15 August 2023
There’s no denying that Sydney is a beach town. From the still waters of the genteel harbour beaches to the rougher surf of coastal beaches like Maroubra, the warmer months are spent stripping off, creaming up and diving in. But it’s not all surf in the Harbour Town. The city is vast and varied, home to grand (and usually free) museums, boutique galleries, cultural walks, high-end shopping, grungy street art and manicured public parks and gardens.
It is also where Australia’s modern history began; it was settled as a penal colony by the British in 1788. Transportation to New South Wales ended in 1868, and by this time large numbers of free settlers were arriving in the colony. Sydney’s large natural harbour quickly established the outpost as a trading port, with links to India, South America, the Pacific and, of course, England.
Despite the presence of a garrison, colonial Sydney was a tough, lawless and odorous place. We visited the cobbled laneways of the Rocks, the area down by the harbour where the original settlement took place and learnt about some of the colourful characters who inhabited its streets during those infamous times.
Evidence of Sydney's colonial past can be seen throughout the city, such as in Macquarie Street. The Hyde Park Barracks is an extraordinary record of the living legacy of colonial Australia. Originally built to house convicts, used as slave labour to build the city, the Barracks also served as a women’s immigration depot and asylum. Today the museum tells the stories of the thousands of men, women and children held or housed there, and the Aboriginal communities profoundly impacted by the relentless push of colonial expansion.
High-quality merino wool proved to be an economic godsend for the struggling colony, which also benefited from the discovery of gold in the 1850s. Sydney boomed again during the Second World War when large numbers of American GIs arrived. Post-war migration from continental Europe, and more recently, from Asia, has transformed Sydney both economically and culturally, diluting what had been, until then, a staid Anglo-Saxon outpost marooned in the Pacific.
To learn more about the country’s first inhabitants, we visited the 200 year old Australian Museum, offering interesting exhibitions about Indigenous Australia, Australian archaeology, Pacific cultures and world culture. A visit to the Art Gallery of NSW was also an excellent opportunity to learn more about local culture and art. Our guide gave us an overview of some superb pieces, notably by Grace Cossington-Smith, Dorrit Black, Russell Drysdale and Lesley Dumbrell.
A highlight of our stay, indeed, of anyone’s stay in Sydney, must be the walk around the vast, yacht-strewn Sydney Harbour, the beating heart of the city, taking in Sydney Opera House, the iconic Harbour Bridge and the Royal Botanic Gardens, a perfectly placed 30-hectare oasis. The Opera House is Australia's most recognisable building. Designed by Danish architect Jorn Utzon in 1956, the 'sails' are created out of over one million white tiles.
A day out on Sydney Harbour was also non-negotiable and so we hopped on a ferry taking us to Watson’s Bay, with its beautiful beach villas and superb cliff views of the coastline. A bus then took a bus to Bondi, the queen bee of Sydney's beaches. We strolled along the promenade, grabbed an ice cream, found a spot on the sand, and stretched out. There is also a great view of the entire beach from up on the grassy hill, close to the Bondi Icebergs Club, home to one of the best-known ocean lap pools in the city. From there, we then embarked on a three hour walk along the rocky coast to Cougee Bay, from where we wearily caught a bus back to the city.
Sydney also offers a great shopping and culinary experience. The retail offerings are a mixture of the modern and traditional, with historic shopping precincts such as The Strand Arcade and QVB competing with Westfield and a multitude of smaller, designer shops and outlets. Located a few stops on the tram from our hotel in CBD was Chinatown, and we spent several evenings there sampling their oriental delights, especially an incomparable beef noodle soup.
We rounded off our stay in Sydney at the iconic State Theatre where we took in Elvis the Musical.
We had enjoyed the friendly, relaxed vibe in Sydney, the proximity of the beach life, and its many historical, cultural and retail offerings. Next up was Melbourne. Which city would we like more?
Apparently, Australia's two largest cities have long been at the centre of a partisan debate. Call it sibling rivalry, one-upmanship or just sheer bloody-mindedness, but Sydney and Melbourne cannot stop griping about one another. Melburnians say that Sydneysiders are loud, money-grabbing and vain. Sydneysiders pour scorn on Melbourne’s dreary weather and lack of beaches.
We were looking forward to making up our own minds...
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