Sydney paper reports World Youth Day opening to be on waterfront site

Published: 2007-08-20

SYDNEY, Australia (CNS) -- Barangaroo, a stretch of waterfront named after the wife of an Aborigine who befriended the first British settlers to Sydney, will be the venue for the opening Mass of World Youth Day July 15, 2008 in Sydney. A Sydney newspaper reported Aug. 18 that the 54-acre site, situated on the eastern side of Darling Harbor, also will be a main venue for other World Youth Day events, including the Stations of the Cross. Barangaroo will also make "a dramatic and telegenic backdrop" to the arrival, by boat, of Pope Benedict XVI on his first visit to Australia, said the newspaper. Barangaroo is named after the wife of Bennelong, a leader of the Eora clan of Aboriginal people who befriended Sydney's first governor, Arthur Phillip, in 1788. Situated in the next inlet along from where the Sydney Opera House sits on Bennelong Point, Barangaroo is a former shipping container terminal earmarked for an urban renewal project.

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