Sydney City Guide
PRACTICAL INFORMATION
- Official name: is the capital city of the south-eastern Australian state of New South Wales situated on Port Jackson, which is more commonly known as "Sydney Harbour".
- Language: English
- Religion: 70% christianism
- Currency : Australian dollar
- Weather: Sydney is sub-tropical". Sydney has but two seasons: a hot, mildly humid one (summer), and a colder one (winter)
Sydney Sights and Museums
WHAT TO SEE
• The Sydney Opera House:[ Located in the city, millions of tourists a year throng the building just to see it, even if they have little or no interest in Opera. The Sydney Opera House is easily one of the most famous structures ever built
• The Sydney Harbour Bridge: The harbor bridge, crosses the harbor from the city to North Sydney.
• Sydney Tower: also called Centre point Tower. The tallest structure in Sydney, the tower contains a buffet, cafe and a rather large restaurant and attracts many visitors a year
• The Australian Museum
• The Australian National Maritime Museum
• The Art Gallery of NSW
• The Powerhouse Museum
• The Museum of Contemporary Art
• Sydney Aquarium in Darling Harbour
• Featherdale Wildlife Park, in western Sydney.
• Australian Reptile Park, about an hour north of Sydney, with much more than just reptiles.
Sydney Entertainment
EVENTS
Sydney is home to a number of major and minor festivals and calendar events each year:
• The Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras is a huge festival organised by and for the queer community. It includes sports, cultural and arts events that run throughout February, culminating in a huge Mardi Gras parade in Darlinghurst on the first Saturday of March each year. The festival began as a street protest, and has grown into a huge celebration.
• The Sydney Festival is an arts festival held in January each year. It aims to be international in reach, inviting acclaimed international artists to exhibit their work or perform in Sydney. A number of free outdoor events are held alongside the festival including the hugely popular Jazz in the Domain and Symphony in the Domain concerts held in the Domain in the city
• The Bacardi Latin Festival in Darling Harbour is held in early January as part of the Sydney Festival, and contains a week of Latin dancing and music.
• The Biennale of Sydney is a contemporary arts and multimedia festival held in winter in even numbered years.
• The Royal Easter Show is the major agricultural show in New South Wales, and is held in the two weeks before Easter each year at Sydney Olympic Park in the Outer West
• The Sydney Fringe Festival runs from mid-January to mid-February each year, and features fringe art in the form of film, TV, performance and sport.
• The Sydney Film Festival is held in June each year and shows over 200 movies in 16 days, including an enormous number of Australian movies, most of which will premiere at the festival.
• The Big Day Out, an Australia-wide rock/alternative music festival with a side of dance, plays to up to 60 000 Sydneysiders at a time for one or two days in late January (normally on the January 26th public holiday). Past acts have included Nirvana, the Red Hot Chili Peppers, the Chemical Brothers and Marilyn Manson from overseas, and Powderfinger, Regurgitator and Gerling from Australia.
• The Homebake festival is a rock/alternative/dance festival featuring only Australian acts.
• The Carols in the Domain are held annually in the Domain in the city on the last Saturday before Christmas. 100 000 people with candles sing along as night falls and the show is also telecast live.
Sydney Transports
Most Sydney residents travel by car through the system of roads, freeways and tollways (known as motorways). The most important trunk routes in the urban area form the Metroad system. Sydney is also served by extensive train, bus and ferry networks.
Train: Sydney trains are run by CityRail.
Sydney has one privately operated light rail line, the Metro Light Rail, running from Central Station to Lilyfield along a former goods train line.
There is also a small monorail which runs in a loop around the main shopping district and Darling Harbour.
HOW TO GET THERE
By plane
Sydney has one major airport (SYD, Mascot, or Kingsford-Smith) and one smaller airport (Bankstown):
Kingsford Smith International Airport (SYD) [4] is Sydney (and Australia's) largest and most important international and domestic airport, located 8 km from the city centre at Mascot in South Sydney
You can fly to Sydney directly from all other Australian capital cities and from many major regional airports. Otherwise, you will usually need to fly to the state capital and transfer to a Sydney flight. Sydney can be reached within an hour and a half from Melbourne and Brisbane, a little less from Canberra and just under four hours from Perth.
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