Sights in Sydney
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Sydney Opera House
Overcome with admiration for the Sydney Opera House, notable architect Louis Kahn said, ‘The sun did not know how beautiful its light was until it was reflected off this building.’ Danish architect Jørn Utzon’s competition-winning 1956 design is Australia’s most recognisable icon. It’s mused to have drawn inspiration from orange segments, palm fronds and Maya temples, and has been poetically likened to a typewriter stuffed with scallop shells and the sexual congress of turtles. While viewed from any angle it’s architecturally orgasmic, the ferry view approaching Circular Quay is hard to beat.
The predicted four-year construction started in 1959. After a…
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Sydney Harbour Bridge
Whether they’re driving over it, climbing up it, rollerblading across it or sailing under it, Sydneysiders adore their bridge and swarm around it like ants on ice cream. Dubbed the ‘old coathanger’, it’s a spookily big object – moving around town you’ll catch sight of it in the corner of your eye and get a fright! Perhaps Sydney poet Kenneth Slessor said it best: ‘Day and night, the bridge trembles and echoes like a living thing.’
Vital statistics: 134m high, 502m long, 49m wide and 53,000 tonnes. The massive bridge links the CBD with North Sydney, crossing the harbour at one of its narrowest points. The two halves of chief engineer JJC Bradfield’s mighty…
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Aquabumps Gallery
Photographer/surfer Eugene Tan has been snapping photos of Sydney’s sunrises, surf and sand for 10 years and his colourful prints hang in this cool space, a splash from Bondi Beach.
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Botany Bay National Park
The 458-hectare national park straddles the heads of Botany Bay, 15km south of Sydney Harbour. Captain Cook landed here in 1770, naming the bay after the botanical specimens his naturalist Joseph Banks found here. Banks suggested it would be a good place to incarcerate a few crims, but when the First Fleet arrived in summer 18 years later, they weren’t inclined to agree; the scorched vegetation and limited water supplies were a far cry from Banks’ wintry paradise. They soon relocated to Sydney Harbour. Cook’s monument-marked landing place is on the southern side of the park in trailer-trashy Kurnell. The Discovery Centre conveys the impact of European arrival, and…
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Sydney Aquarium
This place brings in more paying visitors than any other attraction in Australia – even with its hefty admission charges. Highlights include clownfish (howdy Nemo), platypuses, an intimidating array of sharks, massive rays and swoon-worthy corals. Residents of the penguin enclosure have lawless amounts of fun.
The aquarium's two dugongs were rescued when washed up on Queensland beaches, and attempts to return them to the wild failed; they're some of only a handful of these large marine mammals in captivity worldwide.
Needless to say, kids love this place. Arrive early to beat the crowds. Booking online will save you a few dollars.
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Sydney Harbour
Sydney's stunning harbour has melded and shaped the local psyche since the first days of settlement, and today it's both a major working port and the city's sparkling playground. Its waters, beaches, islands and shorefront parks offer all the swimming, sailing, picnicking, walking and real-estate fantasies you could wish for.
The best way to view the harbour is by private yacht (yeah, right). Lacking this, just take a harbour cruise or catch any one of the many ferries that ply its waters. You can also fly above it via a scenic flight. The Manly ferry offers vistas of the harbour east of the bridge, while the Parramatta RiverCats cover the west. You can also visit some of…
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State Library of NSW
The estimable State Library holds over five million tomes, including James Cook’s and Joseph Banks’ journals and Captain (later Governor) Bligh’s log from the mutinous HMAV Bounty. The main reading room is an elegant temple of knowledge clad in milky marble.
Also worth checking out are the temporary exhibitions in the galleries, and the elaborately sculpted bronze doors and grand atrium of the neoclassical Mitchell Wing (1910); note the map of Tasman’s journeys in the mosaic floor. Beneath one of the windows on the Macquarie St side of the building is a sculpture of explorer Matthew Flinders with his intrepid cat Trim.
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Tamarama Beach
Surrounded by high cliffs, Tamarama has a deep tongue of sand with just 80m of shoreline. Diminutive, yes, but ever-present rips make Tamarama the most dangerous patrolled beach in New South Wales; it’s often closed to swimmers.
When it earned its nickname ‘Glamarama’ in the '80s, Tamarama was probably Sydney’s gayest beach. Reflecting increasing acceptance, the gay guys have migrated en masse to North Bondi, leaving the huge waves here to the surfers. It’s hard to picture now, but between 1887 and 1911 a roller coaster looped out over the water as part of an amusement park.
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Powerhouse Museum
A short walk from Darling Harbour, Sydney’s most kid-focused museum whirs away inside the former power station for Sydney’s defunct tram network. High-voltage interactive demonstrations wow school groups with the low-down on how lightning strikes, magnets grab and engines growl. Look out for the Strasburg Clock replica on level three and the mad scientist experimentation stuff on level one.
Grab a map of the museum once you're inside, and a free copy of the Daily Telegraph on your way out. Good disabled access.
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Circular Quay
Circular Quay is built around Sydney Cove and is considered by many to be the focal point of the city. The first European settlement in Australia grew around the Tank Stream, which now runs underground into the harbour here. For many years this was the shipping centre of Sydney, but it's now both a commuting hub and a recreational space.
Transport abounds - here you'll find ferry quays, a railway station and the Overseas Passenger Terminal. There are also harbour walkways, restaurants, buskers, parks and the Museum of Contemporary Art. And, of course, you can't miss the Sydney Opera House.
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Bronte Beach
A winning family-oriented beach hemmed in by sandstone cliffs and a grassy park, Bronte lays claims to the title of the oldest surf lifesaving club in the world (1903). Contrary to popular belief, the beach is named after Lord Nelson, who doubled as the Duke of Bronte (a place in Sicily), and not the famous literary sorority. There’s a kiosk and a changing room attached to the surf club, and outdoor seating near the coin-operated barbecues.
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Cronulla
Cronulla is a beachy surf suburb south of Botany Bay, it’s looong surf beach stretching beyond the dunes to the Botany Bay refineries. It’s an edgy place, with dingy fish-and-chip shops, insomnious teens and a ragged sense of impending ‘something’, which in 2005 erupted into racial violence. The ’70s cult novel Puberty Blues captured the local teen scene.
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Museum of Contemporary Art
A slice of Gotham City on Circular Quay West, the stately art-deco MCA has been raising even the most open-minded Sydney eyebrows since 1991. Constantly changing, often controversial exhibitions from Australia and overseas range from the incredibly hip to in-your-face, sexually explicit and profoundly disturbing. You'll also find Aboriginal art featured prominently. Quite simply, it's one of Australia's best and most challenging galleries.
At the time of research the MCA was closed for a $53-million redevelopment, grafting on the ultramodern cubic jumble of the new Mordant Family Wing. We're looking forward to taking in the view over Circular Quay from the new…
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Speakers’ Corner
Recline on a patch of lawn in front of the Art Gallery of NSW and listen to religious zealots, nutters, political extremists, homophobes, hippies and academics express their earnest opinions. Some of them have something interesting to say; most are just plain mad. Either way, it makes for an interesting afternoon. BYO soapbox.
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Palm Beach
Long, lovely Palm Beach is a meniscus of bliss, famous as the setting for cheesy TV soap Home & Away. The 1881 Barrenjoey Lighthouse punctuates the northern tip of the headland in an annexe of Ku-ring-gai Chase National Park. You’ll need some decent shoes for the steep 20-minute hike (no toilets!), but the views across Pittwater are worth the effort. On Sundays short tours run every half-hour from 11am to 3pm; no need to book ahead.
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Marramarra National Park
The 118-sq-km Marramarra National Park, south of the Hawkesbury, has vehicle access south of Wisemans Ferry. There’s free bush camping on the river at Gentlemans Halt and Marramarra Creek.
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Whale Beach
Sleepy Whale Beach is underrated – a paradisaical slice of deep, orange sand flanked by steep cliffs; good for surfers and families.
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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…
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Martin Place
Studded with imposing edifices, long, lean Martin Place was closed to traffic in 1971, forming a terraced pedestrian mall. Once the corporate crowds go home, skateboarders and film crews converge upon the ramps, stairs and fountains.
As iconic in its time as the Opera House, GPO Sydney, built in 1874, is a beautiful colonnaded Victorian palazzo that was once Sydney’s General Post Office. It has since been gutted, stabbed with office towers and transformed into the Westin Sydney hotel, swanky shops, restaurants and bars. Inspired by Italian Renaissance palaces, architect James Barnet caused a minor fracas by basing the faces carved on the sandstone facade on local…
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South Head
At the northern end of Camp Cove, the South Head Heritage Trail kicks off, leading into a section of Sydney Harbour National Park. It passes old battlements and a path heading down to Lady Bay, before continuing on to the candy-striped Hornby Lighthouse and the sandstone Lightkeepers’ Cottages (1858) on South Head itself.
The harbour views and crashing surf on the ocean side make this a very dramatic and beautiful spot indeed.
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Art Gallery of NSW
With its classical Greek frontage and modern rear end, the ultrareputable Art Gallery of NSW plays a prominent and gregarious role in Sydney society. There are three permanent collections: Australian, European (post-16th century) and Asian. Don’t miss classic Australian paintings by Brett Whiteley, Arthur Streeton, Sidney Nolan and Lloyd Reese, and the Yiribana Gallery’s Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander art.
Blockbuster international touring exhibitions arrive regularly (past examples include Man Ray and Caravaggio), and there are free guided tours on the hour from 11am to 2pm (Tuesday to Sunday). Kids swarm to the GalleryKids Sunday program, offering workshops,…
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Taronga Zoo
A 12-minute ferry ride from Circular Quay or a short drive from Manly, Taronga Zoo has 75 hectares of bushy harbour hillside chock-full of kangaroos, koalas and similarly hirsute Australians. The zoo’s 4000 critters have million-dollar harbour views but seem blissfully unaware of the privilege. The animals are well looked after, with more natural open enclosures than cages.
Highlights include the nocturnal platypus habitat, the Great Southern Oceans section, the Asian elephant display, and seal and bird shows. Animal displays and feedings happen throughout the day; twilight concerts jazz things up in summer.
Tours include Nura Diya, where indigenous guides introduce you…
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Vaucluse House
Vaucluse House is an imposing, turreted specimen of Gothic Australiana set amid 10 hectares of lush gardens. The house was started in 1805 and tinkered with into the 1860s. Decorated with beautiful European period pieces including Bohemian glass, heavy oak ‘Jacobethan’ furniture and Meissen china, the house offers visitors a rare glimpse into early (albeit privileged) colonial life in Sydney.
It was occupied from 1827 to 1862 by William Charles Wentworth, his wife Sarah and their children. The son of a convict mother, Wentworth became a barrister and cowrote the first New South Wales colonial constitution, but was outcast from high society because of his democratic…
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Sydney Observatory
Built in the 1850s, Sydney’s copper-domed, Italianate observatory squats atop Observatory Hill, overlooking Millers Point and the harbour. Inside is a collection of vintage apparatus, including Australia’s oldest working telescope (1874). Also on offer are AV displays, an interactive Australian astronomy exhibition including Aboriginal sky stories and modern stargazing, and a virtual reality 3D Theatre.
Squint at galaxies far, far away during Night Telescope/3D Theatre sessions; bookings essential. Or, if you’re feeling more earthly, Observatory Hill is great for a picnic. Studded with huge Moreton Bay fig trees, the grassy hilltop buzzes with sweaty hill-climbing…
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Australian National Maritime Museum
Beneath an Utzon-like roof (a low-rent Opera House?), the Maritime Museum sails through Australia’s inextricable relationship with the sea. Exhibitions range from Aboriginal canoes to surf culture to the navy. There are free tours every day and kids' activities on Sundays.
The ‘big ticket’ (adult/child $25/10) includes the cost of touring the vessels moored outside, including the submarine HMAS Onslow, the destroyer HMAS Vampire and an 1874 square rigger, the James Craig. Normally a replica of James Cook’s Endeavour also drops anchor.
Outside, the austere 100m-long Welcome Wall honours Sydney’s migrants, allowing families to inscribe names and register their…
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