Sydney's Harbour

The Australian city of Sydney has one of the world's great harbours, which acts as the core around which the city has grown. However, what many people don't realize about Sydney's harbour is that it has a name problem. Most people, including most Sydneysiders, refer to it as "Sydney harbour", but strictly speaking this isn't correct. It's not that there isn't a Sydney harbour, it's just that this isn't it, in fact it's nowhere near - Sydney harbour is actually in Nova Scotia, Canada. If you want to be correct, then, you'll call Sydney's harbour "Port Jackson", but be warned that you'll be the only person doing that!

I visited Sydney in January, but you definitely won't get a view like this in Nova Scotia at that time of year, because Canada's Sydney harbour is frozen for three months of the year. In this photo you can see the Royal Botanic Gardens on the waterfront, with the Centerpoint Tower poking up a total of 320 meters, with an observation deck at 250 meters. On the right, of course, is the famous opera house and on the far right is one end of the area known as The Rocks, which is where Sydney's first convict inhabitants were forced to set up camp. Hidden behind the opera house is Circular Quay, which is where most of the harbour ferries arrive and depart.

Taronga zoo is on the green headland in the middle of this photo taken from the Centrepoint Tower, with North Head at the top and right of the photo and Manly on the far left and top.

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Sydney's iconic Opera House was opened by Queen Elizabeth II on my tenth birthday, but somehow I missed out on getting an invitation. Although Australians are very proud of it now, the opera house had a very troubled gestation and birth process, taking about 12 years longer to build than expected, and costing far more than was originally projected. The Danish architect, Jorn Utzon, left the project about halfway through after many acrimonious disagreements with the Australian government.

Just across the ferry terminal from the opera house is another great icon, the Sydney Harbour Bridge (not the Port Jackson bridge!). It was officially opened in 1932 and is the world's largest (but not longest) steel arch bridge. Australians affectionately know it as the Coat Hanger because of its shape. It has eight vehicle lanes, two train lines as well as pedestrian and cyclist access. If you look closely to the left of the flags at the top, you can see that it's even possible to take guided tours to its summit!

Here's a closer view of some bridge climbers. The flag you see here is the state flag of New South Wales, which is where Sydney is. The Australian national flag has a union jack on a blue background with large stars in the shape of the Southern Cross constellation. The Australian and New Zealand flags are depressingly similar - the only difference is that the Australian flag has five seven-pointed white stars in its depiction of the Southern Cross, plus another larger Federation Star which represents the combined Commonwealth of Australia, while poor old New Zealand only has four five-pointed red stars, again depicting the Southern Cross!

You can decide whether you want to brave climbing up the bridge, but a definite must-do when you're here is a ride on the harbour itself, either on a tourist boat or one of the many commuter ferries which take people to and from work all throughout the day.

There are fast and slow ferries out to Manly, which has very attractive beaches both facing into the harbour and facing out to the open ocean. Ocean swells from the Tasman Sea between Australia and New Zealand can make this a slightly wilder ride than those in the inner harbour.

Here's the side of Manly which faces the open ocean. The Norfolk pines which run along the length of the beach are said to be scraggly because of pollution from the city, and it's true that Sydney has a bad reputation for air pollution during the warmer months.

New Zealanders and Australians have a very similar culture where beach-going is concerned. In New Zealand most people can do day trips to the beach because the country is so long and narrow, and most Australians are also near a beach, because the great majority of the population lives along the coastline, with far fewer people in the empty centre. Both countries have a terrible record for skin cancer.

It's a bit naughty to have photos of the ocean beach at Manly on a page about Sydney's harbour, but since I've started being naughty I might as well continue and become even naughtier! Here, then, is a photo from one of the headlands enclosing Bondi beach, which faces the open ocean and is some way south of the harbour's south head. Apparently giant tsunami waves periodically rush over Australia's basically flat coast and deposit large stones in places where they wouldn't normally turn up. I'm not sure if the large rock at the bottom left of this photo is an example of this, but either way this is a dramatic view.

Here's another incongruous looking rock, a short walk south from Bondi beach.