Walking Sydney: Fifteen walks with a city’s writers

by Belinda Castles

‘My primary mode of transport is my feet. It’s the way that I orient in the world. It’s also the way to honour being in place.’ – Jazz Money

‘We make a city our own by noticing.’ – Gail Jones

Walking Sydney invites you to walk with a city’s writers as they share their places of home and imagination. From the streets of the suburbs to the shores of the harbour, as we walk amid diasporas, countercultures, activists, artists, dreamers and thieves, the city comes alive with story. Written by Belinda Castles from walks taken with fifteen writers, Walking Sydney is an opportunity to see the city afresh.

Genres: Nonfiction, Australia

256 pages, Paperback

Published September 1, 2025

About the author

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Belinda Castles - Australian Author, Fiction

Reviews

[Jacob Katafono · Rating 5 out of 5]

Love.

An amazing book. I’m filled with warmth, excitement and wonder while glossing over ink which details the streets and buildings I grew up in. Absolutely essential reading for anyone who inhabits this city, being able to hear from writers who make these streets come to life. Personal favourite chapter was about my home on the Cooks River, but there’s something for everyone - all parts of Sydney are explored.

Some remarkable insights throughout, but I particularly enjoyed this from Max Easton, writing about Casula and Liverpool, exploring the perspective of his character, Walt:

“…after first leaving Western Sydney, ‘he grew aware of a strange evolution in the region’s social and cultural capital… He felt the odd sensation of his background coming into vogue, rising in esteem among the inner-city intelligentsia as though anyone from his neighbourhood had transcended an equal and accepted hardship’… [he] expresses something about what it is to be looked down upon, and then congratulated, for where you grew up.”

[Neens West · Rating 3 out of 5]

Even though some of the insights were interesting, I was a bit disappointed as I thought the writers themselves would write their chapters. Instead it is Belinda doing all the writing, while she walks with the writers.

Could have been so much better!

[ValTheBookEater]

this is amazing and made me recall memories and locations and discoveries and places I need to frequent more. I agree with Jazz Money, “my primary mode of transport is my feet” and with Gail Jones who said, “we make our city by noticing.” I do wish the authors had written the chapters but it was still interesting to have Belinda Castles relay her insights based on walking with the authors around these areas. I’m sure the book could have gone further but honestly this concept could be continued with other areas methinks. Make it a series…

Sentences I also made note of: “….Parramatta has some of the oldest colonial history in New South Wales and it’s still not particularly old” and that “Yagoona means today or now, in the Sydney district Aboriginal language.”

Crossovers in chapters: City area, Surry Hills (specifically), Redfern (broadly) and Bankstown.

Max Easton’s chapter had me chuckling because I too, understood Sydney geography via rugby league teams, and also entered obscure competitions for writing and wrote for publications to score free tickets. I also was one of the people who told him you wrote about places familiar to me. And I am sick of New York and London-set fiction at the expense of other cool cities.

Michelle De Kretser’s chapter was most familiar to me though and I adore the likening of Marrickville Golf Course in the winter to Wuthering Heights. Shoutout to the Undercliffe Road reference.

[Tien · Rating 4 out of 5]

Belinda Castles took a number of walks with local authors around their local areas. Her essays tell of the history of the area, its meaning to her author companion and particularly the significance the place holds with the arts. While I'm very familiar with some spots; I'm not too familiar with others but yet, the sense of place permeates the whole book and gives the readers a very warm invitation to explore these places themselves. If not in person, then perhaps through the arts. Walking Sydney shares the author's love of this place penetrating through the complexity of time, history, and even politics. It is purposefully meaningful and a delight to read.

My thanks to the publisher for gifting me this book

[Marles Henry · Rating 3 out of 5]

“We have this quality in us that no other living creature on this planet has - this desire to read, this desire to develop the language. We transfer the most beautiful and complex way of thinking onto the page - that's literature.” Michael Mohammad Ahmad.

Walking Sydney documents a series of walks Belinda Castles undertook with local writers through places that matter to them. What the reader receives are not the local writers’ own words (a missed opportunity), but Castles’ careful reconstruction of conversations, histories, and impressions gathered along the way. It is the taking on of the “details of the Sydney suburbs: the ‘radical potential of taking notice’.” The essays feel shaped by listening: Castles acts as observer, recorder, and interpreter, translating these walks into reflective prose that blends place, memory, and cultural context. A particular reflection through all of these chapters was the notion of psychogeography, where geographical environments, like suburbs and cities in this book, affect emotions and behaviour: “To notice what you value, why you value it, and what kinds of discarded value we might want to recover. We make a city our own by noticing.”

Through these curated parts of Sydney, familiar locations sit beside lesser-known ones, yet a strong sense of place runs throughout, inviting readers to explore Sydney for themselves—physically or through art. When the connection between author and place felt intimate, the city became more vivid and alive. In some particular suburbs, the message was stronger to “look, and reflect, rather than walk on by”. At other times, the book felt uneven, more like a series of random snapshots than a continuous journey, and the author experience was less personal.

“The thing about living here is the tension between the old and the new. What's worth preserving? What do we keep from the past? What do we replace it with?”

There is warmth and curiosity in this approach, with some fresh perspectives in a city many assume they already understand.

Thank you #newsoutbooks for the #gifted copy.

[BookishDramas · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars
Walking Sydney was a quietly engaging read that made me slow down and think about how cities live and breathe through the people who write about them. Belinda pairs place with voice inviting us to walk alongside writers as they explore familiar streets and overlooked corners of Sydney. There is a gentle reflective tone throughout that suits the concept well and I appreciated the way history memory and personal observation are woven together.

Some walks resonated more strongly than others. When the writer’s connection to the place felt intimate the city came alive on the page. At times though the book felt uneven and I found myself wanting a little more depth or cohesion between the sections. It occasionally reads like a collection of interesting snapshots rather than a fully immersive journey.

Still there is warmth and curiosity here and plenty to enjoy if you love literary nonfiction and urban exploration. This is a book best read slowly perhaps between actual walks. Three and a half stars for thoughtful insights and a fresh perspective on a city many think they already know.

[Mark Latchford · Rating 2 out of 5]

I was looking forward to reading this book very much, envisaging a local version of the marvellous walking/flaneur books of Paris (White) or Venice (Morris) etc. However, it doesn’t deliver on that promise. The author has strolled with 15 writers through parts of Sydney and instead of delegating each chapter to these writers, she transcribes conversations instead, losing much on ‘translation’. In many ways, the writers unique perspectives are washed away in the process. Each chapter has too much political history (and opinion) and not enough content about landmarks or even diversity with the communities. Another issue is that the areas chosen are very concentrated on inner Sydney (and thus repetitive) only a handful of communities further out. Huge tracks of Sydney are not represented at all; for example the Shire, the Peninsula; Penrith; Hunters Hill; the Hills; etc. Most major immigrant communities are also left out. The author should have tried harder to seek the many talented writers in those districts and reduced the duplication. The absence of detail and the inclusion of not one map makes the book particularly useless to be used for non-Sydney readers or visitors.

[Susan C · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm not from Sydney, having only been there a couple of times, and even then focusing on those areas popular with tourists - Circular Quay, Darling Harbour, the City, this book takes us away from the tourist outlook and into the eyes and hearts of those who live there. Those who have moved there, as well as those who grew up there. With each guide an author or poet in their own right, their observations and remembering come with a writer's insight. Often times that area or the stories coming from that locality has become a character or event in a book or stories our guides have written. The pace of the book is slow and considered, information is revealed as it comes into sight on our guide and author's perambulations.

There was two things I got out of this book - a list of more books to read; and a desire to return to Sydney, to walk these places and see for myself.

[Jane (Avid reader) · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this book - it brought Sydney’s rich layered history to light and has inspired me to explore.

[Melanie · Rating 5 out of 5]

A wonderful collection of walking conversations highlighting Sydney’s complex layers.