Darling Harbour – Sydney

Hi all! Let’s get back to somewhere closer now…but I don’t mean our living room, for god’s sake! But somewhere in Australia. Actually, I was about to visit Melbourne for the first time by the end of March. However, due the latest health related events (let’s please not repeat Covid-19 again ok?) I ended up stuck in my living room, as probably most of you as well. Lol!

Darling Harbour’s Overview

Luckily, I’ve got some nice memories from my very brief visit to Sydney back in July 2018, on my way back to Brisbane from one of my visits to Brazil. Perhaps, I couldn’t say I visited Sydney as a City, because I’ve only been around the city’s Harbour, particularly, Darling Harbour, and part of its CBD area. I was lucky that a friend I’ve just met on the plane invited me to come around for a walk leaving his place in Pyrmont.

Sydney’s Harbour Area Map, with Darling Harbour highlighted. Source: Google Maps, 2020.

Darling Harbour, located in Sydney’s central area, played a very important role in Australia’s history. The industrial era in Australia started in this zone in 1815 with the opening of a steam powered factory. It became an important industrial centre and international ship pier for the commercialisation of wool, grains, wood and coal. Those were deactivated little by little and ended up becoming a degraded zone in the middle of the city.

Metro-Mono rail Sydney’s Map: Source: http://www.metromonorail.com.au/mapsydney.asp

During the 1980’s it was part of a big redevelopment project, involving an area of 54 acres, and today it presents many museums, shops, restaurants and cafes. Some of its famous local attractions are the Sydney Aquarium, the Sydney Convention and Exhibition Centre, the Harbourside Complex, the Australian National Maritime Museum and The Chinese Garden of Friendship. This grand design was part of New South Wales’ bicentennial anniversary celebrations. More info available on: https://darlingharbour.com/.

Darling Harbour’s Exhibition Area

The Pyrmont Bridge is another interesting attraction to be checked out. It was opened in 1902 to serve the Sydney’s Port and it is also the oldest movable bridge in the world, opening up for boats up to 14 meters high.

By the way, the Pyrmont suburb, located just around the Darling Harbour‘s area, is another interesting place for the ‘Archilovers’, with its beautiful Victorian style villages, or villas. Those semi-detached units usually occupy very narrow urban sites, presenting architectural elements characteristic of the Victorian or Georgian periods, very common during the 1880’s. The cast iron tracery balconies are so charming!

Pyrmont’s Victorian Style House

I also got to see the very famous Opera House that day, even though it was only from the outside. It’s located up north from the Darling Harbour, in The Rocks area. However, totally reachable through a good walk around Sydney’s CBD area. By the way, Sydney’s CBD area has got some marvelous architectural gems from the 1800’s, which could easily become the theme for a brand new post to come. I would highly recommend a visit to those sites and I feel that I definitely need to get back to Sydney as soon as possible!

Pyrmont’s Bridge View

Sydney’s CBD Area

Sydney’s Opera House at “The Rocks”

*All the images in this post belongs to the writer´s personal gallery and correspond to intellectual property, otherwise as noted.

Important Sources:

http://www.metromonorail.com.au/mapsydney.asp

https://darlingharbour.com/

Guia American Express – Australia