Sydney is Australia's largest and most cosmopolitan city, the capital of New South Wales and the most heavily populated state in Australia. Sydney’s population is over 4 million.

One of Sydney’s most famous icons is the Sydney Harbour Bridge (1932), which took 10 years to build and links the city with the northern suburbs. The Bridge is 1,149 metres long in total, including the approach spans. 95,000 cubic metres of concrete, eight million rivets and 272,000 litres of paint were used. The Bridge is painted grey as it was the only colour available at the time. The sandstone pylons are there to make the Bridge look safe, without performing any structural function.

It took almost 70 years before the Sydney Harbour Bridge was opened to the public to climb. The first group of climbers was escorted to the summit on October 1, 1998. During the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games, Bridge Climb will extend its opening hours to the public.

 

The 305 metre high AMP Tower at Centrepoint is Sydney’s tallest building. The Tower is stabilised by 56 cables which, if laid end to end, would reach from Sydney to New Zealand. It takes approximately 40 seconds to travel by lift/elevator from the top to the bottom of the Tower. The Tower stands out over the Olympic period with three giant Olympic statues, representing the "power and excitement of the Games", created by young Australian artist Dominique Sutton. The design, in welded steel weighing four and a half tons and up to 12 metres high, includes a sprinter, a gymnast and a Paralympic basketballer.

The AMP Tower has one million dollars worth of fire protection equipment, countless sprinklers and a 162,000-litre water tank, which is the primary dampening system. The safety standards of the building exceed normal building requirements and the AMP Tower has been ranked as one of the safest buildings in the world.

Another Sydney icon, the Sydney Opera House, has over one million tiles on its roof. The original tiles came from Sweden but are now sourced from an Australian manufacturer. The SOH has almost completed a project to replace approximately 8,500 edge tiles as part of its ongoing maintenance program. The Sydney Opera House also contains 6,225 square metres of glass and 645 kilometres of electric cable.

The Sydney Opera House is one of the busiest performing arts centres in the world, with 2,300 performances annually (compared to the Kennedy Centre (USA) which has 3,000 performances annually. There are five main performance venues, namely the Concert Hall, Opera Theatre, The Studio, Playhouse and Drama Theatre, plus external areas such as the Forecourt and the Monumental Steps which are also used for performances. The first performance at the Sydney Opera House was the Australian Opera’s production of Prokofiev’s War and Peace on 28 September 1973.

The grand organ in the Sydney Opera House is recognised as the world’s largest mechanical action organ; it has 10,000 pipes grouped in 200 ranks, and is positioned 10 metres above the floor of the Concert Hall. It has five manual keyboards and 61 keys.

Sydney has set a new Olympic record by completing all the venues at the main Games precinct at Homebush Bay some nine months before the start of the 2000 Games. The Olympic Stadium at Sydney Olympic Park (Homebush) is the world’s largest Olympic stadium, able to seat 110,000 people.

Sydney is one of the world’s most culturally diverse cities. Nearly 42 per cent of all arriving migrants choose to settle in New South Wales and in particular Sydney. Migrants from 215 countries live in Sydney. More than one third of Sydney’s population was born overseas and almost one third speaks languages other than English.

Bondi Beach is Australia’s most famous beach and a classic example of Sydney’s beach culture. The beach is nearly a kilometre long (950 metres) and is home to two of Australia’s oldest surf clubs - Bondi Surf Bathers’ Club (founded 1904) and the North Bondi Surf Club (1907). Each year about 3,000 people are rescued on the beach, most of them after they’ve been caught in a rip current.   Eating out is a way of life in Sydney. While there are hundreds of restaurants serving international cuisines, Australia has developed its own style called, not too surprisingly, "Modern Australian". It’s a mixture of Asian and Mediterranean flavours and was created by a raft of celebrity chefs such as Tony and Gay Bilson, Neil Perry, Anders Ousback, Amando Percuoco and many others. Some of Sydney’s best restaurants include Perry’s Rockpool and Wockpool (located at The Rocks and Darling Harbour respectively), Salt (Kirketon Hotel, Darlinghurst), MG Garage (Surry Hills), Tetsuyas (Rozelle), Ampersand and Coast (Cockle Bay Wharf, Darling Harbour) and Darley Street Thai (Kings Cross). Sydney has some wonderful restaurant and café precincts where the atmosphere is lively and there are plenty of opportunities to eat, people- watch and shop. The main areas are - Campbell Parade, Bondi Beach (informal, relaxed with views and gelato) Darlinghurst Road, Darlinghurst (sleek inner city) Oxford Street, Darlinghurst and Paddington (gay and hip) Glebe Point Road, Glebe (casual and cheaper) Darling Street, Balmain (smart and small) The new East Circular Quay (cool with the view!) Cockle Bay Wharf and Harbourside, Darling Harbour (everything you could want) Bent Street, Fox Studios (loaded with atmosphere and the chance to see a star) King Street, Newtown (the chance to try African, Thai, Lebanese food) Norton Street, Leichhardt (authentic Italian)       Shopping Sydney’s Central Business District shopping precinct is the area bordered by Market, Castlereagh, King and George Streets, with the Pitt Street Mall somewhere in the middle. Along Market Street you’ll find the two David Jones department stores and the recently upgraded Grace Bros located in a new centre called Sydney Central Plaza. The Chifley Tower in Phillip Street - opposite the Wentworth Hotel - is home to leading designers such as Bruno Maglia, MaxMara and Tiffany, while the new East Circular Quay precinct right on the water has a colonnaded walkway of lovely stores. Sydney’s Queen Victoria Building (QVB), next to Town Hall, is a classic restored building and a popular place to shop. Away from the city there are some great shoppers’ haunts: Double Bay (classy imports and local designer labels) Oxford Street, Paddington (funky and now) King Street, Newtown (gothic and eclectic) Victoria Avenue, Chatswood (smart and accessible) Mosman Village (designer labels) Redfern and Birkenhead Point (excellent discount stores - such as Country Road and David Jones) Markets As well as fashionable centres, there are plenty of markets in Sydney selling everything from food and vegetables, to bric-a-brac, innovative art pieces and flash trash. Here are a few: Balmain Markets – Sat. 8am - 4pm. St Andrews Church, Darling Street, Balmain. Everything, including organic fruit and vegetables and plants. Belmore Park Art Market - Fri/Sat. 11am - 5pm. Belmore Park, Eddy Avenue, Central Railway, Sydney. Australian visual arts and craft. Bent Street Farmers Market - Wed. 1pm until late. Fox Studios, Lang Road, Moore Park. A mid-week fresh produce market. Unusual produce sold directly from the producers. Glebe Market - Sat. 10am - 4pm. School grounds, Glebe Point Road, Glebe. Arts and crafts, bric-a-brac. Paddington Markets - Sat. 10am - 5pm 395 Oxford Street, Paddington. Australian arts, crafts and fashion – where they all started! Paddy’s Market – Thurs. Fri. Sat. Sun. Ground Floor, Market City, Cnr Thomas & Hay Streets, Chinatown. Fresh food, arts, crafts, bric-a-brac, clothes, plants. The Rocks Market - Sat/Sun 10am - 5pm. George Street, The Rocks, near Harbour Bridge. Arts and crafts. Sydney Fish Markets - Daily 7am - 4pm. Cnr Pyrmont Bridge Road and Bank Street, Pyrmont. All sorts of seafood, plus restaurants.

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