Sydney Aquarium, Port Darling and The Rocks

March 19, 2010


We started the day with the famous Sydney Aquarium which is right on Darling Harbour and only a 20 minute walk from our door. The Sydney Aquarium is connected to Wildlife World and the way to do them both is buy a group ticket online – they are dear! Each highlights an Australian environment and showcases the life found there. The Aquarium is spectacular made up of huge tanks (house sized) you can view from above, the sides and through tubes that run through the tanks. Everything from Finding Nemo fishes to sharks and sea turtles. Divers are often in the tanks feeding and interacting with the animals and the close up views are stunning. A high point was the pair of Dugongs, somewhat like Manatees although smaller. Apparently there are only 5 in captivity world-wide and the pair here seemed quite contented and put on a show for us. The Wildlife world was beautifully done however we were a bit blasé having seen so much of it in the wild at Undara and Cairns. The crocodile was huge, about six meters long and apparently they can reach eight. We couldn’t pull the boys from the butterfly gallery at the end, simply beautiful.

We ate a picnic lunch looking at the harbour and then headed north to The Rocks, the oldest part of Sydney where the colony was founded back in the early 1800’s. This area was actually slated for demolition and ‘improvement’ in the 60’s and became the site for the green movement in Australia. The working class residents opposed the government plan to evict them and after a bitter battle had the area designated a heritage trust area. It preserved the buildings and many were restored however the area soon became gentrified and the workers were slowly forced out. It is now an area of pubs, restaurants and galleries along the side of hills overlooking the harbour and the Sydney Opera house on the other side. The buildings are beautiful often made up of sandstone and limestone blocks, hand quarried by convicts out of the surrounding bedrock and built right into the hills they were quarried from. The streets are cobblestone and there are steep alleys and stairways all over the place.

We visited the base of the Sydney Bridge (now almost 80 years old) to investigate the bridge climb – about 200 dollars a head for that privilege! I think we’ve written that cheap thrill off. We also visited Cadmans Cottage which is literally a sandstone cottage but stands as the oldest building in Sydney at 1812. We popped into the Rocks Discovery Museum and took their museum challenge to learn a bit of the history of early Sydney then wandered the small steep streets of The Rocks themselves. As it happened it was the evening of the Moonlight Market which happens monthly and all the streets were crammed with stalls and street food. There was music in the squares and people were partying. We shared a lovely Barramundi on an outside table however Duncan’s tastes ran to the Nutella Crepe he had made up in the square. We watched the sun set and the Flying Foxes come out then slogged home for the night. We probably logged 12 km of walking today and our dogs were barking.