Hunter Valley

Hunter Valley

The Hunter Region, also commonly known as the Hunter Valley, is a region of New South Wales, Australia, extending from approximately 120 km (75 mi) to 310 km (193 mi) north of Sydney. It contains the Hunter River and its tributaries with highland areas to the north and south.[1] The Hunter Valley is one of the largest river valleys on the NSW coast, and is most commonly known for its wineries and coal industry.


The Hunter Valley is a major tourist destination in New South Wales and is the 6th most visited place in Australia attracting more than 2.5 million people annually. There are regular events held in the Hunter for visitors, including the Hunter Valley Steam Trains running the first three Sundays of each month and regular scenic cruises on the Hunter River and Lake Macquarie.
A Hunter Valley vineyard
Pokolbin is the centre of the Hunter Valley Wine Country. It is located between the towns of Cessnock and Branxton, about 50 km (31 mi) west of Newcastle. The wine country is primarily located within the Cessnock and Singleton LGAs. Its proximity to Sydney has been an influence on the area’s investments in wine production and its emergence as a tourist destination. Much of the rolling countryside around Pokolbin is under vine with the traditional varieties Shiraz and Semillon as well as extensive plantings of Chardonnay, Cabernet Sauvignon and small quantities of Pinot noir. The Pokolbin area has a large number of vineyards, restaurants, shops, golf courses and country guesthouses. Other parts of the valley including the Wollombi Valley and Broke Fordwich Wine Region are also well known for wine.


From the end of January beginning of summer is the Hunter Valley wine harvest season, that you will find time to indulge in the whole valley where the aroma of wine. Many wineries will offer visitors free tasting, like you can also buy a few bottles back to friends and family.

Taronga Zoo

Taronga Zoo

Tai Taronga Zoo is located on Sydney's North Shore hills, an area larger than the city zoo, the Australian representative animals such as koalas, kangaroos, Wombat, platypus, Dingo, there are known Tasmanian devil Tasmanian Devil, Australia Birds , there are other chimpanzees, penguins, otters, rhino, seals, raccoons, lizards, reptiles, and other animals can be found here. You can also close contact with free-range kangaroos, koalas but only a distance. Photo with koalas need to into the park after 14:30 pm before booking tickets. Zoo animals will have different performance every day.

The reason why this zoo is more famous because of its prime location, at the zoo's giraffe park overlooking the entire Sydney Harbour, the Sydney Opera House, Harbour Bridge, a spectacular view.

This is a winding mountain zoo, tour in two ways, one is to take the cableway up the mountain, from top to bottom tour; the other is from top to bottom tour, finally take the cableway down.

Hyde Park, Sydney

Hyde Park, Sydney

Hyde Park, the oldest public parkland in Australia, is a 16.2-hectare (40-acre) park in the central business district of Sydney, New South Wales. Hyde Park is on the eastern side of the Sydney city centre. It is the southernmost of a chain of parkland that extends north to the shore of Sydney Harbour via The Domain and Sydney's Royal Botanic Gardens. Hyde Park is approximately rectangular in shape, being squared at the southern end and rounded at the northern end. It is bordered on the west by Elizabeth Street, on the east by College Street, on the north by St. James Road and Prince Albert Road and on the south by Liverpool Street.
Around the park's boundaries lie the Supreme Court of New South Wales, St. James Church, Hyde Park Barracks and Sydney Hospital to the north, St Mary's Cathedral, the Australian Museum and Sydney Grammar School to the east, the Downing Centre to the south, the David Jones Limited flagship store and the CBD to the west. It is divided in two by the east-west running Park Street. Hyde Park contains well-kept gardens and approximately 580 trees; a mixture of Hills Figs, palms, and other varieties. It is famed for its magnificent fig tree lined avenues. Sandringham Gardens sit on the eastern side of the park, close to the intersection of Park Street and College Street.

Hyde Park is a large clean lawn, towering trees more than a century, is one of Sydney locals a good place for leisure, but also office workers midday rest, a lot of people a picnic on the lawn. And the park is located opposite St Mary's Cathedral, next to the Sydney Tower, out of the park to see the St. Mary's Cathedral. Central Park is a unique design of the fountain, Archibald Fountain. The fountain is in 1932 to commemorate the contribution made by Australia in World War I and built. Sydney's Hyde Park, London Hyde Park is named, as early as the beginning of construction, had already become a model for London-style park. However, when the Hyde Park several times larger than it is now. Because this piece of green space was also used as a military practice field, and later also used over other sports racetrack, cricket and so on. Hyde Park, the natural environment is very good. With nearly 580 trees throughout the park, and thus also known for its boulevard. Sydney Many people like to walk in the park walking.

St Mary's Cathedral, Sydney

St Mary's Cathedral, Sydney

The Metropolitan Cathedral of the Immaculate Mother of God, Help of Christians (colloquially, St Mary's Cathedral) is the cathedral church of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Sydney and the seat of the Archbishop of Sydney, currently Anthony Fisher OP. The cathedral is dedicated to the "Immaculate Mother of God, Help of Christians", Patroness of Australia. St Mary’s holds the title and dignity of a minor basilica, bestowed upon it by Pope Pius XI on 4 August 1932.
St Mary's has the greatest length of any church in Australia (although it is neither the tallest nor the largest overall). It is located on College Street in the heart of the City of Sydney where, despite the high rise development of the Sydney central business district (CBD), its imposing structure and twin spires make it a landmark from every direction.

The architecture is typical of the Gothic Revival of the 19th century, inspired by the journals of the Cambridge Camden Society, the writings of John Ruskin and the architecture of Augustus Welby Pugin. At the time that the foundation stone was laid, the architect Edmund Blacket had just completed Sydney’s very much smaller Anglican cathedral in the Perpendicular Gothic style and the Main Building of Sydney University. St Mary's, when William Wardell's plan was realised, was to be a much larger, more imposing and more sombre structure than the smaller St Andrew's and, because of its fortuitous siting, still dominates many views of the city despite the high-rise buildings.
The style of the cathedral is Geometric Decorated Gothic, the archaeological antecedent being the ecclesiastical architecture of late 13th century England. It is based fairly closely on the style of Lincoln Cathedral, the tracery of the huge chancel window being almost a replica of that at Lincoln.
The cathedral seen from the north-west
The lateral view of the building from Hyde Park is marked by the regular progression of Gothic windows with pointed arches and simple tracery. The upper roofline is finished with a pierced parapet, broken by decorative gables above the clerestorey windows, above which rises a steeply pitched slate roof with many small dormers in the French manner. The roofline of the aisles is decorated with carved bosses between the sturdy buttresses which support flying buttresss to the clerestorey.
Facing Hyde Park, the transept provides the usual mode of public entrance, as is common in many French cathedrals, and has richly decorated doors which, unlike those of the main front, have had their carved details completed and demonstrate the skills of local craftsmen in both designing and carving in the Gothic style. Included in the foliate bosses are Australian native plants such as the waratah, floral emblem of New South Wales.
St Mary's Cathedral is generally approached on foot from the city through Hyde Park, where the transept front and central tower rise up behind the Archibald Fountain. During the 20th century the gardeners of Hyde Park have further enhanced the vista by laying out a garden on the cathedral side of the park in which the plantings have often taken the form of a cross.

Royal Botanic Gardens

Royal Botanic Gardens, Sydney

Entrance to the Royal Botanic Gardens from Art Gallery Road
The Royal Botanic Gardens is a major botanical garden located in the heart of Sydney, Australia. Opened in 1816, the garden is the oldest scientific institution in Australia and one of the most important historic botanical institutions in the world. It is open every day of the year and access is free. Its stunning position on Sydney Harbour and immediately adjacent to the Sydney CBD, the Sydney Opera House and the large public parklands of The Domain ensure it is one of the most visited attraction in Sydney.
Covering a sizeable 30 hectares (74 acres), the Garden forms a large natural amphitheatre, wrapped around and sloping down towards the 'stage' of Farm Cove. It is divided into four major precincts called the Lower Gardens, the Middle Gardens, the Palace Gardens and the Bennelong precinct. Within the four major precincts are many smaller gardens and features as well as large amounts of lightly wooded lawn areas. Located approximately in the middle of the four precincts is the Palm Grove Centre which offers a restaurant, cafe, visitors centre and bookshop.
The single most distinct landscape feature in the Garden is the historic hand-hewn sandstone seawall that curves around Farm Cove from Mrs Macquarie's Point to the Opera House, delineating the garden from the harbour and providing a focal point for visitors, joggers and photographers.

Lower Gardens
The lower gardens feature the Band Lawn, the main Ponds, the HSBC Oriental Garden, the Yurong, Victoria Lodge, Henry Lawson Gates and the Maiden Pavilion.


 


Middle Gardens
The middle gardens feature the Palm House, the Wollemi Pine, the Succulent Garden, the Rare and Threatened Plant Garden, the Herbarium & Plant Sciences Building, the Lion Gate Lodge, the Begonia Garden and the Macquarie Wall and Spring Walk.
Palace Gardens
The Palace Gardens feature the Tropical Centre (closed since 2013, pending redevelopment), the Rainforest Walk, the Pioner Garden, the Morshead Fountain Gate, the Palace Garden Gate, the Rose Garden & Pavilion, the Turf Plots, the Old Mill Garden, the Herb Garden and the Sydney Conservatorium of Music.



Bennelong Precinct
The Bennelong Precinct contains Government House, the Parade Ground, the Australian Native Rockery, Bennelong Lawn and the Queen Elizabeth II Gate.



Palm Grove Centre
The Palm Grove Centre features the Palm Grove itself, a Cafe, Garden Shop and the Botanic Gardens Restaurant.




Flying foxes

Flying Foxes at the Botanic Gardens, damage to tree evident
The Royal Botanic Gardens was for decades home to a large colony of native Grey-headed Flying Foxes, a large species of fruit bat. The colony (estimated to be over 20,000 strong at times) caused significant damage to the trees used for roosting, especially around he Palm Grove Centre where dozens of historic trees were killed or severely damaged.

Bondi Beach

This is a lively beach, white sand and thin, sunny, blue sea, beautiful scenery. If you want to know how the locals enjoy life, the best way is to come to Bondi beach. Bondi Beach formerly meaning "turning the tide of noise", very aptly describes this beach. Every sunny day, many people will gather at Sydney's Bondi Beach to enjoy the sun bathing. Sydney's Bondi Beach and other beaches, like great waves, not suitable for swimming. Most visitors or surfing or lying on the beach sunbathing. Along the Bondi to Coogee cliff Scenic Road line, the way you can take a stroll, but also to the cafe to drink a cup of coffee. Whipped cream tasted a passenger in was built in the 1920s, the elegant pavilion Bondi (Bondi Pavilion) inside. Watch the Bondi lifeguards lifesaving demonstration activities, you can even personally involved. One of iconic locations in Sydney Bondi Icebergs (Bondi Icebergs) swimming pool. With spectacular ocean views at sunset, on Bondi Beach on one side and enjoy the many restaurants in the gourmet food.
Traffic
45 minutes bus ride, or 30 minutes by train from the city center, Bondi Beach Line, or 10-minute taxi ride away; Bondi Beach and Sydney city green green phase, to Sydney's famous beach.
History"Bondi" or "Boondi" is an Aboriginal word meaning water breaking over rocks or noise of water breaking over rocks. The Australian Museum records that Bondi means place where a flight of nullas took place.
In 1809, the road builder William Roberts received a grant of land in the area. In 1851, Edward Smith Hall and Francis O'Brien purchased 200 acres (0.81 km²) of the Bondi area that included most of the beach frontage, which was named the "The Bondi Estate." Hall was O'Brien's father-in-law. Between 1855 and 1877 O'Brien purchased his father-in-law's share of the land, renamed the land the "O'Brien Estate," and made the beach and the surrounding land available to the public as a picnic ground and amusement resort. As the beach became increasingly popular, O'Brien threatened to stop public beach access. However, the Municipal Council believed that the Government needed to intervene to make the beach a public reserve. On 9 June 1882, the Bondi Beach became a public beach.
Bondi Beach was a working class suburb throughout most of the twentieth century with migrant people from New Zealand comprising the majority of the local population. Following World War II, Bondi Beach and the Eastern Suburbs became home for Jewish migrants from Poland, Russia, Hungary, Czechoslovakia and Germany. A stream of Jewish immigration continued into the 21st century and the area has a number of synagogues and a kosher butcher. The area today is very multicultural with a lot of new wealthy Asian families and Samoans. The multicultural migration funded and drove the growth of the suburb throughout the 90's into the turn of the century, moving it steadily from its working class roots towards upper/middle class enclave similar to its neighbors of Rose Bay and Bellevue Hill which was listed as the most expensive postcode in the country in 2003, 2004, 2005.
Bondi Beach was long a centre for efforts to fight indecency in beach attire. The beach was a focal point of the 1907 Sydney bathing costume protests, organized to oppose proposed dress standards for beachgoers. The Local Government Act, Ordinance No. 52 (1935) governed the decency of swimming costumes and was in force between 1935 and 1961, and resulted in public controversy as the two-piece "bikini" became popular after World War II. Waverley Council's beach inspectors, including the legendary Aub Laidlaw, were responsible for enforcing the law and were required to measure the dimensions of swimwear and order offenders against public decency off the beach. While vacationing in Australia during 1951, American movie actress Jean Parker made international headlines when she was escorted off the beach after Laidlaw determined her bikini was too skimpy. The rule became increasingly anachronistic during the 1950s and was replaced in 1961 with one requiring bathers be "clad in a proper and adequate bathing costume", allowing for more subjective judgement of decency. By the 1980stopless bathing had become common at Bondi Beach, especially at the southern end.
Sydney's Water Board maintained an untreated sewage outlet not far from the north end of the beach which was closed in the mid-1990s when a deep water ocean outfall was completed.

The rocks

The rocks

This place is an area of European settlement in Sydney when they first landed in 1788. His role as a commercial and industrial area continued to increase until the 1800s when the economic recession and cruise center eventually moved from Circular Quay. Since then the situation is diminishing into slums, and the more tragic when the bubonic plague broke out in the region around the 1900s.

 The construction of the Sydney Harbour Bridge in 1920 to eliminate almost all the buildings on the main road when it finally around 1970 lovers began to realize the importance of preserving the history of this region. The effort was not in vain because until now there are approximately 100 buildings and historic sites that have been rescued. For history buffs, this area must visit the area because this is where we can retrace the history of the remains of the first settlement in Sydney.

Place near the rocks:

1. Sydney Harbour YHA, the most recommended hostel in Sydney version of the Lonely Planet is built on an archaeological site "The Big Dig" between Cumberland and Gloucester Street. Called "The Big Dig" because at this point almost 750,000 artifacts discovered during a massive excavation around 1994. In order to maintain the archaeological ruins underneath, this hostel foundation raised about 3 meters by using a steel frame. Thus the structure below the hostel ruins dating from 1795 is not compromised. Cribe Lane passes, we continue the journey to Susannah Place Museum.
   
2. Susannah Place Museum, Museum consists of a series of four houses built in 1884 by Edward and Mary Riley, a pair of immigrants from Ireland and named Susannah according to the name of their niece. The pair then rent another home third to the many immigrants who came to this region. As a rental house, this place has been inhabited by approximately 100 different families until the year 1990. So it is not surprising that in it there are many collections of furniture and household equipment abandoned by its inhabitants. Collections in this house as if it tells how the life of a family over the centuries. Unfortunately when I was there the museum is not yet open so we could only peep-peep through the window only. AUD $ 8 admission and is open from 2-6 pm (opening hours are antique) :) except Saturday and Sunday are open from 10 am.