Explore Sydney

Sydney Tower Eye is the observation deck of Sydney Tower, the 309-metre telecommunications and observation tower completed in 1981 above the Westfield Sydney shopping centre on Market Street. The enclosed deck looks out across the city and the harbour, and the guided outdoor SKYWALK leads around the turret roof, 268 metres above the street.

Hyde Park Barracks is a brick building on Macquarie Street designed by the convict architect Francis Greenway and built in 1817–1819 to house convict men and boys. It later served as an immigration depot for women and as courts, and is now a museum of convict and colonial history; it is one of the 11 Australian Convict Sites on the UNESCO World Heritage List.

St Mary's Cathedral is the seat of the Catholic Archbishop of Sydney and stands on College Street beside Hyde Park. William Wardell designed the Gothic Revival church in golden sandstone; it was built from 1866 to 1928, and its two southern spires were only added in 2000. Inside are stained glass windows and a decorated crypt completed in 1961.

The Queen Victoria Building is a Romanesque Revival building designed by George McRae and built between 1893 and 1898 as a city market. It fills a whole block of George Street, 190 metres long and topped by copper domes, and after decades of other uses and decay it was restored in the late 20th century as an arcade of shops and cafés.

The Art Gallery of New South Wales is the state art museum in The Domain, founded in 1872. Its sandstone main building by the government architect Walter Liberty Vernon opened in stages from 1897, and the Naala Badu building by the Japanese firm SANAA was added to the north in 2022. The collection covers Australian, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander, Asian and European art.

SEA LIFE Sydney Aquarium is a public aquarium on the city side of Darling Harbour, north of Pyrmont Bridge, opened in 1988 as Sydney Aquarium. It shows more than 700 species from Australian waters in themed zones such as Shark Valley, Day and Night on the Reef, Penguin Expedition and a rockpool, with sharks, rays, turtles, jellyfish, little penguins and a dugong.

Wild Life Sydney Zoo is a wildlife park on Aquarium Wharf in Darling Harbour, opened in 2006 beside the SEA LIFE aquarium. Under its arched roof, walk-through habitats such as Kangaroo Walkabout, Koala Rooftop, Wallaby Cliffs and the Daintree rainforest show Australian animals, including Tasmanian devils, wombats, a freshwater crocodile and nocturnal species.

The Australian Museum, founded in 1827, is the oldest natural history museum in Australia and stands at the corner of William and College streets, opposite Hyde Park. Its galleries cover zoology, minerals, palaeontology and anthropology, with dinosaur skeletons, Australian animals and First Nations and Pacific collections, beside changing exhibitions.

Madame Tussauds Sydney is a wax museum on Aquarium Wharf in Darling Harbour, run by Merlin Entertainments in the same waterfront building as Wild Life Sydney Zoo and SEA LIFE Sydney Aquarium. Its themed zones set wax figures of Australian personalities, sports stars, musicians, film characters and superheroes in scenes where visitors stand beside them for photos.

The Museum of Contemporary Art Australia shows contemporary art, mostly by Australian artists, in the former Maritime Services Board building, an Art Deco sandstone block on the western side of Circular Quay in The Rocks. The museum opened in 1991, and a modern wing designed by Sam Marshall was added in 2012; its exhibitions change through the year.

The Royal Botanic Garden Sydney opened in 1816 and is the oldest scientific institution in Australia. Its 30 hectares wrap around Farm Cove on the harbour, next to the Sydney Opera House, with lawns, the Main Pond, the Fernery and themed plant collections, and the garden also keeps a herbarium and the glasshouse called The Calyx.

The Australian National Maritime Museum is a federal museum on Pyrmont Bay in Darling Harbour, opened in 1991 in a building with sail-like roofs by Philip Cox. Its galleries cover Indigenous Australians and the sea, exploration, migration and the navy, and moored outside are the destroyer HMAS Vampire, the submarine HMAS Onslow and a replica of HMB Endeavour.

The Sydney Opera House is a performing arts centre on Bennelong Point in Sydney Harbour, designed by the Danish architect Jørn Utzon and opened in 1973. Its shell-shaped roofs cover several halls used by Opera Australia, the Sydney Symphony Orchestra and the Sydney Theatre Company. Guided tours run daily, and the building is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Sydney Fish Market is the city's wholesale seafood market and working fishing port. In January 2026 it moved from its 1966 site to a new building beside it on Blackwattle Bay in Glebe, designed by the Danish firm 3XN under a large timber roof. A daily auction trades over 50 tonnes of seafood, and retailers sell fresh fish and meals along a waterfront promenade.

The Sydney Harbour Bridge is a steel arch bridge that carries road, rail, cycle and foot traffic across Sydney Harbour between the city centre and the North Shore. Built by the British firm Dorman Long under the engineer John Bradfield and opened in 1932, it rises 134 metres above the water. A public footway runs along its eastern side.

The Sydney Cricket Ground is a stadium in Moore Park, where cricket has been played since 1854. It is the home ground of the Sydney Swans in Australian rules football and of the New South Wales cricket team, and it hosts Test matches. Guided tours lead through the Members' Pavilion of 1878, the dressing rooms, the media centre and onto the field.

Taronga Zoo opened in 1916 on the northern shore of Sydney Harbour in Mosman, on the Country of the Cammeraigal people. Its terraced grounds hold about 350 species, from koalas and platypuses to Asian elephants and giraffes, with keeper talks through the day and views back across the harbour to the city.

Bondi Beach is a curved sandy beach on the Pacific coast, seven kilometres east of central Sydney. Lifeguards patrol the sand, surfers use the breaks along it, and a grassy park and promenade run behind it; the Bondi Icebergs ocean pool sits at the southern end, where the coastal walk to Coogee begins.

Manly Beach is the ocean beach of Manly, on Sydney's Northern Beaches, running from Queenscliff in the north through North Steyne to South Steyne. A promenade lined with Norfolk Island pines follows the sand, lifeguards patrol it, and the pedestrian Corso leads across to Manly Wharf, where ferries from Circular Quay arrive.