Sydney and around PDF
Preview Sydney and around
Contents How to use Introduction to Sydney and around Circular Quay The Rocks Central Business District (CBD) Haymarket The Domain Darling Harbour and around The inner east The inner west The Harbour Ocean beaches Botany Bay Arrival and departure Getting around Information Tours Accommodation Eating Drinking and nightlife Classical music, theatre, dance and comedy Film Art galleries and exhibitions Sports and outdoor activities Shopping Directory Around Sydney Australia Basics Maps Small print HOW TO USE THIS ROUGH GUIDES SNAPSHOT This Rough Guides Snapshot is one of a new generation of informative and easy-to-use travel-guide eBooks that guarantees you make the most of your visit. An essential tool for pre-trip planning, it also makes a great travel companion when you’re on the road. Introduction to Sydney and around is a good place to start, with an overview of the city and surrounding area’s big attractions, plus a list of highlights. From the table of contents, you can click straight to the main sections of the guide, which includes features on all the major sights. You’ll find practical information on the country as a whole, including details on flights, in Australia Basics. Shorter contents lists appear at the start of every section in the guide to make chapter navigation quick and easy. You can jump back to these by tapping the links that sit with an arrow icon. Detailed area maps can be found in the guide and in the dedicated map section, which also includes a full country map, accessible from the table of contents. Depending on your hardware, you can double-tap on the maps to see larger-scale versions, or select different scales. There are also thumbnails below more detailed maps - in these cases, you can opt to “zoom left/top” or “zoom right/bottom” or view the full map. The screen-lock function on your device is recommended when viewing enlarged maps. Make sure you have the latest software updates, too. Throughout the guide, we’ve flagged up our favourite places – a perfectly sited hotel, an atmospheric café, a special restaurant – with . You can select your own favourites and create a personalized itinerary by bookmarking the sights, venues and activities that are of interest, giving you the quickest possible access to everything you’ll need for your time away. INTRODUCTION TO SYDNEY AND AROUND Highlights Brief history The Aussie city par excellence, Sydney stands head and shoulders above any other in Australia. Taken together with its surrounds, it’s in many ways a microcosm of the country as a whole – if only in its ability to defy your expectations and prejudices as often as it confirms them. A thrusting, high- rise business centre, a clutch of fascinating museums, vibrant art galleries, a high-profile gay community and inner-city deprivation of unexpected harshness are as much part of the scene as the beaches, the bodies and the sparkling harbour. Its sophistication, cosmopolitan population and exuberant nightlife are a long way from the Outback, and yet Sydney has the highest Aboriginal population of any Australian city, and bushfires are an annual threat. It might seem surprising that Sydney is not Australia’s capital: the creation of Canberra in 1927 – intended to stem the intense rivalry between Sydney and Melbourne – has not affected the view of many Sydneysiders that their city remains the country’s true capital, and certainly in many ways it feels like it. The city has a tangible sense of history: the old stone walls and well-worn steps in the backstreets around The Rocks are an evocative reminder that Sydney has more than two hundred years of white history behind it. You’ll need at least five days in this unique city to ensure you see not only its glorious harbourside but also its wider treasures. Delving into the inner-city areas of Paddington, Surry Hills and Glebe reveal more of the Sydney psyche. And no trip to the city would be complete without at least one visit to the eastern-suburb beaches – for a true taste of Sydney, take a long afternoon stroll along the coastal path that stretches from Bondi to Coogee. The surrounding areas – all the places covered in this chapter are within day- trip distance – offer a taste of virtually everything you’ll find in the rest of the country, with the exception of desert. There are magnificent national parks – Ku-ring-gai Chase and Royal being the best known – and native wildlife within an hour’s drive from the centre of town; while further north stretch endless ocean beaches, great for surfers, and more enclosed waters for safer swimming and sailing. Inland, the gorgeous Blue Mountains – UNESCO World Heritage- listed – offer isolated bushwalking and scenic viewpoints. On the way are historic colonial towns that were among the earliest foundations in the country – Sydney itself was the very first. The commercial and industrial heart of the state of New South Wales, especially the central coastal region, is bordered by Wollongong in the south and much more enticing Newcastle in the north. Both were synonymous with coal and steel, but the smokestack industries that supported them for decades are now in severe decline. This is far from an industrial wasteland, though: the heart of the coal-mining country is the Hunter Valley, northwest of Newcastle, but to visit it you’d never guess, because this is also Australia’s oldest, and arguably its best-known, wine-growing region, where you can not only sample the fine wines but enjoy some of the best food in the state. ZOOM LEFT ZOOM RIGHT < Back to Introduction to Sydney and around HUNTER VALLEY VINEYARDS Highlights 1 Sydney Opera House Catch a show or relax with a drink at the Opera Bar. 2 Sydney Harbour Bridge Drive, walk, cycle or even climb the famous “coathanger” for a giddy vision of the city. 3 Newtown Arty, quirky and with restaurants representing every flavour of multicultural Sydney. 4 Sydney Harbour National Park Multiple pockets of astounding natural beauty with great views of the harbour. 5 Bondi Beach Bold, brash Bondi is synonymous with Australian beach culture. 6 Cruise the harbour Sydney is at its best from the harbour; take it in cheaply on the popular Manly Ferry. 7 Manly Beach A hub of watersports, with a holiday-village feel. 8 Mardi Gras The world’s biggest celebration of LGBT culture. 9 Hunter Valley wineries A famous wine-growing region with a plethora of culinary and cultural activities to choose from. 10 Blue Mountains Take a weekend break in the World Heritage-listed Blue Mountains. < Back to Introduction to Sydney and around Brief history The city of Sydney was founded as a penal colony, amid brutality, deprivation and despair. In January 1788, the First Fleet, carrying over a thousand people, 736 of them convicts, arrived at Botany Bay expecting the “fine meadows” that Captain James Cook had described eight years earlier. In fact, what greeted them was mostly swamp, scrub and sand dunes. An unsuccessful scouting expedition prompted Commander Arthur Phillip to move the fleet a few kilometres north, to the well-wooded Port Jackson, where a stream of fresh water was found. This settlement was named Sydney Cove after Viscount Sydney, then Secretary of State in Great Britain. Hunger and conflict In the first three years of settlement, the new colony nearly starved to death several times; the land around Sydney Cove proved to be barren. When supply ships did arrive, they inevitably came with hundreds more convicts to further burden the colony. It was not until 1790, when land was successfully farmed further west at Parramatta, that the hunger began to abate. Measure this suffering, however, with that of the original occupants, the Eora Aborigines: their land had been invaded, their people virtually wiped out by smallpox, and now they were stricken by hunger as the settlers shot at their game. Under the leadership of Pemulwuy, a skilled Aboriginal warrior, the Eora commenced a guerrilla war against the colony for much of the 1790s. However, the numbers and firepower of the settlers proved too great, and in 1802 Pemulwuy was captured and killed, his severed head sent back to England. The Eora’s resistance soon ended.
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