The Sydney Writers Walk is a series of 60 circular metal plaques embedded in the footpath between Overseas Passenger Terminal on West Circular Quay and the Sydney Opera House forecourt on East Circular Quay.
The plaques were installed to honour and celebrate the lives and works of well-known Australian writers, as well as notable overseas authors who lived in or visited Australia, such as D. H. Lawrence, Joseph Conrad and Mark Twain. Quotes from a significant work and some biographical information about the writer are stamped onto each plaque, along with an excerpt of the author's writing.
The walk was created by the NSW Ministry for the Arts in 1991, and the series was extended when a further 11 plaques were added in 2011. However, as one journalist pointed out, the plaques are not updated. For example, Thea Astley's plaque gives the year she was born (1925) but there is no reference to her death in 2004. The same is true for Oodgeroo Noonuccal, who died in 1993; Judith Wright (d. 2000); A. D. Hope (d.2000); Dorothy Hewett (d.2002), and Ruth Park (d.2010).
In 2014 the Rotary Club of Sydney Cove published a guide to the Walk.
List Writers marked with an asterisk * were the subject of plaques added to the Walk in 2011. PlaqueWriterDatesQuoteSourceJessica Anderson * 1916–2010In ... Sydney I became conscious for the first time of the points of the compass, and felt for the first time the airs of three other climates, borne onto my skin by the three prevailing winds.Tirra Lirra by the River(1978)Thea Astley 1925–2004Queensland isn't the home of the tall yarn. It's where the tall yarn happens, acted out on a stage where, despite its vastness, the oddballs see and recognise each other across the no-miles and wave their understanding.Being a Queenslander(1976)Faith Bandler 1918–2015The blueness of the sky folded into the sea and it was never-ending. It was always like this. Everything was eternal. The moons came and went and came again. The sun came every day. When the dark thick clouds which brought the rain covered the sun, there was no need to think about them, even to notice them, because the sun would come again.Wacvie(1977)C.E.W. Bean 1879–1968Australia is a big blank map, and the whole people is constantly sitting over it like a committee, trying to work out the best way to fill it in.The Dreadnought of the Darling(1911)Christopher Brennan 1870–1932...I know I am the wanderer of the ways of all the worlds, to whom the sunshine and the rain are one and one to stay or hasten, because he knows no ending of the way, no home, no goal...The Wanderer(1913)Peter Carey 1943–... glass is a thing in disguise, an actor, is not solid at all, but a liquid, and while it is as frail as the ice on a Parramatta puddle, it is stronger under compression than Sydney sandstone ... it is invisible, solid, a joyous and paradoxical thing ...Oscar and Lucinda(1988)Marcus Clarke * 1846–1881All the wealth in the world could not purchase the self-respect which had been cut out of him by the lash, or banish from his brain the memory of his degradation.For the Term of His Natural Life(1874)Manning Clark * 1915–1991The proposals for the use of a southern continent had a history almost as long though by no means so distinguished as the history of its discovery. Some saw it as land dedicated to the Holy Spirit; some saw it as a land fit only for the refuse of society.A History of Australia Volume 1(1962)Joseph Conrad 1857–1924Sydney Harbour ... one of the finest, most beautiful, vast, and safe bays the sun had ever shone upon.Mirror of the Sea(1906)Peter Corris 1942–2018The sun was going down as I stop-started along in the lane for drivers who didn't have the right money to pay the toll. The sky was clear and the water turned red-gold. The ferries and sailing ships seemed to be skating across a sheet of beaten bronze.Wet Graves(1981)Dymphna Cusack * 1902–1981Around them the jacaranda broke in a purplish shower, motionless, airy and unreal, as though all the bright morning was caught up in a fragile net of blossom.Jungerau(1936) Eleanor Dark 1901–1985Silence ruled this land. Out of silence mystery comes, and magic, and the delicate awareness of unreasoning things.The Timeless Land(1941)Charles Darwin 1809–1882This is really a wonderful Colony; ancient Rome, in her Imperial grandeur, would not have been ashamed of such an offspring.Letter from Charles Darwin(1836)C.J.Dennis 1876–1938It appened this way: I 'ad jist come down,After long years, to look at Sydney town.An'struth! Was I knocked endways? Fair su'prised?I never dreamed! That arch that cut the skies!The Bridge! ...I Dips Me Lid(1936)Arthur Conan Doyle 1859–1930We all devoted ourselves to surf-bathing, spending a good deal of our day in the water as is the custom of the place. It is a real romp with Nature, for the great Pacific rollers come sweeping in and break over you, rolling you over on the sand if they can catch you unawares. It was a golden patch in our restless lives.The Wanderings of a Spiritualist(1921)Umberto Eco 1932–2016L'Australia non è solo agli antipodi, è lontana da tutto, talora anche da se stessa.