Historic sights in Sydney
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Parramatta
Twenty-four kilometres west of Sydney, Parramatta (population 145,000), a Daruag Aboriginal name meaning ‘the place where eels lie down’, was Australia’s second European settlement. Sydney’s sandy soils were lousy for growing carrots – Parramatta’s river plains were chosen instead. During the 1980s, the local Rugby League team the Parramatta Eels were unbeatable, their acid-wash-clad, mullet-proud fans perpetuating Sydneysiders’ view of Parramatta as little more than a low-brow shopping-mall ’burb full of insane Neanderthals. A rash of horrendous architectural disservices has augmented this perception, but with the ’80s dead and buried, Parramatta has got on w…
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Manly Quarantine Station
The eerie-but-elegant Manly Quarantine Station was used to isolate newly arrived epidemic-disease carriers between 1828 and 1972 in an attempt to limit the spread of cholera, smallpox and bubonic plague. It was then used until 1984 to house illegal immigrants. These days the ‘Q Station’ has been reborn as a tourist destination, with B&B accommodation, the ritzy Boilerhouse Restaurant and a whole swag of tour options. The 2½-hour Adult Ghost Tour rattles some skeletons; the two-hour Family Ghost Tour softens some of the horrors. The two-hour Quarantine Station Story Tour highlights the personal stories of those who worked and waited here.
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1 Martin Pl
As iconic as the Opera House in its time (1874), 1 Martin Pl is a beautifully colonnaded Victorian palazzo that houses Sydney’s General Post Office. Beyond the stamps and envelopes, it’s been gutted, stabbed with office towers and transformed into the Westin Sydney hotel, swanky shops, restaurants and bars, including Crystal Bar and Senate Bar. Inspired by Italian Renaissance palaces, architect James Barnet caused a minor fracas by basing the faces carved on the sandstone facade on local identities. Under a staircase in the basement there is a small historical display and a pipe housing the dribbling remnants of the Tank Stream.
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Macquarie Place
Beneath some shady Moreton Bay fig trees a block or two back from the Quay is this historic little triangle. Look for the actual cannon and anchor from the First Fleet flagship (HMS Sirius ), an ornate-but-defunct 1857 drinking fountain, a National Trust–classified gentlemen’s pissoir (closed) and an 1818 obelisk erected ‘to record that all the public roads leading to the interior of the colony are measured from it’. The park is overlooked by the imposing 19th-century Lands Department Building; the north facade bears statues of Sturt, Hume, Leichhardt and other early Australian movers-and-shakers.
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Sydney Hospital
Originally the Rum Hospital, Australia’s oldest hospital has a grand Victorian sandstone facade and a chequered history. You can’t wander around inside, but the central courtyard with its kitsch enamelled fountain studded with submissive swans is open to the public. The weathered-looking Gothic Nightingale Wing (1869) was the site of Australia’s first Nightingale School of Nursing. In provocative recline out the front of the hospital is the pig-ugly bronze statue Il Porcellino (1968), a copy of a statue of a boar in Florence. Rubbing its snout is said to bring good luck (but somehow we doubt it…).
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National Art School
From 1841 to 1912 these bizarre sandstone buildings were Darlinghurst Gaol: writer Henry Lawson was incarcerated here several times for debt (he called the place ‘Starvinghurst’). If today’s art students think they’ve got it tough, they should spare a thought for the 732 prisoners who were crammed in here, or the 76 who hanged. The circular central building was the chapel; head upstairs for an interesting historical display. A tiny former morgue near the Burton St exit has creepy skull-and-crossbone carvings. There’s also an excellent on-site gallery showcasing students’ work.
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Cadman’s Cottage
Built on a now-buried beach for Government Coxswain John Cadman (a boat and crew superintendent) in 1816, Cadman’s Cottage in The Rocks is Sydney’s oldest house. The Sydney Water Police detained criminals here in the 1840s; it was later converted into a home for retired sea captains. These days the cottage houses the Sydney Harbour National Park Information Centre, which organises tours of five of the six curious islands in Sydney Harbour. There’s a glassed-off area on the lower level revealing a tangle of old drains exposed in an archaeological dig, plus a small museum with a few exhibits.
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Kirribilli Point
The Sydney residences of Australia’s governor-general and prime minister are located on Kirribilli Point, east of the Sydney Harbour Bridge. When he’s in town the PM gets some shut-eye in the Gothic Revival–style Kirribilli House (1854), while the GG bunkers down in Admiralty House (1846), nearer the bridge (the one that everyone dreams of living in, if it came without the job). Both houses are better spotted from the water than by peering through the surprisingly unfortified gates (this ain’t the White House).
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Town Hall
Mansard roofs, sandstone turrets, wrought-iron trimmings and over-the-top balustrades: the High Victorian wedding-cake exterior of the Town Hall (built 1869–1889) is something to behold! Inside, the elaborate chamber room and the wood-lined concert hall are almost as good (the concert hall has a humongous 8000-pipe organ and hosts free monthly lunchtime concerts). The Town Hall was closed for refurbishments when we visited (the entry portico reeked of nocturnal pissings), but you can usually poke around the halls off the main entrance.
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Central Station
Sydney’s main railway station was built in 1906 on top of an old convent and cemetery (any ghosts?). The 75m Gothic clock tower was added 15 years later. The main sandstone concourse has an impressive vaulted roof and is the terminus for intercity and country trains. It also houses the geeky Rail Heritage Centre. Suburban trains chug into the outdoor platforms downstairs on the Surry Hills side. As you’re pulling into Central from the south, look for the ornate disused Mortuary Station (1869) on your left.
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Garrison Church
Also known as Holy Trinity (1843), this chunky sandstone Anglican church on the western side of the Argyle Cut (a convict-excavated tunnel) was the colony’s first military church. Below a dark timber ceiling, the hushed interior is spangled with dusty, lank-hanging regimental flags. Australia’s first prime minister, Edmund Barton, went to school here (the parish hall doubled as a schoolhouse). Out the front is Argyle Place, a tiny village green where any Australian has the legal right to graze livestock.
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Waterman’s Cottage
Balmain’s hibiscus-scented streets contain dozens of historically significant buildings, most of which are privately owned. Darling St has Waterman’s Cottage, built in 1841, and Cathermore, Balmain’s first bakery (1841), which later became the Waterford Arms pub.
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St Mary’s Hall
Balmain’s hibiscus-scented streets contain dozens of historically significant buildings, most of which are privately owned. Sadly, the semiderelict St Mary’s Hall, built around 1851 is full of someone’s junk at the moment.
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Cathermore
Balmain’s hibiscus-scented streets contain dozens of historically significant buildings, most of which are privately owned. Darling St has Cathermore, Balmain’s first bakery (1841), which later became the Waterford Arms pub.
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Watch House
Balmain’s hibiscus-scented streets contain dozens of historically significant buildings, most of which are privately owned. Darling St has the Watch House, Sydney’s oldest surviving lockup (1854).
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