Sydney - History and Icons

Sydney Harbour Bridge and Opera House

Coming from Europe, with its many centuries of history, one of the things that I have to remind myself when travelling to places like Australia, is just how new these settlements are. I know, of course, that the indigenous people of these countries have been here much longer, but it is strange to think how recent are the European settlements that dominate now.

Hyde Park Barracks, Sydney

Sydney got its name from the man who recommended that be used as a penal colony, the Secretary of State, Thomas Townshend, Lord Sydney.

The first fleet of transport ships left Portsmouth in May 1787, and the sailors and guards, with their charge of 759 convicts, various livestock, plants, and two years worth of provisions, arrived at Port Jackson on 26 January 1788, and was established under the authority of Captain Arthur Phillip.

Discipline here was severe, with the first hanging, for the crime of the theft of food, taking place only a month after their arrival. Harsh as that may sound, I suspect that food was likely to be one of the greatest concerns for the new colony.

It was soon to become evident that many of the seeds and crops that they had brought with them from the UK were not suitable for the soil and climate here, and so anything that depleted their foodstock was harshly dealt with.

Museum of Sydney

Two further fleets of convicts arrived in 1790 and 1791. If they worked hard and behaved themselves, they could earn their freedom, though of course many did reoffend. In 1793, the first free settlers arrived in Sydney.

One of the many building projects that the prisoners had to work on was the construction of Hyde Park Barracks, which opened in 1819. It was designed to house 600 convicts, though at times there would have been up to 1,400 held here. The transportation of prisoners ceased in 1840, so eight years after that, in 1848, the remaining convicts were moved to cockatoo Island. Some 50,000 convicts came through these Barracks during those 29 years.

Sydney Cove

After 1848, the Barracks became an Immigration Depot, and over the next 38 years it also provided temporary housing for around 40,000 single women and children who arrived here. In 1887, the Barracks was turned into government offices and Courts Buildings, which it remained until late in the last century. After lengthy archaeological excavations and restorations, it opened as a Museum in 2010.

The Rocks, Sydney

We had visited the Museum under the expectation that it was largely about the convict transportations and their life and progress once here, so we were a little disappointed when that actually turned out to only be a very small part of what was here. However, the rest of the exhibition was interesting, so I would still recommend it as a place to come.

The Rocks, Sydney

We also visited the Museum of Sydney, which is on the site of the first Governor's House. The museum tells us about the history of the city through the stories of some of its most important residents. Although this makes the picture a little disjointed at times, it is quite an interesting, and generally effective way of doing it. They do also include stories of some of the aboriginal people, and give some reasonably honest accounts of the interaction between them and the new settlers.

Two museums is about our limit these days, so the rest of our historical interest came from a wander around The Rocks. This is the oldest part of Sydney, where the convicts settled, so it was generally quite a notorious slum area.

The Rocks, Sydney

Much of it was demolished, and the remainder would have been in the last century had it not been for the efforts of local residents and the builders' union, which put a ban on its members doing the work.

Cadmans' Cottage, built in 1816, is one of the only buildings that remains from the early settlement, and the area is also home to some of Sydney's oldest pubs, like the Lord Nelson, which provided a welcome watering hole after we'd walked up the hill in the very hot sunshine.

The Rocks, Sydney

The Rocks also has a great food market on a Friday, and a more artsy crafty one at the weekends.

There are a few art installations dotted around too, although personally I didn't really get the meaning in most of them.

Sydney Harbour Bridge

So that is a bit about the history, what about the icons. After all, if Sydney is known for anything, it is the Opera House and the Sydney Harbour Bridge. The 3770 feet long bridge was started on 28 July 1923, and finally opened on 19 March 1932. It certainly provides an interesting focal point in the harbour.

Sydney Opera House

The Opera House, which these days it seems hard to imagine Sydney without, is only 43 years old. It was designed by Danish architect Jorn Utzon, who won a competition for the design in 1957. After a new government questioned his design and stopped paying him, Jorn resigned from the project in 1966, and had left Australia before it finally opened on 20 October 1973.

Sydney Opera House

Although he won various accolades and prizes for the design, and was persuaded to return for further works decades later, he never actually went back to Australia to see the completed building.

Sydney Harbour Bridge

Sydney Opera House

Sydney Opera House

Sydney Opera House

  

Sydney Opera House

Sydney Opera House

Sydney Opera House

Sydney Harbour Bridge

Sydney Opera House

Luna Park, Sydney

Sydney - On the Waterfront

Coogee Beach, Sydney

For many people, one of the big attractions of Sydney is that it is a coastal city, with lots of harbours and beaches. Bondi is of course the beach that everyone heads to, everyone except us that is.

We're not beach people, so whilst we might have just popped along for a quick look, the idea of spending time on a crowded beach just because it is famous, didn't appeal.

Coogee Beach, Sydney

We did, however, get out to Coogee Beach, a little further along the coast. Nic has a friend from his old work that lives out here, so we came out to meet up with her and her family.

Manly, Sydney

The Taste of Coogee food and drink festival was on while we were there, which is only small, but meant that it was quite busy. Most of the people here seemed to be locals rather than tourists, which is definitely a plus for us.

Manly Beach, Sydney

We even made it out to a second beach destination - the suburb of Manly. We took the green and yellow ferry boat, which is quite a pleasant journey out past the Opera House and East of the city. Manly has a nice looking ferry terminal, but aside from that it didn't especially appeal to us.

Manly Beach, Sydney

There is nothing wrong with it, but the focus here is again about the beach, and it is one of those places that, much like many of our UK coastal resorts, seems to have prioritised mass tourist appeal over quality and individuality.

Sydney Harbour

On another day, we took another ferry over to the suburb of Balmain. This ferry goes the other way out of Circular Quay, so passes under the Sydney Harbour Bridge, and past Luna Park, opened in 1935, and just one of many amusement parks worldwide that were based on and named after the original 1903 Luna Park on Coney Island, New York.

Luna Park, Sydney

Circular Quay, Sydney Harbour

Balmain, Sydney

Balmain is a rather more genteel suburb than Manly. There isn't a great deal to do here, but it was interesting to walk through it and see one of the earliest settled suburbs in the city. The architecture is an interesting mix of old workers cottages, more upmarket properties and of course newer buildings. There are a number of nice pubs and cafes to stop off along the way.

Balmain, Sydney

Sydney Harbour Bridge

Daring Harbour, Sydney

We took the bus back the last stretch downtown, and ended up in Darling Harbour, which is big, brash and busy, with lots of chain restaurants, and very touristy. This is also home to the Aquarium and Maritime Museum, which we didn't go to, but are supposed to be good. If you go a little further up the peninsula, there are more restaurants in King Street Wharf which, when we were there at least, had fewer tourists and more business suited locals. One of our favourite downtown bars is around this area too, The Lobo Plantation rum bar on Clarence Street.

Sydney - A wander around some neighbourhoods

Paddington Reservoir Gardens

Having had two months in New Zealand, we were back in Sydney, Australia. Regular readers with good memories may recall that we did spend a couple of days here before we went to Uluru, but I am writing about all of our time here now.

Sydney is one of those cities that everyone has heard of, perhaps because The Sydney Opera House is one of those iconic landmarks that everyone recognises. Add to that the Sydney Harbour Bridge, Bondi Beach, a host of bars and restaurants, and at least the perception of perpetual sunshine, and you have a city that features on most people's travel wishlist.

One of the things that we like about London, is that it is almost a series of small towns and villages, each of which have their own character. Some great, some not so great, but they all add to the diversity and flavour of the city. Sydney is very much like this too. There were some areas that we thought were lovely, and would return to time and again, and others that we could happily live without.

University of Sydney

Let's start with where we stayed, which was in hostels in the Kings Cross area. Now in London, Kings Cross used to be known for its prostitutes and drug addicts, but it has cleaned up its act these days. In Sydney, Kings Cross still has its share of sex shops, with the ladies in their fancy undies outside trying to tempt you in; you may feel slightly less tempted in the off peak hours, when the ladies generally seem to be rather older and more haggard looking. Don't be put off Kings Cross though, as this side of it is only small and is actually reasonably discreet, and the area has a nice relaxed feel to it, good transport, lots of hostels (or backpackers as they call them here) and decent places to go out.

Just to the west of Kings Cross, you can take one of the staircases down to the wonderfully named area of Woolloomooloo, which has a few places to eat, and leads on to the Royal Botanic Gardens and then to The Harbour area and Opera House. But we'll come back to that later.

South of Kings Cross takes you through Darlinghurst, which has a few nice cocktail bars, such as 'Eau de Vie' and 'Love Tilly Devine'. Whilst there are no particular 'attractions', is quite a pleasant walk through Darlinghurst, with plenty of places that you can stop off for a drink, and there are quite a few art galleries if that interests you.

From Darlinghurst you can continue walking on to Paddington, Newtown and Surrey Hills.

Chippendale

Paddington overall felt a little too smart for us. To continue with the London comparison, it felt a bit like a wannabe 'Chelsea', with too many fashionable boutiques and people trying to dress like off duty film stars. That said, there were a couple of good points. There was the rather charming
Paddington Reservoir Gardens, which is an old water reservoir that went out of use in 1899 and was transformed into a sunken garden in 2009. And then there is the Paddington Market, which is on every Saturday, and has many interesting stalls from lots of local artisans. I was tempted by many pieces, but restricted myself to a bright red ring made on a 3D printer, and a Sydney Opera House charm for my bracelet.

Our favourite area was Newtown. It had a far more down to earth feel, with great bars and interesting shops. Sadly, Holy Kitsch!, a shop that specialised in Day of the Dead style skulls of various forms, wasn't quite as good as we had hoped it would be. This was a good place to wander around, with some decent cafes and bars, including the deservedly very popular Brewtown Newtown - if you go, do try the doughnuts.

Surrey Hills was good too, again, quite a few decent cafes and bars. This was one of those areas that is good for people watching, with a good range of people coming in. It does feel a bit like an area in transition, like it may lose some of its more interesting side to a more uniformly upscale style; I do hope it doesn't, as it has a great mix at present.

White Rabbit Collection

One area that had promised quite a lot, but didn't really deliver, was Chippendale. It had sounded like it had some really interesting shops and galleries, but when we were there at least, there didn't seem to be that much. Perhaps we were just there at the wrong time, and the better places were closed. It was a pleasant enough area to wander around, and there was the White Rabbit Collection, an interesting gallery of Chinese Art, which had a lovely café with a great selection of teas, and some surprisingly good scones.