Ask Google about Sydney? Ask Fairlie!
This post is part of a regular series of weekly “Ask Google? Ask Fairlie!” posts. Today I ask Google about Sydney, Australia. I type the start of a question into Google and based on the Google auto-completion suggestions, I find out what most people are wanting to know. Then I answer those questions myself. Who needs Google when you can ask Fairlie?
What is Sydney…
What is Sydney known for?
Well, the Opera House, of course. And the Harbour Bridge. Those two features alone make Sydney instantly recognizable. The Harbour itself is pretty special too – you can just jump on a ferry at Circular Quay and be right out on it – great for photo opportunities of the Bridge, the Opera House and the City. And then there’s Bondi Beach, home of Bondi Rescue. Oh, and I can’t forget the spectacular New Year’s Eve fireworks.
Plus Sydney is known for it’s significant role in the colonization of what we now call Australia. Sydney’s Circular Quay is where the First Fleet anchored on 26 January in 1788, which kicked off the first British settlement in Australia when Captain Arthur Phillips came ashore, planted a flag and declared possession.
What is Sydney Harbour?
Sydney Harbour (which is also known as Port Jackson) is an inlet of the Tasman Sea (part of the South Pacific Ocean). It forms a natural, sheltered, deep-water harbour that was super-attractive to that First Fleet I mentioned earlier. To be geographically technical, what we call Sydney Harbour is a drowned river valley, or a ria.
According to the Geographical Names Board of New South Wales, Port Jackson is: “A harbour which comprises of all the waters within an imaginary line joining North Head and South Head. Within this harbour lies North Harbour, Middle Harbour and Sydney Harbour”. So if you want to be pedantic about it, ‘Sydney Harbour’ is really just one part of Port Jackson.
What is Sydney’s time zone?
Oh! A nice easy one. Sydney, like Melbourne, is in the Australian Eastern Standard Timezone (AEST) during winter and swaps to Australian Eastern Daylight Time in summer (AEDT). AEST is 10 hours ahead of Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) and AEDT is 11 hours ahead of UTC.
For the 2014/2015 summer the changeover from AEST to AEDT will take place on the first Sunday in October (5 October 2014), and back again on the first Sunday in April (5 April 2015). Which means we have a shorter sleep coming up in just a few weeks time.
Where is Sydney…?
Where is Sydney located?
Sydney is the capital of the State of New South Wales and is the largest city in Australia. It is located on the east coast of Australia approximately halfway between the cities of Melbourne and Brisbane. Today, a flight from London to Sydney takes around 21 bone-aching hours…but that’s still a huge improvement on the eight months and one week that it took the First Fleet to sail from Portsmouth to Botany Bay in 1788.
Where is Sydney airport?
Sydney airport is located on Botany Bay, about 11 kilometres from the Sydney CBD. The airport code is SYD, and there are separate international and domestic terminals. It takes around 20-40 minutes by taxi from the airport to the CBD and costs somewhere in the vicinity of AUD$35-55. There’s a very handy train that services both the domestic and international terminals ($16.40/$17.20) and takes 11/13 mins to Central Station and 19/21 to Circular Quay .
Where is Sydney Harbour Bridge?
Visually, you really can’t miss the Harbour Bridge once you arrive in Sydney City as it’s such a dominating feature on the landscape. But, if you want to locate it on a map, just look at the northern part of the CBD – the area known as ‘The Rocks’ and you’ll see a road which crosses the Harbour between Dawes Point in the south and Milsons Point on the North Shore – that road is the Harbour Bridge.
There is a pedestrian path across the bridge which is free to traverse, and I think provides one of the most spectacular views of the city, the Harbour and the Opera House. If you are in ‘The Rocks‘, look for the the sign on George St just south of Argyle St which points to stairs leading to the south end of the bridge. These flights of stairs are located near Gloucester and Cumberland Streets. Plus, of course, for the same views, but turbo-charged, there’s the famous Bridgeclimb – which is located at 3 Cumberland Street in The Rocks.
Click here to find all my previous post about Sydney in one easy-to-access location.
What question do you want to ask about Sydney?
