FEATURE MATCHER FOR BC-AUSTRALIA-HARBOUR, 1999-07-09 (photo)

FOR RELEASE WITH BC-AUSTRALIA-HARBOUR - Andrew Moncrief paddles his boat towards his Sailors Bay Boatshed after making repairs to a sail-boat out on the bay. Sydney Harbour, whose foreshores cover more than 250 kilometres (155 miles), incorporating 107 chatered coves and bays, was declared by the first white settlers in 1788 to be "the finest harbour in the world". But since the first tall ships sailed through its gaping heads, Sydney Harbour has been a working port, the lifeline for the colony and today one of the nation's busiest ports, with more than 20 million tonnes of cargo moving through Sydney and its sister port a few kilometres south at Botany Bay, annually. But the gentrification of the harbour through a development boom of old foreshore industrial sites, is now also squeezing out unglamourous maritime industries, like tug boats, salvage and charter operators, wharf builders and commercial fishing fleets. Picture taken 28JUN99. DG/TAN