Must-see attractions in Sydney

Built according to Taoist principles, the Chinese Garden of Friendship is usually an oasis of tranquillity – although one increasingly dwarfed by…

Dixon St is the heart of Chinatown: a narrow, shady pedestrian mall with a string of restaurants and insistent spruikers. The ornate dragon gates (paifang…

Sydney's second most famous beach is a magnificent strand that stretches for nearly two golden kilometres, lined by Norfolk Island pines and midrise…

A hidden jewel on North Head, magical Store Beach can only be reached by kayak – you can hire them from Manly Kayak Centre – or boat. It’s a breeding…

One of Sydney's best museums revolves around a detailed and expertly curated exhibition on the Holocaust, with sobering personal testimonies and moving…

Closed for renovation at the time of research, this wonderful institution plans to reopen in mid-2020. Australia's first museum was established just 40…

Sydney Harbour National Park protects large swathes of bushland around the harbour shoreline, plus several harbour islands. In among the greenery you’ll…

Long, lovely Palm Beach is a crescent of bliss that's famous as the setting for cheesy TV soap Home and Away. The 1881 Barrenjoey Lighthouse punctuates…

Within the University of Sydney's quadrangle, this is a great under-the-radar attraction. Combining modern ideas with ancient artefacts, it's an…

In many ways Sydney's best contemporary-art gallery, White Rabbit is tucked away behind the Central Park development in Chippendale. It's the project of…

Is there a better view of the bridge and the Opera House than from the wharf at this point, a short hop by ferry northwest of the centre? It's all…

Built between 1880 and 1889, this intriguing group of huge Victorian-era workshops was part of the Eveleigh Railyards. The rail workers chugged out in…

This lovely section of Ku-ring-gai Chase National Park has two entrance points joined by a road that snakes through glorious bushland down to Cowan Creek,…

From 1837 to 1984 this sprawling historic complex in beautiful North Head bushland was used to isolate new arrivals suspected of carrying disease. These…

This lovely park, surrounded by North Shore suburbia, flanks the Lane Cove River, which spills into the harbour. It's a great place to stretch out on some…

Construction of this imposing, turreted specimen of Gothic Australiana, set amid 10 hectares of lush gardens, commenced in 1805, but the house was…

Formal but much-loved Hyde Park has manicured gardens and a tree-formed tunnel running down its spine, which looks particularly pretty at night,…

A winning family-oriented beach hemmed in by sandstone cliffs and a grassy park, Bronte lays claims to having the oldest surf-lifesaving club in the world…

Among the State Library's over five million tomes are James Cook’s and Joseph Banks’ journals and William Bligh’s log from the mutinous Bounty. It's worth…

Unbelievably, this High Victorian Gothic masterpiece (1898) was repeatedly slated for demolition before it was restored in the mid-1980s. Occupying an…