Berry Island is right in the heart of what was Cammeraigal tribal territory before white settlement. The nearby suburb of Cammeray was named after them.
Not really an island, this spot has historical information, aboriginal rock carvings, and a lookout with varied views. See http://www.sydneymate.com/travel_sydney_australia/Aboriginal/BerryIsland/australian_aborigine.htm for details and pictures.
From here you can see:
- Ferries
- Jetboats
- HMAS Waterhen and if you're lucky, navy divers/boarding parties doing training runs
- A large fuel/oil storage facility (hence the cache's name) and you can often watch huge tankers docking.
- City skyline
It's a nice open spot for a picnic, at low tide you can walk the edge of Balls' Head Bay. There are public toilets, and play equipment for children (or the older mischievous cacher). Take 10 minutes to walk around the island, sit at the lookout and read the information boards about local aboriginal life. You can drive, or catch a train to Wollstonecraft and walk 10 or so minutes down the hill.
The cache difficulty is 2 but this is greatly dependant on the satellite gods - while setting the cache I was averaging waypoints by up to 20m and couldn't get less than 10m accuracy, so please let me know if your finder's co-ords are radically different.
Enjoy my first cache!