Sydney

March 2016. Our trip to Australia started in Sydney, with 4,6 million inhabitants, one of the largest cities
in the country. The city center is dense with high rise buildings with striking designs. The tallest structure
is the Sydney Tower Eye, 306 meters, seen slightly to the left of the picture center. Sydney is ranked
second in Australia for high rise buildings. The Opera House is seen left of the arched Harbour Bridge.

A major communication hub in Sydney is the Circular Quay, with many hotels and frequent
calls by large cruise ships. About 300 ships visit Sydney every year. The glass building to the
left is the 164 m tall Gateway Plaza completed in 1989, the 23rd tallest building in Sydney.

This is 8 Chifly Square, at the intersection of Phillip, Hunter and Elizabeth Streets.
The business tower is 34 floors and 145 m high. Richard Rogers was the architect.

The Chifly Tower, 244 meters including lightning rod, the tallest building in Sydney since 1992.

Downtown seen from Circular Quay. The 165 m tall 1 O’Connell Street Building, 1991, in the center of the picture.

We took a lunch cruise from Circular Quay around Sydney Harbour.

The lunch buffet was excellent with lots of fresh shellfish.

We got a very good view of new construction at Darling Harbour. International Tower 1, to the left, will be 49 stories, 217 m,
above ground and ready in 2017 to accommodate offices and shops. Planning started in 2010 and construction in 2014.

It looks dense already at Darling Harbour.

Here you find the Sydney Aquarium, which is shown in a series of pictures on another page.

The boat trip offered many good views of the city. Walsh Bay, a redeveloped
residential and entertainment area just to the right of Sydney Harbour Bridge.

The city center seen from north. Sydney Tower Eye to the right, and the steeples
of St Mary’s Cathedral in the centre left, dwarfed by all the high rise buildings.

Sydney has a lot of waterfront housing. These buildings are at Point Piper.

Housing in an area called Kirribilli at the northern landing of the Sydney Harbour Bridge.

Flags on the top of the bridge. People may climb to the top, but none were caught in this picture.

Not all parts of Sydney have large, high rise buildings. This is close to our hotel in Surry Hills.

Close to our hotel. Garbage sorting is well established in Australia.

St Mary’s Cathedral, built of local sandstone between 1821–1928, 75 m tall. Not so tall
any longer in Sydney. Local sandstone was used to build all official buildings in Sydney.

The Cathedral is a popular place for weddings, or at least for wedding photographs.

We met a group of young Australians in the park next to the Cathedral, perhaps not dressed for a
church ceremony. They wanted help to take a picture and insisted that Björn join them in a selfie.

The Queen Victoria Building houses a lot of shops and restaurants. It was scheduled for
demolition some years ago, but the city instead invested 24 million dollars to restore it.

It has a beautiful glass cupola in the centre, seen from the ground floor.

We had a very good lunch on the top floor.

A feature we saw in several places, a free automatic plastic bags for wet umbrellas.

The Strand Arcade is about the same age as the Queen Victoria Building.

The Opera House, opened 1973, is probably the building most closely associated with Sydney.
It is spectacular, but not overwhelmingly massive set against all the new high rise buildings behind.

The Opera House is impressive with its huge sails.

The Opera is an important tourist attraction and perfect for a group photo to prove one has been in Sydney.

One should book a guided tour of the Opera. The guides are very professional.

When you look closely, you see the tiles have two different colours. All the tiles were produced in Sweden.

The main concert hall, with acoustic rings suspended from the ceiling to direct sound correctly
to the audience. Everything was designed by Utzon, the Danish architect, including the seats.

The Australian Museum is on the site of the first government building built in 1788.
It is the oldest museum on Australia and was opened to the public in 1857. When we
visited, an artist was dressing the trees with colourful garlands to celebrate Harmony.

The main hall with three floors of displays, such as the coast with sea birds to the right.

The upper floor of the old gallery has information about birds and insects.

One of the displays in the main hall.

There is a large section on Australian minerals. There are also sections on meteorites and on gemstones.

Australia had several gold rushes, the first in May 1851. Gold was found in many places and some were richer than
others. In one place, five men managed to gather 136 oz of gold in just one day at the beginning of a gold rush.

Part of the section on Australian animals.

There is a big section on aboriginal culture. This map shows the territory of
many different clans of indigenous Australians. Each clan has its own language.

A closer look at the map reveals that there are many clans just around Sydney. Few tourists
know that about half of all aborigines in Australia actually live in Sydney, mainly in the suburbs.

Displays of spears, boomerangs and shields.

There are many different types of boomerangs and not all return when you throw them. Some
are designed to kill or maim, and you do not want to be in the way of a rebounding killer boomerang.

Australian Aboriginal totems. They can be personal to either a clan or a person who can
relate to several totems, each depicting different animals, flora or patterns from nature.

Part of the dinosaur section.

The evening before we left Sydney, we went up to the revolving bar at Sydney Tower Eye, where you have excellent views of the city.

The 228 m MLC building to the left was the tallest building in Sydney between 1977– 92. The building with an open framework
roof is the 240 m Deutsche Bank Place, the second tallest building in the world under 40 floors. Designed by Norman Foster.