterious, you cannot afford any more clues?’ he asked smiling looking from one to the other.
Ada returned his smile ‘Nothing more that we can tell you now. It is a yes?’
‘Of course!’ He watched her as she and John made their way back to the stage side door, where Ada looked back and gave him a quick wave and smile before she disappeared through the doorway.
*
The Norfolk Hotel was a fine looking building of three stories and of stone construction. ‘If this is just one of his hotels, Mr Willett must be a wealthy man.’ Henry thought as he entered the establishment where John Willett, who enthusiastically shook his hand, greeted him.
‘Mr Giles,,
so good of you to come. Ada has been so looking forward to telling you our
idea’
‘Please, call me Henry, and I must admit I am very intrigued as Miss Willett did not reveal any hints other than there may be some travel today.’
‘Indeed, please call be John and I am sure Ada will be happy for you to refer to her that way. Ah here she is now, we can discuss our idea over breakfast.’
They entered a large room where a table was set for three and a side table had several dishes containing toast, sausages, fried eggs and some crispy bacon await them.
Over breakfast John introduced the idea.
‘Ada has been keen to help discover a new challenge for you after you indicated that you did not wish to rest on your laurels after your ‘tween ship walk. She came up with a plan that while I see has merit, I suspect might be too daring. I will let Ada expand on the idea, as it was hers.’
‘I mentioned the notion to my father,’ she began. ‘He is agreeable from our side if you have an interest. When you said that you wanted to go higher and longer, the image of my father’s property at Middle Harbour came to mind. You see, it is part of a headland that forms one side of a bay, with an equally high headland opposite. It was my thought that this might provide some interest for you for a new walk. We are not sure of the height or distance, but if you have an interest we can inspect it today.’
‘Of course I am interested! By high and far, do you have any ideas as to the measures?’
John took the response; ‘I would imagine twice the height or more of a ship’s mast and a distance somewhat similar to that across Sydney Cove.’
Henry’s posture stiffened at the prospect. Sydney Cove while not overly wide would still measure around 1,000 feet. ‘By God, that would be a real challenge! You say we can visit the site today?’
Ada grinned and John nodded his head.
‘Do you mind if we take my business partner with us, he will be the one who will be in charge of the infrastructure, I just do the showman bits, as he keeps reminding me,’ admitted Henry with a smile.
*
They met again later in the morning at Circular Quay. Henry introduced Tom to John and Ada and they boarded one the cross-harbour ferries that serviced various points around the large harbour. The waterway bustled with vessels of all sizes and Ada sat close to Henry. They chatted and enjoyed the sun on the water and laughed like teenagers as the occasional light spray tossed up by the bow showered them.
After disembarking, two large wicker baskets containing food and beverages that John had arranged at the hotel, were loaded onto a horse drawn cart by a driver who was touting business at the ferry stop and they started on their way to John Willett’s property. The cart was not big and they were cramped, with knees touching.
Tom was surprised at the good quality of the track and commented on this to John.
‘There is a sandstone quarry not much further up the track, where great quantities of stone have been removed and used in building construction in the main part of Sydney,’ explained John. ‘The track is well maintained till that point but becomes worse after that, but then it is not far to our destination.’
The alternating eucalypt forest and dairy grazing scenery along the way soon changed to a rugged ridge with large sandstone rocks scattered about. Suddenly in front of them sunlight glittering off water became visible through the trees and on John’s instruction the driver reined the horse to a halt.
*
‘What do you think?’ asked Henry as they stood on the edge of the ridge where it plunged down into the calm water.
Tom shaded his eyes as he gazed at the opposite headland. ‘It is well over 1,000 feet, maybe as far at 1,500,’' he murmured quietly. ‘Getting a single length of rope to cover the distance will be impossible. We’ll have to join two, possibly three ropes, but that won’t be a problem.’
He turned and looked at the surrounding vegetation. ‘We can use these trees as anchor points on this side, plus a capstan to tension the rope. It looks like there are solid trees on the far side as well. I will need to look at ways to stay the walking rope to stablise it. That will take the most work due to the height.’
‘How high do you think?’ questioned Henry.
‘I would estimate 300 feet. It is very high. You would not survive a fall from that height.’
Henry walked back a few paces to where Ada and John had settled themselves on comfortable rocks shaded from the overhead sun by several large gum trees.
‘Tom is of the opinion that it is technically feasible. He estimates the distance to be between one and one thousand five hundred feet. John, do you know who owns the land on the far headland? We will need to get permission to attach rope to trees over there, maybe even cut some down if they are in the way.’
‘I can take care of that,’ replied John. ‘Most of we landholders around here have only bought the land on speculation, so I don’t think there should be any problems.’
‘I think this is a wonderful idea Ada,’ Henry said with a big smile as he turned to her. ‘It will certainly be a challenge, but one that I am enthusiastic about!’
The four settled down and enjoyed a pleasant picnic and refreshments under the shade of the white trunked eucalypt trees, with the loud buzzing chorus of cicadas threatening to drown out conversation at times.
They set off on the return journey early afternoon, all feeling mellow after their leisurely lunch and wine. On the way Henry regaled Ada with more stories of his acrobatic past.
‘How did you meet Tom?’ Ada asked.
‘While I was performing with Burton’s Circus, Tom came to work for them as a leading hand. He and I hit it off straight away and when I decided I wanted to go and do my own thing, he volunteered to look after all the logistical side of things. We operate on a straight 50/50 basis and have nary had a disagreement.’
‘He seems a good friend,’ observed Ada.
‘The best, I could not do what I do without him.’
Meanwhile Tom and John discussed the current and future development opportunities that Sydney offered. The boat ride back over the harbour was a fitting end to the trip and arriving back at Circular Quay, John invited Henry and Tom to dinner at the hotel after they had freshened up.
‘Such are the benefits of owning such an establishment’ thought Henry.
*
The conversation over dinner centred on the development of ideas to make the new rope walk a financial and performance success. John opened the discussion: ‘As you saw today the location provides some challenges for attracting crowds. I am unsure if there are enough drays and carts to cope with any significant number of people who would want transport to the site.’
‘If the water depth is sufficient, I think we should use a similar transport method that we used for our ships walk,’ said Henry. ‘Is the area easily navigable from Sydney Cove?’
John indicated to wait as he rose and strode out of the dining room to his office, promptly returning with a rolled up map. Moving the place settings he unrolled enough of the map to show an outline of both main reaches of Sydney Harbour.
‘Yes, as you can see here it is a simple passage out towards the heads then westwards again up Middle Harbour. It is a distance I would say of 15 or 20 miles, a distance outside the capacity of a ferry I fear,’ mused John.
‘What about steamers?’ interjected Tom. ‘There are many of them plying the harbour and they have a greater passenger capacity and can travel more quickly. I am sure there would be plenty that are idle on a weekend whose owners would be pleased to have their vessels utilised.’
‘Excellent idea!’ espoused Henry. ‘I think we should also provide some land-based vantage points, where passengers can disembark. John, perhaps you could handle this part and offer refreshments for sale. This will provide a good profit opportunity for you.’
So the discussions continued, with ideas raised and dismissed and others adopted. One aspect raised was how to deal with ‘dead heads’ travelling overland along the path they had taken that day. John sad it would be a simple matter to implement a toll for people wishing to enter his property and Henry and Tom agree that this was a fine idea and provide additional financial benefit to John.
A target date of two weeks hence was agreed upon to allow sufficient time to design and build the required infrastructure and arrange the hire of the water-based transport. It also conveniently coincide with the week long Sydney Exhibition.
The walking date was set finalised and advertisements appear in all the Sydney papers.
DANGEROUS ATTEMPT
H. Giles - Australian Blondin
To perform a high ropewalk of no equal
Over 1,000 feet distance, 300 feet above the harbour
Walking tightrope between
Two headlands Middle Harbour
Saturday & Sunday 14 & 15 April 1877
Access by chartered vessels departing Circular Quay from 10am