Dream walk runs into naval blockade

A few ugly diversions and one huge obstacle can't detract from Bob Carr's joy in walking around the harbour, writes John Huxley.

Bob Carr takes a big, deep breath, stretches his legs, stiffened every day by a punishing exercise regimen, and does a 360-degree turn, rejoicing in the sights and sounds of Rozelle Bay.

Over here, the joggers, cyclists, shoppers heading home, mothers with babies in strollers. Over there, the expensive cruisers, salvage vessels, junkyards, heroic old ships awaiting renovation, remnants of the working harbour.

And above, the cry of gulls, the flap of sail against mast, the distant hum of traffic on the Anzac Bridge, the absence of screaming jet-skis, which the former premier controversially banned 10 years ago.

'Just marvellous, isn't it? This is what makes Sydney such a special place,'' he says, stopping to chat with children, mothers and other well-wishers.

But here we are on a sparkling, spring-like Sydney day to walk from Rozelle to Rushcutters Bay - or as far as the super-fit Carr, 63, can manage before he is dragged off to a meeting, or his ancient walking boots fall to bits.

As long ago as 1997, Carr pledged to ''maximise public access to, and use of, the land on the foreshore''. 

Since then the 17-kilometre route has become a rallying cry for planners, governments and groups such as the Walking Volunteers, who produced maps covering harbour and coast, from Barrenjoey to Cronulla.

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Predictably, progress in opening up the city harbourside has been more hard-fought: think of the wrangles in recent years over Circular Quay, Woolloomooloo Finger Wharf, Walsh Bay and, even now, Barangaroo.