Circular Quay, Sydney

The landing-place of the First Fleet was at the mouth of the Tank River, which has long since been canalized and built over. The south end of the V-shaped inlet at the point where Pitt Street and Alfred Street now meet silted up under the action of the tides, and hundreds of convicts labored for years to fill it in with stones and rubble and construct a horseshoe-shaped harbor wall known as the Circular Quay.

Picture - Circular Quay at night in Sydney.

Picture - High rises around Circular Quay in Sydney.

View a slideshow of Circular Quay Pictures

At the beginning of the 20th C this was rebuilt in rectangular form, but the old name was retained. New wharves were built in the 1960s and then cleared in 1987 to make way for a promenade along the waterfront. From the top of the large Overseas Passenger Shipping Terminal (1960; reduced in size in 1987) there are good views, particularly of the Opera House.

The ferry wharves on Circular Quay are the busiest part of the harbor. Every morning thousands of commuters from the northern districts of Sydney are discharged from the ferries, and in the late afternoon there is an equally heavy traffic in the other direction. From here too there are harbor tours which show Sydney at its best.

Transit: Sydney Explorer Bus stop.

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Related Attractions

Museum of Contemporary Art

The Museum of Contemporary Art, housed in an Art Deco building of 1930-50 on Circular Quay, was opened in 1991 thanks to the munificence of JW Powen, who bequeathed his fortune to Sydney University for the purchase and exhibition of contemporary art.

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